When you come to Tuy Phong, remember to eat the oil-coated catfish!

I often tell my friends and partners that if they intend to visit Tuy Phong. However, everyone says I'm telling them the wrong thing, because it's that special dish that urges them to visit Tuy Phong at least once!

Hearing that, I was very happy, although I did not know if it suited their taste or not, but it was enough to see that the tiny fish with a yellow line running along its back had become a specialty of my hometown's sea. The giant catfish is available everywhere, but the fish caught in Tuy Phong sea is especially delicious. Many people say that the giant catfish is a wonderful product that the ocean has bestowed on Tuy Phong, especially Binh Thanh sea. Perhaps because Binh Thuan sea is one of the rare seas in the world with upwelling water. According to "The phenomenon of upwelling water in Vietnam's sea" recorded by the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Binh Thuan sea has a rare upwelling water because it converges all the effects of the southwest monsoon, flow regime, topography of the coast and seabed, and stratification of seawater, which seas in other provinces cannot have. This upwelling water has a low temperature, clear water and brings many nutrients from the seabed, making Binh Thuan sea very cool in the summer. The cool and nutrient-rich upwelling water also helps many organisms develop, making the sea of Binh Thuan have abundant aquatic resources with many rare, fresh, and valuable aquatic species, including the giant catfish. Besides the advantage of the upwelling water, according to the explanation of people who have lived in Tuy Phong for a long time, perhaps thanks to the rocky reefs around La Gan Cape, the giant catfish here has delicious, sweet meat that is hard to compare to anywhere else.

Tuy Phong ca liet dau has delicious, sweet meat that is hard to compare to anywhere else.

There are many types of fish such as hammerhead fish, slimy fish, gourd fish, horizontal fish, molar fish... Depending on the type, fish can be processed into many different delicious dishes such as: soup, braised, fried, grilled... all fragrant and flavorful. Among them, oil fish is the type with the highest economic value, it is considered a specialty because of its delicious flavor, small quantity, not easy to find. Oil fish is caught near the shore, is a small fish, the largest fish is only about the size of an adult's palm. The meat of this fish can be called the best: white, chewy, fragrant, with an unmistakable sweet taste. In most coastal areas, this type of fish can be caught, but for some reason, anyone who has been to Tuy Phong to enjoy oil fish here, finds that eating it in other places is not as delicious.

The tiny fish with a yellow line running down its back is a specialty here.

Oil fish (also called oil fish in many places) can be processed into many dishes. The simplest is to cook oil fish with tomatoes and ripe pineapple, add onions, coriander, Vietnamese coriander, and spicy pepper. People from the coastal region only need a pot of hot oil fish soup, a plate of delicious chili fish sauce to ensure they eat a lot of rice, especially in the last months of the year, when the weather is a bit chilly. In particular, another dish made from oil fish that everyone raves about when enjoying is fresh oil fish grilled over hot coals. Each fish is turned evenly on the grill, the fat flows and the fish is golden brown and fragrant. Grilled from afar, the special aroma of this fish has already wafted to the table, making hungry people "swallow their saliva" many times. Grilled fish is placed on a plate, served with tamarind fish sauce, and raw vegetables, which is "unparalleled" delicious. This is also considered a culinary specialty of the sunny and windy Tuy Phong region, which makes many people miss it. There is another dish that coastal people often prepare in their daily meals: braised catfish. It has to be really thick and spicy to be delicious. Just mentioning it makes me want to "gulp" and go buy it right away, because I happen to love this delicacy from my hometown.

Grilled catfish with tamarind fish sauce is considered a Tuy Phong specialty.

According to fishermen in Tuy Phong, the fish appear a lot from the 9th lunar month to the Lunar New Year. Because the fish is "missed" by tourists from other provinces and cities every time they visit Tuy Phong, most restaurants and eateries collect and freeze the fish to serve a large number of guests during holidays and Tet. And of course, the price of the fish is not cheap, so in the last months of the year, locals often replace the fish with black sardines to satisfy their cravings, which is also one of the irresistible specialties here. This specialty and other rustic seafood dishes are also a strength of the locality, making tourists return to Tuy Phong many times just to enjoy them to ease their nostalgia. Thanks to that, Tuy Phong's tourism industry has grown steadily in recent years, with the number of visitors coming to visit Co Thach Pagoda, the 7-color rock beach, the Ta Nang - Phan Dung route or explore Cu Lao Cau increasing.

The catfish is "missed" by tourists from provinces and cities every time they visit Tuy Phong.

However, for Tuy Phong tourism to develop sustainably and more professionally, the district needs to have a long-term strategy, in which it should focus on tourism products, especially regional cuisine; link to form tours and routes with other tourist destinations in the province and neighboring provinces... At the same time, promote the promotion of the beautiful scenery and people here, so that every tourist visiting Tuy Phong is not only impressed by the natural beauty with blue sea and golden sunshine, colorful pebble beaches, clear and peaceful space in Co Thach... but the most attractive is still the incredibly delicious and sweet catfish.

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