Sapa is not only famous for its natural beauty and
landscapes, cool and fresh air, Sapa is best known for specialties. Sapa
cuisine mirrors the country’s cultural and ethnic diversity. Its main
characteristic is the systematic use of fresh, light products, mainly tropical
or temperate fruit and vegetables. It offers a wide variety of foods ranging
from meats, crustaceans and fish to delicious vegetarian specialties
accompanied with all sorts of vegetables, herbs, spices and sauces. In this
article, Vietwind travel will induce you some specialties which you shouldn’t
miss if you come to Sapa.
1. Field
mushroom
Going anywhere in Sapa, you are also invited to buy
field mushroom- a specialties of Sapa’ mountains and forests.At any restaurants
in Sapa, you can easily enjoy this kind of food. After soaking in water, these
field mushrooms still keep the taste of mountainous land and flavor of forest
trees.
If you are gastronomic, you should choose “mushroom
foot”. This is a mix of body of mushroom, meat, dried cuttlefish and some
spices. You can eat it with many kinds of vegetables here. I must sure that if
you have once time to try this food, you never forget it as well as nerver
forget Sapa.
2. Five color steamed glutinous rice
Steamed glutinous rice with seven colors is called
“xoi bay mau” in Vietnam; it is a traditional dish in festivals of Nung Din
ethnic in Muong Khuong province (Lao Cai). This dish has seven colors such as
pink, vermilion, scarlet, bright green, yellow green, banana leaf green and yellow and especially
these colors is made from natural tree so you
can totally feel secure when eating it.
On the first of July every year,
Nung Din people usually hold festival to celebrate a victory. In the festival,
steamed glutinous rice with seven colors is always displayed as an
indispensable food. Moreover, in the concept of Nung Nin people, eating the
steamed glutinous rice with seven colors will get lucky and good things. This
dish is the pride of Nung Din women because it expresses their ingenuity and
skill.
3. Carried
under arm pig”-”lợn cắp nách”.
Sapa is well-known for its dishes of “lon cap nach”, which symbolizes
the image of local people tucking their pigs under
their arms as they bring them to the market for sale. Its meat can be steamed,
boiled, baked, stewed, and the taste is very delicious.
This kind of food is so well-known that many luxury
restaurants use it for their big parties or many people use it in their meeting
occasions at the end of year or on holidays.
4. Vegetables
in Sapa.
Sapa specialties such as white and green
cauliflower, red beetroot, and chayote squash thrive in Sapa’s temperate
climate. Tens of thousands of Sapa’s chayotes are distributed nationwide each
year.
While many of Sapa’s vegetables are sold throughout
the country, the
more delicate and most tasty varieties are only
available in the markets of Sapa. One example of this is “ngong”, the local
word for the budded stems of old and stunted vegetables. There are many kinds
of ngong, such as the stems of garlic, cabbage, kohlrabi, and chayote. Ngong is
best served fried with garlic or various kinds of meat.
5. Brook fishs
Sapa residents are also very fond of their fish. One
type called brook
fish, because they are residents of the areas
mountainous streams or brooks. Brook fish are various in types from white
fattened-body fish such as ditch fish, goby to the fish whose color is mixed between black and stone moss color.
Sapa brook fish are usually not big, just equal to
an adult finger, or a knife handle as the biggest. The most special secret is
that these brook fish has no fishy flavor. Once catched, fish are often grilled
on coal immediately at the stream in order to store or bring to restaurants in
town for sale. After being grilled, fish’s head, tail and fins are very crisp
while the fish’s round body still maintains the fiber muscles-unique
characteristics only for such mountainous species.
6. Cat
cider in Sapa
Cat apple tree
grows wild very much on the Hoang Lien Son mountain range in Sapa
Vietnam. People soaked cat apple into a
kind of brown liquor and sweet aromatic characteristics. This alcohol is rural
but original. It is made from a kind of apple (cat apple) which only grows in
forests where are sunny, windy. Therefore, this apple absorbs tastes of sky,
taste of land, taste of mountains; and it contains four tastes sour, sweet,
bitter, acrid. Cat drinking cider initially felt like drinking carbonated soft
drinks, but more and more taking ecstasy.
Click Here to see more about transportation to Sapa from Hanoi
7. Thang
Co
Thang Co is created by Hmong people in Vietnam,
Someone tried to explain the word by Chinese-Vietnamese pronunciation - Thang
Co means soup of bones.The dish is traditionally made from horse meat,
including almost all the offal such as intestines, liver, and kidneys, but beef
and pork may also be used.The meat and offal are cut into small pieces and
mixed with special spices that are popular with the Mong people. Then all the
ingredients are poured in a big pot of water and simmered over a fire for a
long time.
8.
“Lam” rice ( Bamboo cooked rice)
"Lam" rice (or Bamboo Cooked Rice) is a typical
dish of ethnic minorities in mountainous area of Northern Vietnam.
Originally, “lam” rice was invented as a kind of food for long journey in the
forests. Upon the journey, Vietnamese ethnic people can cook rice in a bamboo
pipe instead of a pot. By the time passed, “lam” rice has become popular, and
is preferred as impressive blend of rice, stream water and slight scent of
bamboo.
“Lam” rice is made from sticky rice which is grown on the
hills. Sticky rice is put in a bamboo pipe and added some water. For more
delicious taste, ethnic people usually use stream water and add some salt in.
The bamboo pipe then will be sealed up by banana leaves and roasted above red
coals or hot fire. That process will be done within about 30 minutes.“Lam” rice is served with grilled chicken or grilled Man
pork. Some sesame and salt are indispensible while eating this dish. Let try
fine and hot “lam” rice in cold weather of Sapa once in your life!
9. Salmon in Sapa
Such
fish which live only in cold regions like America or Europe have been imported
but only successfully adopted in Sapa. With bold taste, pretty pink meat, high
nutritional ingredients, salmon is one of the most luxurious dishes for
tourists coming to Sapa - Lao Cai. Sometimes, salmon is not only delicious by
its taste, but also attractive by the thought and curiosity of tasting it once.
With a cool climate all year round and a cold winter even with snow covers,
Sapa salmon is blessed to have flesh meat, firm muscles and no grease which is
suitable for processing many different dishes. The most prominent are salmon
hot pots, salmon salads and grilled salmon ... In the cold of Sapa, with a cup
of wild cat apple wine, enjoying a full-of-smoke salmon hot pot together with
early-foggy-covered wild vegetables will be surely an unforgettable moment for
visitors.
10. Khang Gai Dried Meat
The meat of horses, pigs are usually hung up
by the H’Mong. These meat will be chopped into pieces about 2-3 kilograms and
hung up in order to store. When eating meat, they will clean dust and cook with
tomatoes, bamboo shoots… Dried meat is fleshy, fragrant and crispy.
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