Buzz
Traveling to Hà Nam, what special gifts can you bring back for your family and loved ones? Let's explore 10 specialty gifts from Hà Nam that everyone will love.
Hà Nam, situated in the southwest of the Red River Delta in the key economic region of Northern Vietnam, serves as the southern gateway to the capital, Hanoi. Just like everywhere else, locals here have their hometown specialties to welcome visitors and to send heartfelt gifts from Hà Nam to all corners. Join us as we highlight 10 must-try specialties of Hà Nam, the land of cultural convergence!
1. Vũ Đại braised fish
Vũ Đại braised fish
The Vũ Đại village of yesteryears—a familiar masterpiece by Nam Cao featuring the characters Chí Phèo and Thị Nở—has walked through the years alongside Vietnamese literature. Today, Vũ Đại village, or the modern-day Nhân Hậu village, still leaves behind for culinary enthusiasts the unforgettable dish of braised fish from its land.
The braised fish dish from Vũ Đại village is meticulously crafted from fresh black carp, silver carp, striped snakehead, and fresh mudfish. The cooking process spans 16 to 20 hours, incorporating over 10 different spices and exclusively cooked over firewood from longan or guava trees. The firm, well-seasoned fish meat, tender bones that can be chewed, rich aroma, and absence of any fishy taste set the fish apart from other braised fish dishes, making it highly distinctive and renowned.
2. Bình Lục fermented fish sauce
Crayfish (small red crab) fermented fish sauce
Bình Lục is renowned for its traditional craft of making fermented crayfish sauce, which has thrived and developed significantly. To prepare a jar of fermented fish sauce requires meticulous effort, starting from peeling off the shell, removing the white meat, grinding the small crayfish (red-clawed crabs) until smooth, mixing with salt, and tightly sealing the mixture in a container. Then, it is left to dry in the sun for a day before being buried underground, allowing the crayfish sauce to ferment until it becomes tender and ready to use.
Delicious fermented fish sauce boasts vibrant colors and a harmonious blend of flavors, ranging from the saltiness of salt, the richness of fish, the earthiness of the anchovies, to the warmth of ginger... Crayfish sauce pairs wonderfully with boiled water spinach, pickled vegetables, salted eggplant, etc., along with a few crushed garlic cloves, creating a rich and satisfying meal.
3. Vọc village wine
Vọc village wine
Vọc village, located in Vũ Bản commune, Bình Lục district, Hà Nam province, has been famous for generations for its traditional craft of wine-making passed down from father to son. The wine produced here is the type used for royal ceremonies, thanks to its recipe of fermenting rice with indigenous yeast—a fermentation agent consisting of 36 northern medicinal herbs.
The rice used for making wine comes from sticky rice with yellow flowers or sticky purple rice that still retains the husk, harvested only 3-5 months after planting. However, the key factor that defines the distinctive flavor of Vọc village wine is the exceptionally sweet and cool water from Vọc village. When tasted, with just a light sip, you can immediately sense its deliciousness, sophistication, and the fragrant aroma of sticky rice, leaving an unforgettable impression.
4. Lý Nhân tangerines
Lý Nhân tangerines
Lý Nhân is a district situated along the Red River, blessed by nature with fertile land, ideal for cultivating tangerines—a specialty once presented to the kings. Lý Nhân tangerines have thin, crispy skin, flattened shape, and golden-yellow color, packed with abundant vitamin C. The flesh is sweet, fragrant, and juicy. Peeling the skin by hand releases a refreshing and pleasant aroma. Every year during the Rươi season (September - October lunar calendar), which coincides with the ripe tangerine season, they are readily available and easy to find.
