That is also the effort in the highland villages of the Bana Kriem people in Vinh Thanh district. They are doing everything to preserve the flavor of the mountains and forests, and above all, to introduce the unique culinary features of the people to tourists.
Unique from local dishes
Vinh Thanh is a mountainous district of Binh Dinh province, with rich and diverse tourism resources with many historical relics, beautiful landscapes such as Ta Ma Stream, Dinh Binh Lake, Hon Lap Lake, Gop Nuoc Lo and valuable intangible cultural resources imbued with the identity of the Bana Kriem people.
In the early days of October, under the layers of clouds, morning mist and the chill in the highlands, Ms. Dinh Thi Xieu, village 5, Vinh Thuan commune told us about the unique dishes of the Bana Kriem people here. “In the past, every time the pork could not be eaten in a short time and also with the desire to preserve it for a longer time, our ancestors thought of a way to hang the pork in the kitchen so that the smoke would penetrate the meat and preserve it for a longer time. Nowadays, this dish has become an indispensable specialty in the banquet table for honored guests,” Ms. Xieu recalled.
Unique cuisine of the Bana Kriem people in the highlands of Binh Dinh
According to Ms. Xieu, the pork chosen is black pig, the shoulder or thigh meat is cleaned, and hung from the kitchen since the beginning of the year. When needed, each skewer of meat is taken down. After a long time hanging in the kitchen, a lot of smoke is absorbed through the cooking process, creating the characteristic flavor of pork and smoke.
According to Ms. Xieu, nowadays, before hanging, pork will be marinated with a little bit of spices including garlic, chili, wild pepper, and perilla leaves, then hung in the kitchen or dried depending on the family. However, when used, the smoke will be scraped off and grilled over hot coals. When used, it will be eaten with spicy mustard leaves, a type of mustard that grows near streams. The fatty aroma of the meat, spices, and the spicy taste of mustard leaves will sometimes make diners cry. Yes, when used, we will dip it with chili salt and crushed wild pepper, squeeze a little lemon juice or pound it with yellow ants to make the dish even more attractive.
To countless highland cuisines
Vinh Son is located at an altitude of about 1,000m above sea level, considered as the "gate to heaven" and has a cool climate, beautiful natural landscape with majestic mountains and forests, rivers, streams, and pristine waterfalls, containing mysteries such as Ta Kon stone citadel, Hang Doi waterfall, Nguyen Hue orange garden - the base of the Tay Son insurgents (ranked as a national monument in 1995).
Coming to Vinh Son, in addition to enjoying the rustic bitter dishes of the highlands here such as bitter eggplant, bamboo shoots... surely visitors will miss out if they have not enjoyed the bitter taste of rattan shoots. Like bamboo shoots, bamboo shoots, rattan plants grow abundantly in the forest. In the dry season, along with going to the fields to clear the fields, the local people here also take the opportunity to find plump rattan shoots to bring back, peel off the outer shell, take the core inside and boil them. The rattan core is opaque white when ripe, turning purple. At first, when eating, diners will feel the bitter, crunchy taste, but the more they chew, the sweeter the rattan shoots become. Boiled rattan shoots dipped in chili salt or cooked with meat, pork bones instead of bitter eggplant, bitter bamboo shoots is considered the right dish.
In the Vinh Thanh highlands, visitors can enjoy the specialties of nien fish and fern. According to the Bana Kriem people, nien fish live in schools concentrated in deep water areas along rivers, upstream streams, near waterfalls. In appearance, nien fish resemble carp but have a slimmer body. Adult fish are as big as 3 adult fingers put together, have a flat body, are silvery white in color, and have red fins around their mouths with many round white grains. Nien fish have white, fragrant, non-fishy meat and contain many nutrients that are good for health.
Tourists enjoy learning about the cuisine of the Bana Kriêm people.
Among the countless dishes made from fish, perhaps the most special is grilled fish served with boiled fern leaves - a unique dish of the Binh Dinh highlands. The fatty, rich, chewy, fragrant taste of the meat, the crunchy sweetness of the bones and the bitter taste of the bile and intestines of the fish eaten with the slightly slimy fern leaves make those who enjoy it once remember it forever. If you enjoy this dish with friends in the mountains and forests, with the murmuring streams, the chirping of birds and the cool breeze of the forest, it is really easy to... translate it into poetry.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Chung, Deputy Director of Binh Dinh Department of Tourism said: “The dishes have partly brought tourists to the upstream of the Kon River, going back in time. Each dish is a typical image that recreates the life based on nature through many generations of the Bana Kriem people here”. According to Ms. Chung, the mountainous district of Vinh Thanh is doing a good job of preserving intangible culture, along with that the Bana Kriem people still retain strong features such as the new rice festival, games, folk dances, prayers, hoamon songs, legends, folk songs, proverbs, stilt house architecture, weaving, brocade weaving, lullabies, unique ethnic musical instruments such as gongs, torung... Therefore, the province is orienting the mountainous district of Vinh Thanh to develop community tourism in the coming time, thereby improving livelihoods, creating jobs and improving the living standards of the people here.
PHAN HIEU
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