Kinhtedothi – Vietnam has a thousand-year-old culture imbued with national identity, with a unique and distinctive cuisine. Associated with that is a special spice that is indispensable, but close to the Vietnamese people, which is salt.
Salty, not necessarily salt
During the subsidy years, the unit had a friend of the Jrai ethnic group, from Gia Lai - Kon Tum. Seeing that I was bored with eating rice with salt and pepper (salt and dry roasted pepper crushed, used for long-term eating), he complained: "Minh Hai, your hometown is rich but doesn't know how to appreciate it, there is famous Bac Lieu salt and dried fish from Ca Mau. In my hometown, there is no way to have salt and pepper like this."
He said that his family was of the Jarai ethnic group, so he was chosen to study at the Youth Army when he was only 8 years old. His father was a soldier in Truong Son who died of illness after the liberation day. His mother left the guerrillas and worked hard to raise several siblings. When he went to trade, the village was very poor, there was no salt to eat, so they had to burn cogon grass and use the ashes as a substitute for salt to eat. According to his mother, during the war against the Americans, the villagers were occasionally given rice and salt by soldiers. Once, when they were ambushed by the enemy, the soldiers sacrificed their lives, and their blood soaked the white salt basket. When peace was restored, there was no more war, but no one provided any more supplies. They were poorer and the roads were longer, so white or black salt was an extremely luxurious item.
Listening to him, I realized how happy my hometown Ca Mau - Bac Lieu is. Even during wartime or poverty, salt is always easy to find.
Ba Thac salt is famous in the six provinces of Southern Vietnam.
Vietnamese cuisine is closely linked to the rice culture, mixed with the rich coastal culture due to the thousands of kilometers of coastline. The main ingredients of this unique cuisine come from the sweetness of rice and the characteristic salty taste of salt made from seawater.
In the journey of Vietnamese salt, there are many famous salt villages such as Diem Dien, Thai Thuy (Thai Binh), Ca Na (Ninh Thuan)... but the most famous is still the salt making village of Bac Lieu, starting with the name Ba Thac.
According to the elders, the name Ba Thac salt was formed before the name Bac Lieu. Following the land reclamation of the ancient Vietnamese, the salt making profession was formed very early in the Ba Thac area, a wild land bordering the sea in the south of the Hau River. The special climate and soil have created delicious salt grains famous throughout the Indochina peninsula. Right before the French invaded Vietnam, Ba Thac salt grains were sold to Laos, Cambodia (Cambodia) and became famous in foreign lands.
Following the footsteps of merchants traveling throughout the six provinces of the South, Bac Lieu salt grains formed a salt transport route on the river, connecting places such as: Muoi canal, Muoi hamlet, Muoi hamlet... Bac Lieu salt making was once considered an occupation with important contributions to economic growth. In the early years of the 20th century, salt making was a major economic sector, second only to rice, and contributed to making Bac Lieu one of the three major commodity production centers of the Mekong Delta and the whole country.
Specialties create unique cuisine
Life today has passed the difficult times of food and salt shortages, Vietnamese people increasingly pay attention to delicious food, with distinct regional specialties. But all cannot lack saltiness, but to be the most delicious, it must still be Bac Lieu salt.
In Ca Mau - Bac Lieu or the Mekong Delta region, there are many famous specialties that have been around for hundreds of years, or famous OCOP products such as Dam Doi dried goby fish, U Minh dried snakehead fish, Gach Goc three-striped crab sauce, Thoi Binh snakehead fish sauce, An Giang puffed catfish, Dong Thap fish sauce... ...all are made from Bac Lieu salt.
Unique in quality, Bac Lieu salt has become a standard ingredient in the processing of delicious dishes, chosen by the world's leading culinary experts and domestic and foreign consumers. Even Korean kimchi, which is considered a cultural symbol, only prioritizes importing Bac Lieu salt for processing.
According to chef Tran Nhat Truong (48 years old, District 8, Ho Chi Minh City) - Head of the "School Kitchen" cake club, the attraction of Bac Lieu salt to the European culinary industry is very large. Especially the preparation of buffet dishes to serve large parties at high-class restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City. "According to each Vietnamese - Asian - European culinary school, Bac Lieu salt will be an advantage to attract tourists, especially foreigners who want to enjoy high-class cuisine" - said Mr. Tran Nhat Truong.
Originating from natural soil conditions and produced by traditional methods, Bac Lieu salt has a rich, salty but not bitter taste, because the salt contains very low levels of magnesium, calcium, and sulfate... Not only that, the sodium chloride content of Bac Lieu salt is very high, reaching an average of 96.6%, approximately equal to the standard of premium Vietnamese salt (97%). This is the unique and different point of Bac Lieu salt compared to salt produced in other places, which has a bitter taste due to the influence of the coastal limestone mountains.
Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/muoi-bac-lieu-trong-am-thuc-viet.html
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