When Quang people honor Quang noodles

Quang noodles are included in the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List.

From Tam Ky, a long-time colleague called back and informed with the familiar "life-changing" way of speaking: "That lousy dish has become a legacy."

Hearing it makes me want to laugh, because of the arrogant and carefree gestures that Quang people are used to showing, it is overflowing in that voice and that crazy laugh, the way of "criticizing" that no one can match but is truly proud and joyful.

It can be said that each person, each land, even down to a tiny hamlet, always has their own pride, optimism, and immortality in food, drink, and even in certain laziness. The indigenous culture, through every detail, every “crumb” of life, exists and flourishes from generation to generation.

Quang Nam people are one of the most “strange people”, when they specialize in saying the opposite, “talking back and forth” about the things they love, the things they are proud of. Anything that makes them happy from the bottom of their hearts, bringing tears to their eyes, can also become a funny story, a humorous way of making others laugh, laugh to be moved, to bow their heads in praise.

Like a bowl of Quang noodles, a rustic dish that can be seen in every corner of the lives of the Quang people, whether in the locality or far away in the highlands and islands. In the corners of the market or on the street, when people see the sign “Quang Noodles”, they will immediately see a “Quang Nam man” who is simple and straightforward, with a humorous and playful voice and a calm face as if nothing is strange; an old lady, a “Kuàng Nôm” woman who speaks each stuttering sentence, making others panic and laugh in a strangely friendly way.

A bowl of Quang noodles, therefore, like the Quang people, retains its simple, rustic soul wherever it is, can be tolerated in any way and can be eaten in any way, “it will never die”. Each bowl of noodles is a variation in countless rustic choices, with natural vegetables, with seemingly random bowls and dishes, and the rich flavor of Central Vietnamese food, touching it makes you feel a whole space of humorous and loving life.

Quang noodle artist.

Quang noodles, described by many researchers and book artists, have a history of formation over many years, many years in the history of reclaiming land from the south of Hai Van Pass, following the footsteps of the armies conquering the land of Chiem, then taking root and blending with the land and people to become flesh and blood.

A bowl of noodles is a witness to the most difficult stages of a person's life, breaking the ground to find food, with the first pots of broth, all kinds of meat, fish, shrimp, crab, all put in, making it very salty, so that it can be easily mixed with vegetables, leaves... to create a dish that fills the stomach, satisfies the stomach and makes us continue to eat.

Quang noodles, which are rice paper that has not yet dried, were intended for rainy days when we are hungry, but there was nothing else to eat, so we grabbed them, tore them apart and mixed them with the filling to get through the meal.

Gradually, the simple people, the mothers and the good wives have processed and refined each pot of broth, each handful of raw vegetables, each fully rolled noodle sheet...

How much sweat and effort, how much love and care, has been filled in every little bit of care to become a dish, so that after a long day of hard work, the husband and father can return home to a full meal.

Quang noodles, so whatever is available, is one of the most diversely prepared foods, with chicken, duck, pork, beef, and even just noodles with soy sauce.

Cultural researcher Le Tan (Hue), a “foodie” who admits that he has a connection with many traditional dishes from many regions, commented that Quang noodles are a diverse, unpredictable mass of folk ingredients, which, through skillful hands, unique thinking and especially the passionate love of the people of Quang, of the women of Quang Nam, become a folk delicacy, a symbol of care and affection.

Quang people have tried to count how many types of Quang noodles have been created over the course of several hundred years, but until now they are still counting, and Quang people are still "arguing" about whether to call it noodles or noodles...

The moment of joy for the people of Quang Nam when their traditional dish was listed as an intangible cultural heritage, truly remarkable, was not from any noisy honor, but from… arguments, through the way of information that constantly teased people.

Behind those sounds, there is a heart that is dancing with joy with wishes and desires, hoping to make the homeland's cuisine famous, and tears suddenly welling up because of remembering my mother lighting the fire every afternoon, my father coming home from the fields at noon, sitting cross-legged on the doorstep, hastily eating a bowl of noodles to satisfy his hunger.

That Quang noodles or Hue beef noodles, that Banh Hoi Xu Nau or Tra Khuc Don bowl, are all the imprints of a hundred years of blood and sweat of our ancestors that have been forged into shape, and that permeate the hearts of every person when they think of their homeland. So that today’s Quang people, right in their homeland, mention their homeland, and in faraway places, proudly pick up their chopsticks to mix a handful of vegetables with “rin” nhon my fish sauce, happily tell jokes, happily show off, having another heritage in their hearts.

Quang Nam honors Quang noodles, or each Quang Nam person is proud of their hometown cuisine, is an opportunity for love to spread, for each person to naturally talk about the past, and wish for more, life's imprints, human affection imprints, with each place they set foot, filled with the two words love!

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/khi-nguoi-quang-vinh-danh-my-quang-3139409.html