Folds of Tears
"Tu Le sticky, tedious Muong Lo" the dao song of the Thai people has long been not only preached throughout the Northwest, but the unique taste of that precious rice variety also flew far and wide across the country.
Tu Le glutinous rice, also known as Tan La glutinous rice (in Thai language) is a specialty glutinous rice only found in Tu Le, Van Chan, Yen Bai valleys. This type of sticky rice when it comes to sticky rice has a sweet and flexible aroma, leaving each grain rather than sticking together like most other common sticky sticks. The more we chew it, the more we see that this sticky rice is fleshy, sweet, not fat, not cloying, but has a special delicious taste, which is strange.
Tu Le nuggets
Tu Le nuggets have a special dark green color that no other nuggets can mix. Tu Le nuggets are distilled from the essence of earth and heaven along with the rudimentary rusticism of the Thai ethnic people in the Northwest.
Tu Le nuggets are not only the essence of heaven and earth, but also love, earth soul, and human soul sent into it. Therefore, nuggets here are a unique specialty of the Northwest mountains and forests.
Muong Lo black cake
Black rice cake is a traditional cake of highland ethnic groups in general and Yen Bai in particular. Not only is it black like tar, but black rice cakes also have a rich flavor, with a faint aroma of unique forest leaves. Therefore, this cake has long been considered a specialty of Yen Bai that many people "hunt" to enjoy.
There are also basic ingredients such as Tu Le glutinous, pork belly, pepper, but in order for the cake to be rich and different, people have taken the stems of the tree to strip the bark or flowers of black sesame trees to burn into charcoal, pound finely to form black to dye the rice cake. The plasticity of Tu Le glutinous, the fleshy taste of green beans mixed with the fatty taste of pork create an irresistible delicacy.
Vegetables
The vegetable in Yen Bai is a forest vegetable belonging to the fern family, looking very similar to vegetables in the downstream but completely different. This vegetable usually grows all year round in ravines and rocky niches, but the freshest is still in the rainy season.
For many ethnic groups, vegetables are the "king" of vegetables, it not only helps improve the quality of daily meals but also is a specialty to treat guests during festivals. From boiling, stir-frying, cooking soup to making salad, whatever the way it is prepared, the vegetable always makes the enjoyer remember its original flavor.
Wild wasp pupae
Beehives are everywhere but wild beehives processed into dishes can only be found in Yen Bai.
It closely resembles silkworm pupae but is smaller, thick bee layers, fat nymphs wiggle, pitted and processed into many dishes. Northwest wild bees mainly make simple dishes such as: Roasting lemon leaves, stir-frying sour bamboo shoots, stir-frying turmeric leaves, which are processed into many different dishes, the most popular is fried bee pupa. The dish tastes fatty but not everyone dares to eat it.
Bucket ant eggs
If it comes to Yen Bai cuisine, of course, it is impossible to ignore the famous ant egg. This unique specialty of the Northwest mountains and forests always makes people fascinated by the extremely strange aromatic flavor. The egg grains are taut, soft and milky, the aroma is specific, just looking at it is attractive, diners once they have eaten, they just crave it forever.
In addition to ant eggs to cook soup, mix chicken eggs to fry, make cakes ... then there are 3 certain dishes you must try when coming to Yen Bai. These are raw ant eggs, leaf ant egg patties and ant egg sticky rice.
Fish
Fish is considered by Thai people in Van Chan - Nghia Lo (Yen Bai) as a proud specialty, because this fish only lives here. The fish prefers to live in fast water, its elongated head is small, white scales, rolling silver flowers, flanks with blue light. The largest one is only four fingers, the meat is firm, sweet, when grilled, it has a strong aroma, not fishy, the bones are less soft.
The fish is gutted, scraped, used spices such as sparrow seeds, chili, salt, garlic, purple ginger ... Pound the stuffing into the belly of the fish, tie it tightly with a small ladder. The whole fish is wrapped in young forest banana leaves in several layers, then buried in hot ash by the stilt fire.
Bamboo shoots
Bamboo shoots are a specialty that mountains and forests bestow on the people of the Northwest, which has long been present in the traditional cuisine of the Vietnamese nation. Bamboo shoots are available in all localities, but only bamboo shoots in Yen Bai are chosen by many gourmet tourists.
This type of bamboo shoot grows naturally in the hills of Tram Tau, in Van Chan district and Nghia Lo town. Perhaps due to the suitability of the soil, bamboo shoots in Yen Bai are white, soft yellow and taste better than other regions. There are many dishes you can enjoy from bamboo shoots, the most popular being boiled bamboo shoots dipped in sesame salt or stir-fried bamboo shoots.
According to K14