That conclusion, annotated on page 157 of the book considered a chronicle of the Southern region in the early 19th century, from the translation, annotation and research of author Pham Hoang Quan (2018), is recorded as follows: "This means Dong Nai - Ba Ria rice, Phan Ri - Phan Rang fish", which are the hallmarks of the Southeast region's products, which people in the outer prefectures and towns often mention.
CHILDHOOD OF FISH AND RICE
When I was a child, I remember that every afternoon, my mother would call her playful children home for dinner. Meals in those years almost always included fish. If not anchovies, mackerel, or tuna, then there would be mackerel or scad, depending on whether my mother’s goods were good or not that day. Anchovies were small and soft-boned, mackerel was braised with tomatoes, or mackerel or scad was braised with just the right amount of salt, sliced and mashed into a bowl of rice. Just like that, each child would carry a bowl and run out to eat leisurely with the neighborhood kids, talking about all sorts of things, from studying to playing.
Fish from the sea arrive at Phan Rang port
My father told me that in the past, in the Central region, there was a way to distinguish different types of sea fish at the market. Large fish sliced into slices were called "sitting fish" such as tuna, mackerel, and herring, which were very expensive. Small fish such as mackerel, scad, and herring, which were sold in bunches (in a small basket, a bunch of fish), were called "lying fish" and were cheaper. Each of those types of fish, my mother had her own way of cooking: blandly, salty, spicy, tomato, green chili, etc. But no matter how it was cooked, the bowl of fish rice every afternoon after running around, scooped and mashed by my mother, still left an immense nostalgia. It marked a sky of memories that gradually grew up from childhood, after the period of demanding milk, after the time of kicking and demanding powder. And that bowl of rice was the "witness" that I had grown up, the beginning of the days of learning to carry my books to school.
I think many people have experienced those things. The warm and loving atmosphere in every family meal through many generations, from the time sitting around the table with dim oil lamps to the bright electric lights, from the countryside to the city, all starting from childhood to adulthood, like that.
Bringing fish from boat to shore during the bumper fishing season
FISH RICE FROM LONG WAY
Autumn in a foreign land, the morning sun is very beautiful. In the village named Thoi Dai built by Vietnamese people in the remote Kharkiv province of Ukraine, exactly 10 years ago. On one occasion when I visited there, for dinner, my friends and I were extremely surprised when the host, a Vietnamese businessman, treated us to a dish of boiled rice and vegetables with braised fish sauce. On each table there were also a few slices of tuna and mackerel red with chili powder. The host said that the East Sea fish and garden spinach from Thai Binh province "flew" nearly 18 hours from his hometown, to the hands of the Vietnamese chef at Cay Dua restaurant in the village, inviting guests to enjoy a meal full of the flavor of their homeland.
In the evening, the autumn rain was drizzling, we sat in the rustling sound of the birch trees, drinking a few glasses of vodka, listening to the aftertaste of the meal of fish from afar, filled with the host's affection. That night, in the poem Fish and Vegetables in Kharkiv, I wrote in the first stanza: "The fish of the East Sea flew for nearly 18 hours. And the water spinach grown in Thai Binh. Present on the dinner tray at the Coconut Tree restaurant in the evening. Reminding each other of a homeland".
A meal on a long journey, unforgettable!
Remembering the flood season in October 1995, in the Southwest. In the afternoon glow covering the fields of Tan Cong Chi commune (Tan Hong district, Dong Thap), we sat on the Bac Trang hill with the water rising just above the water level. An old man named Sau Len, 73 years old, grilled some snakehead fish, turned them over and over, then told the story of the flood in the delta. That was a valuable introductory lesson for us to understand about floods, alluvium, shrimp, fish and rice plants in the delta. The old farmer said: "This school of fish, if there were no floods, would probably be rare. For many years now, our people have accepted the floods and lived with them. It was like something natural. You guys try to see, if there were no floods in the delta, how could there be fish and rice plants to live?" That statement, nearly thirty years later, proved an undeniable reality, when the Mekong Delta was increasingly lacking floods. And the piece of fish eaten with a glass of rice wine with the scent of Western rice that the old man gave me, almost haunted me forever, not because of the natural taste of snakehead fish in the afternoon when the rice fields were flooded, but it said so many things in itself!
Braised fish always evokes many memories.
EPILOGUE
From the above praise for the rice and fish products in the book of scholar Trinh Hoai Duc, I imagine a stretch of Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan coastline stretching to the southern tip, where our ancestors who opened up the land had to experience many things in ancient times to draw conclusions. A colleague who has lived in Phan Rang for nearly 40 years sent me some pictures of the bustling fish market in the morning. Looking at them, I know that the blue sea still generously provides a rich flavor for every family's meal, then I wandered thinking about the year-end offerings to welcome ancestors back to gather in the spring. There must also be a few slices of braised fish, a few bowls of white rice, sometimes next to chicken and cakes, that is a thousand-year tradition. Then when spring passes and flowers fall, the tray of food to send off the ancestors to the white clouds is also full of rice and fish. Every time like that, in the atmosphere of harmony between heaven and earth, looking up at the altar, I suddenly see the convergence of rivers, seas and fields. Remembering the story of the tea and wine conversation, a friend asked if the Tet offerings would be somewhat lacking in the future? He said that the story of ordering offerings to be delivered by a shipper with pre-made sticky rice, chicken and fruit is now almost a custom for young families. The hustle and bustle of year-end work is the reason why they cannot go into the kitchen to prepare a traditional offering tray, which the elders try to preserve so that the flavor does not fade.
That’s okay, because there are things that belong to long-standing values that will no longer exist, as something that is hard to resist. However, at that moment, I suddenly thought of the bustling atmosphere in the kitchen of a family solemnly preparing for the New Year’s Eve offering tray in the past, described very well in the novel The Fallen Leaves in the Garden by writer Ma Van Khang, read more than 3 decades ago, and felt a bit wistful…
The section on "Vat San Chi" (volume 5) of Gia Dinh Thanh Thong Chi states: "Gia Dinh has good and spacious land, local products include rice, salted fish, trees, birds and animals. The five grains that match the soil are Dao rice. Dao rice has many types but there are two main types: Canh rice (rice) and Thuat rice (sticky rice), distinguished by whether it is sticky or not. Non-sticky rice has small but soft grains, a very fragrant smell, and has a beard. Glutinous rice has sticky sap, round and large grains".
Regarding fish, this section also lists quite a few types of fish from Gia Dinh. As for sea fish, there are sawfish, shark, mackerel, white pomfret, stingray, snapper, tuna, sardine, hatchery fish (thach dau ngu), khoai fish, mackerel, silver pomfret... River fish include carp (ly ngu), giao fish (bao ngu), chiet fish (ca bach lo), burnt fish (thieu ngu), tra fish (tra ngu), hemibagrus fish (phuc giac ngu), sand goby (xuy sa ngu), linh fish (linh ngu), eel (giang le ngu)...
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