For the first time I felt the passing seasons and the very small changes of nature. For the first time I enjoyed the special dishes prepared simply by the Hmong people in the deep valley.
Season of fragrance and color
That fall, we set off from Ho Chi Minh City in an old pickup truck, through the central provinces, to Hanoi, and from there, continued moving to the Northwest.
The group’s first stop was Mu Cang Chai, where the terraced fields are gradually changing from light green to golden yellow. The highlight of this beautiful autumn landscape is the vibrant colors of the costumes of the highland women who are harvesting rice in joy.
The scent of fragrant rice mixed with the characteristic wind scent from the grass of the highlands made my heart beat faster. Passing by Tu Le, I could also smell the scent of young rice - the gift of autumn - gently permeating the breath of the mountains and hills.
Arriving in Mu Cang Chai, the group stayed overnight at a stilt house named Do Gu - opened by a H'mong couple to welcome tourists. The hostess, Ms. Gu, is a resourceful woman with a very cute accent in Kinh.
Her house is like any other stilt house: downstairs is the kitchen and a space for a few tables and chairs, above is a large floor that can accommodate about 20 people. After we finished packing our things, she immediately treated us to a hot meal with vegetables and meat.
She cooks very well, so I asked her to go into the kitchen the next day to learn how to cook some local dishes. Autumn cuisine in Mu Cang Chai is not very rich because people here are simple in terms of food and clothing. The basic culinary concept of places with poor material conditions is to eat seasonal food.
Highlanders often go to the forest to pick wild vegetables. At home, they grow bitter green mustard. Lowlanders often call it cat mustard because Meo is another name for the Hmong people.
Autumn is also the season when pumpkin vines cover the roofs. This is also an interesting feature of houses in the highlands. People often make trellises for pumpkins to climb from the ground to the roof. Under the eaves of the house, there is also a trellis of corn hanging down, which looks very pleasing to the eye.
The orange of pumpkins blends with the dark yellow of corn. The brown of roofs is gradually fading due to the wind and frost. The green of hills and the soft yellow of rice fields create a poetic scene...
Curious, we asked to visit a local’s house. The house was more dilapidated than I had imagined. Underneath the roof covered with poetic pumpkin trellis were the pigsty, chicken coop and family living space.
Memories in the kitchen
Ms. Gu guided us to cook minced chicken stir-fried with chili, salted chicken, and pa du - a dish very similar to pork rolled in lolot leaves. There would be nothing special about the lowland dishes without the addition of la du - a type of forest leaf with a distinctive aroma.
The spicy taste of the dishes in the chilly autumn weather on the high mountains makes me feel like I am being hugged tightly by a new friend. Autumn in Mu Cang Chai has pampered me so much!
We cooked in the dark kitchen, but our conversations were brighter than the sunlight on the rice fields outside. After finishing the main course, I asked her, “What do we need to make soup?”, wanting to know if her way of making soup was any different from the usual way. She innocently replied, “You need a pot to make soup!”, making us all burst into laughter.
The pumpkin soup is unlike any other I have ever had. Whether it is autumn, from East to West, pumpkin is everywhere. Each piece of pumpkin is fatty, rich, and sweet. The boiled pumpkin dish has a rich flavor because the weather here is harsher, so each vegetable is the distillation of the most quintessential and beautiful things that heaven and earth have to offer.
While we were preparing lunch, her 4-year-old child kept running around at her feet, occasionally jumping into her arms. There was also a tabby cat that liked to sit next to the wood stove, watching and listening to our conversation attentively, enjoying this intimate atmosphere.
It was almost the best memory of autumn we ever had. Similarly, the autumn scenery passing by the car window can only happen once, never to be seen again even if we return on the same route.
During the days when the Northwest highlands were struggling with natural disasters, I contacted Ms. Gu. She said that the Mu Cang Chai section where we stayed did not suffer much damage.
And I wandered, life goes through countless storms. But every time, the belief that everything will be okay carries us through the storms. In the midst of difficulties, we see the presence of love.
The two words "family love" are not limited to the scope between people very close to each other, but are the love between people, regardless of whether they are strangers or acquaintances.
I yearn for every region I have been to, which marked my brilliant youth. The sea of clouds, hills, waterfalls, streams, roads hugging the mountains… I hope to see that peaceful place again - like the autumn in Mu Cang Chai in my memory, many more times in my life!
Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/mam-com-dau-thu-o-mu-cang-chai-3142160.html
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