5. Ngự Đại Hoàng bananas
Ngự Đại Hoàng bananas
Speaking of royal delicacies, aside from Vũ Đại braised fish and Lý Nhân tangerines, it would be incomplete not to mention Ngự Đại Hoàng bananas. Unlike the larger, blander buffalo bananas, Ngự Đại Hoàng bananas from this region feature notably smaller but beautiful banana chambers, round and shiny fruits, green stems, and attractive fly heads with three curved tusks. They boast a sweet taste, delightful aroma, and become increasingly delicious with each bite.
6. Kiện Khê rice crackers
Ngự Đại Hoàng bananas
Kiện Khê is a township in Thanh Liêm district, Hà Nam province, renowned for its craft of making Kiện Khê rice crackers. These rice crackers are dry-baked with peanuts, sesame seeds, coconut, or gac fruit, resulting in a crispy, fragrant treat. They offer a unique flavor of bananas and coconut, making them perfect for gifting!
7. Đầm village square cake
Đầm village square cake
In Vietnam, everywhere wraps and sells cakes when Tet comes and spring arrives. However, in Đầm village, also known as Bích Trì hamlet, located in Liêm Tuyền commune, Thanh Liêm district, Hà Nam province, the craft of wrapping square cakes has been practiced for generations, becoming a famous specialty of the region.
People wrap square cakes with carefully selected glutinous rice, using high-quality dong leaves, and cooking water must come from rainwater filtered through the weir to create a sweet and pure taste. Each cake not only impresses diners with its rich flavor but also with its beautifully crafted, square and symmetrical structure, worthy for tourists to taste and buy as gifts.
8. Hồng Nhân Hậu
Hồng Nhân Hậu
Hồng Nhân Hậu is a specialty from Vũ Đại village. This tree species blooms in January, bears fruit in the 8th lunar month, and usually ripens around Tet holiday. There are two types of Hồng Nhân Hậu: green-skinned and pickled.
For the green-skinned variety, the green fruit is soaked in rice bran vinegar, oil lamps, or incense to remove bitterness. When ripe, the red fruit resembles the color of tomatoes. This type of Hồng Nhân Hậu has no large seeds, smooth thin skin, and offers a fragrant, not overly sweet taste due to soil and climatic conditions.
9. Ba Sao bitter vegetables
Ba Sao bitter vegetables
Bitter vegetables are a familiar type of wild vegetables that grow naturally on limestone mountains, with deep green color, glossy texture, and rich nutrients. The delicious aroma of these vegetables is unmatched.
The bitter vegetable season usually lasts from January to the end of April (lunar calendar), abundant in Kim Bảng and Thanh Liêm districts. People use the flowers, fruits, young leaves, and shoots of bitter vegetables to create various enticing dishes such as minced meat with bitter vegetables, shrimp with bitter vegetables, bitter vegetable fish soup, etc. Particularly, bitter vegetable flower buds are excellent for making soup and stir-frying with beef.
10. Phủ Lý rolled cake
Phủ Lý rolled cake
Phủ Lý is the provincial capital city of Hà Nam province, renowned for its rolled cake dish. Phủ Lý rolled cake is served with grilled pork sausage shaped like mustard flowers, manually grilled on charcoal stoves. The fragrant and savory rolled cake pieces, along with raw vegetables, shredded banana flowers, and a few green starfruit slices dipped in sweet and sour dipping sauce, sprinkled with fragrant fried shallots, blend together to create an irresistible flavor.
The rolled cake is famous for selecting the best quality eight-grain rice for the finest cake texture. The rice is ground into flour and soaked in water for about 2 - 3 hours, then thinly spread to produce beautifully white cakes. When the cakes are just cooked enough, the cook sprinkles some fried shallots and a few drops of lard to make the cakes more flavorful.
Here are the top 10 irresistible specialty dishes from Hà Nam, exuding the rustic charm that nowhere else can offer, which we present to you. We hope that when you visit this place, you will have the most memorable experiences.
Get your masks from us now to protect your health during this pandemic season.
Posted by: Mạnh Thành
Keywords: Purchase these 10 specialties from Hà Nam as gifts, guaranteed to please everyone
