Unique Northwest cuisine

08:16, 14/05/2023

The Northwest is a region that still preserves and clearly maintains the traditional cultural beauty of ethnic communities, such as customs, festivals, decorative arts, cuisine, community cultural activities such as spring festivals, market culture, weddings, funerals, new rice celebrations, forest worship ceremonies, etc.

In particular, traditional cuisine associated with the indigenous culture of each ethnic group has been preserved and promoted by the people, becoming a unique highlight in local tourism development.

In the provinces of Son La, Lao Cai, Lai Chau, Yen Bai, Lang Son, Hoa Binh, Dien Bien... there are many famous community tourism destinations such as Ta Xua, Moc Chau, Ban Lac, Nghia Lo, Tu Le, Mu Cang Chai, Y Ty, Bac Ha, Tram Tau, Muong Lo, Sin Ho... There, in addition to ecological landscapes, customs, and folk cultural beauty, the traditional cuisine of the Tay, Mong, Dao, Thai, Ha Nhi ethnic groups... is always an impressive highlight for tourists because of its novelty and uniqueness.

Tay ethnic people prepare food in the stilt house space.

To have traditional colorful and flavorful meals, the people themselves search for available ingredients in the forest and in their gardens to prepare. Each season has its own ingredients, the ingredients used to make the dishes are always fresh and flavorful, such as wild bamboo shoots, stream fish, dried pork, colored sticky rice, cakes, wild vegetables picked along the stream, etc. The people painstakingly combine spices from the forest such as Doi seeds, Mac Khen, pepper, chili, aromatic leaves, and are creative in their preparation.

The space for enjoying food is always closely linked and in harmony with other cultural features such as stilt house culture, then singing, khen dancing, xoe dancing, bamboo pole dancing, etc. In particular, the market is a special space, where the culinary culture of the ethnic groups in the Northwest region is most vividly and clearly demonstrated. Here, visitors can fully enjoy the flavors of typical dishes such as five-color sticky rice, thang co, men men, pho, cakes, buffalo meat, dried pork, wild bamboo shoots, mountain vegetables, fruits such as plums, pears, peaches, wild canariums, etc. in a space imbued with traditional colors.

Traditional dish of Thai people in the Northwest region.

The preservation and promotion of the value of traditional culinary culture in community tourism areas is also closely linked to the organization of festivals. In addition to traditional festivals such as Long Tong festival, Gau Tao festival, new rice festival, forest worshiping festival... seasonal festivals are organized by many localities such as Ban flower festival in Son La (Lai Chau), Com festival in Bao Yen (Lao Cai), plum picking festival in Moc Chau (Son La), Bac Ha (Lao Cai), Thai Nghia Lo xoe festival (Yen Bai), custard apple festival in Chi Lang (Lang Son), autumn festival, spring festival, culinary festival in localities of the Northwest region... Here, visitors can experience folk performances, enjoy dishes and fruits of indigenous people.

Nguyen The Luong

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