Enjoy Thai people's meal in Pu Luong

Thanh Hoa Thai cuisine in Pu Luong has many memorable dishes such as bamboo rice, Co Lung duck, and wild vegetables.

The rich nature has blessed Pu Luong, a land in the northwest of Thanh Hoa, with diverse products. A trip is not complete without experiencing the local cuisine. Below are the specialties that tourists should try during their vacation in Pu Luong.

Valley Duck

The Co Lung duck is a specialty of Co Lung commune, Ba Thuoc district. The duck has a round body, a retracted neck, short legs, and feathers the color of a sparrow with a white stripe around the neck. Due to growing in the mountains and rivers of Pu Luong with a fresh, cool climate, Co Lung duck has a clean, diverse source of natural food. The duck meat also has a different flavor, just boiled, the meat is sweet, fragrant, and firm. Tourists can order boiled, roasted, grilled duck... at restaurants, homestays, and resorts in Pu Luong.

Mountain snail

Mountain snails mainly live in crevices and caves in the forest. They not only eat moss and weeds but also like to eat herbs that grow naturally in the forest. The meat of snails living in the wild is firm, fragrant and nutritious. The people in Pu Luong often boil or steam snails with ginger or make salad or stir-fry snails. Most notably, the Thai people do not use sweet and sour fish sauce with ginger and lemongrass, but dip snails in cham cheo sauce.

Bamboo rice

Bamboo rice is a simple dish that combines the typical aromas of Pu Luong nature, from sticky rice, bamboo tubes to banana leaves. Bamboo rice grilled on a wood stove is imbued with the smoky aroma, just need to dip it in a little sesame salt to complete the flavor, or eat it with grilled dishes, wild vegetables also very delicious. Tourists can also prepare and make bamboo rice tubes themselves in cooking classes of some homestays and resorts.

Smoked meat

Smoked meat is a specialty of the Thai ethnic people in Quan Hoa and Ba Thuoc districts. This specialty is most abundant at the beginning of the year, when people use it to celebrate Tet and entertain guests. Smoked meat can be buffalo meat, pork belly... smoked, slowly dried so that the outside is dry but the inside is still soft, sweet, and dark pink. The characteristic flavor cannot lack mountain spices such as mac khe, chili, ginger. This specialty is also suitable for tourists to buy as gifts.

Bamboo shoots

In spring, Thai people can go into the forest in one session and harvest a whole bunch of bamboo shoots. Boiled wild bamboo shoots are initially bitter and can make diners frown, but the more they eat, the more they will feel the sweet aftertaste lingering on the tip of their tongue. In addition to boiled fresh bamboo shoots, Thai people also make pickled bamboo shoots to eat all year round, cooked with fish soup.

Grill

Pu Luong people often cook fish with sour bamboo shoots, or grill fish with mac khen. Fish marinated with onions, fish sauce, salt and pepper is cooked with sour bamboo shoots to create an attractive bowl of soup on the Thai people's dining table. Sweet stream fish grilled on hot coals has the aroma of mac khen, chili, lemongrass. Visitors can roll grilled fish into salad with wild vegetables, fresh vermicelli, cucumber, carrots... and dip it in sweet and sour fish sauce.

Wild vegetables

Thai people's meals cannot lack wild vegetables. It can be wild banana flower salad, wild vegetable salad, male papaya flower salad, bitter leaf soup cooked with intestines and blood. No matter how they are prepared, wild vegetable dishes always contain all the freshness and vitality of Pu Luong nature and put them on Thai people's meals.

Article and photos: Xuan Manh

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