Strange taste of Ca Mau specialty, salty and bitter, processed for nearly a week before being baked

When it comes to Ca Mau specialties, in addition to familiar names such as Ca Mau crab, spicy chicken rice noodles, grilled mudskippers, U Minh forest honey, etc., there is another rustic but equally famous delicacy. That is salted three-striped crab.

Ba khia is a crustacean belonging to the crab family, living in alluvial areas, mostly in mangrove forests, mangrove forests or square banks around mangrove forests. They look like crabs but are smaller in size, with a prominent purple shell.

Crabs are found in abundance in the river regions of the South, but the most delicious, famous, and popular with tourists is still Rach Goc Crabs, Ngoc Hien District, Ca Mau Province (Photo: Ngoc Trieu)

According to locals, crabs are available all year round but are most concentrated from the 7th to the 9th lunar month every year. At this time, crabs are also at their most delicious, plump and firm.

Three-sided crab can be processed into many delicious dishes such as three-sided crab fried with tamarind, three-sided crab boiled with rice wine, three-sided crab braised with turmeric, three-sided crab steamed with beer, etc., the most popular of which is salted three-sided crab. In the past, local people came up with a way to salt three-sided crab to preserve the ingredients for longer, but gradually, they have become a specialty, a rustic gift that is loved by both domestic and foreign tourists.

At the end of 2019, the "salting crab" profession was recognized as a "National Intangible Cultural Heritage". This helps the salted crab specialty become more known and sought after by many people (Photo: Ngoc Trieu)

To make delicious and authentic salted crab, experienced people in the profession in Ca Mau said that the crab must be salted in water with the right amount of saltiness, and left to ferment for about a week before it can be enjoyed.

The three-sided crab must be purchased from the early morning markets, choosing fresh, healthy, and uniform-sized crabs, then brought home and washed thoroughly, keeping the crabs intact. Ca Mau people commented that salting three-sided crab is also considered an art because it must be salted to taste, not too salty, not too bland. If salted too much, the three-sided crab will have a bitter taste, making it difficult to eat, and if salted too little, the dish will quickly become mushy and spoil easily.

Whole salted crabs and pre-mixed salted crabs are the two most popular dishes among diners (Photo: Ngoc Trieu, Dang Xuan Uyen)

Salted crabs can be eaten after 3-5 days or a week. Before eating, people peel off the shell, break off each claw and mix it with spices such as lemon, sugar, pineapple, garlic, chili, etc. to reduce the saltiness and enhance the unique flavor of the dish.

The golden-yellow shell part is also mixed with rice, very fatty and rich, both children and adults love it.

Salted crab mixed with sweet and sour sauce or made into salad, eaten with rice is very delicious, becoming a rustic specialty that even diners from far away, tens of thousands of kilometers away from Vietnam, also love (Photo: Dang Xuan Uyen)

Salted crab dish is most "sought after" during holidays, Tet, etc. It is considered a strange and delicious dish to relieve boredom (Photo: Ngoc Trieu, Dang Xuan Uyen)

Nowadays, salted crab is not only a rustic delicacy of Ca Mau people but has become a famous specialty, going beyond national borders, becoming a gift that many Vietnamese people far from home long to buy and enjoy.

On average, Ca Mau salted crab is sold for 110,000 - 130,000 VND/kg, carefully packaged to help tourists transport it far away, buy it as a gift for friends and relatives.

Phan Dau

Source