During a recent trip back to Buon Ma Thuot, travel blogger Vinh Gau (far left) had the opportunity to visit Lak Lake in Lak District and enjoy many delicious and unique dishes of the M'Nong people.
Among them, the most outstanding are delicious dishes such as banana peel ash soup, grilled fish, grilled duck, grilled pork in bamboo tubes, bitter eggplant and dried fish salad, bitter eggplant soup, star fruit shrimp, etc.
Banana peel ash soup is the dish that impressed the young man the most, not only because of its unique flavor and "good taste" but also because of its unique preparation, imbued with the traditional culinary culture of the M'Nong people.
To make this dish, people use ash from dried ripe banana peels, mix it with water, and then filter it through a mesh to remove the ash residue. The resulting ash water is then cooked with peeled papaya, long-term pickled bamboo shoots, and lean meat. They boil all the ingredients until they are well-cooked and the meat is tender, then scoop it into a bowl to enjoy.
Although the catfish has many bones, it is rich in nutrients, so the locals created an attractive fish cake by scraping the fish meat and pounding it. Over time, this dish became famous throughout the region and was chosen to build a brand as a traditional product of Lak district. To make the fish cake fragrant and naturally delicious, the ingredients must be selected from fresh fish with firm meat, then processed immediately and refrigerated to keep the freshness of the fish. This catfish cake can be fried, steamed or eaten with sour bamboo shoot hotpot, all delicious.
In Lak Lake, ducks are raised naturally, so they are small in size and do not have a thick layer of fat like domestic ducks. To make the duck meat more delicious, the locals often grill the duck over a low fire, turning it constantly to avoid burning the skin or drying out the duck meat. Thanks to that, the duck is still sweet, fragrant, firm and well-seasoned.
This grilled duck dish is delicious served with bamboo rice. Bamboo tubes filled with glutinous rice mixed with local rice are covered with banana leaves and grilled evenly over a red-hot stove. When the rice is cooked, they split the scorched bamboo into thin slices so that when eating, they only need to peel off the skin.
Grilled chicken is a typical dish that tourists often encounter when visiting mountainous provinces. However, grilled chicken made from free-range chicken of the M'Nong people has its own unique and attractive flavor.
The chicken here is a young chicken, small in size, about 1kg, with firm meat and thin skin. The chicken is cleaned, marinated with salt, green chili, etc., then grilled over hot coals until evenly golden brown and fragrant.
In Lak Lake, pigs are also raised freely, so they have little fat, thick, soft meat, and a fragrant aroma when cooked. Locals often make grilled pork in bamboo tubes, combined with spices such as Siamese chili, salt, crushed shallots, etc., making everyone enjoy it. This dish is delicious when dipped with salt and chili.
One of the most special dishes here is bitter eggplant and dried fish salad with a spicy and bitter taste. Blogger Vinh Gau cannot help but be fascinated by the slightly bitter taste of bitter eggplant, the mild aroma of dried anchovies, the spicy taste of chili, the nutty taste of coriander, mixed with the salty, sweet and slightly sour taste of other spices. For the locals, the more bitter and spicy the dish is, the more delicious it is, but when serving guests, they often reduce the bitterness and spiciness to suit the majority's taste.
Another delicious dish made from bitter melon is bitter melon soup, which has the spicy taste of chili and the sweet taste of pork belly. This dish is said to go well with rice, with a unique taste that makes diners remember it forever after eating it once.
With the natural advantage of Lak Lake, the locals are blessed with an abundant source of shrimp and prawns. Every morning at around 2-3am, the locals set up traps (a type of cage used to catch shrimp and prawns) on the lake and then early the next morning they start pulling the traps up and bring them to the market to sell.
To avoid the sharp whiskers of the shrimp stabbing the tongue or palate, locals often cut off all the whiskers of the shrimp before frying them with star fruit. The taste of this dish is a bit salty, combined with the light sourness of the star fruit, creating a rustic yet equally attractive dish.
Blogger Vinh Gau said that the above dishes are not commonly sold in restaurants and eateries in Buon Ma Thuot. However, tourists can visit the Dau Nguon eco-tourism area, Arul House restaurant in the city center or further away, go to Y Sol House in Yang Tao commune, Lak district - about 50km from the center of Buon Ma Thuot city to enjoy a series of delicious specialties of this land.

Photo: Vinh Gau