Salt
trees or nutgall trees (Rhus Chinensis) particularly grow in Chu Moray Reserve
Area. Nutgall is a woody plant species, which can be 2 – 8 meter high with
clusters of white flowers on top of branches. Young fruits are like green
beans, and ripe ones turn red and dark-brown. Nutgall fruits are the main spice
to marinate buff in important celebrations or religious activities of Highland
people, such as weddings, celebrating new crops or new houses.
At
southern semi-final round of The Golden Spoon contest 2016, chef Nguyen Duc
Hoang from Gia Bao 79 restaurant (Kon Tum province) brought many featured
leaves of spices, such as wild garlic leaves, Tau Bay leaves, and wild mint
leaves, in which the most outstanding was salt fruits.
Salt
fruits were crushed then cooked with running chicken.
Chicken
has the best taste with lime and pepper salt so that the reasonably salted and
slightly sour tastes of salt fruits will raise chicken flavor to another level.
The dish was served with fresh noodles and garnished by a cluster of bright red
salt fruits. Diners could enjoy their dish while felt the wild transparent
sourness of wild salt fruits.
To
make a difference, chef Hoang Anh Vu from Tam Tam company introduced
“chicken-gizzard” fruits to the contest. These edible fruits naturally grow in
Lam Dong province, which have a light sweet and sour taste.
To
use up this sweet and sour fruits, chef Vu made a sauce of out them to serve
with crispy carp. This sauce reduced fishy odor and at the same time, enriched
the taste of carp.
Besides
chicken-gizzard fruits, chef Vu also introduced So fruits, which wild live
along streams in Northwest area and Lam Dong province.
So
fruits were cooked in soup with sturgeon cartilage and snails stuffed lotus
seeds to become a lightly sour yet exotic acrid dish.
Chef
Nguyen Kim Truong from Diamond Bay resort & spa chose saffron pistil to
color his dishes and left an unforgettable taste to diners.
Hong
fish (Lutjanus sanguineus) fillet in Tan sauce served with crushed banana with
basil and saffron pistil was appreciated for its delicacy.
The
southern semi-final 2016 ended with an expectable result that Binh Quoi 1
(HCMC) resort won the 1st prize and 50,000,000vnd award. To read the 1st prize
menu, please enter www.thegoldenspoon.com.
By Minh Tri/VnExpress