Buzz
Binh Duong boasts a rich culinary heritage and abundance of fruit trees. Visitors to Binh Duong are often touched by the lush fruit orchards of Lai Thieu or the renowned delicacies like the famous banh beo bi at Bung Market, or the unique shrimp noodle soup... The cuisine in Binh Duong is both simple and incredibly exotic.
Lai Thieu Fruits
From May to August every year is the season of ripe fruits, visitors going to Lai Thieu orchard will enjoy the fresh air of the expansive orchards and savor delicious fruits such as mangosteen, rambutan, lychee, jackfruit, and milk fruit... Visitors can also take a leisurely boat ride on the Saigon River while admiring the orchard scenery...
In recent years, Lai Thieu has been seen as an ideal outdoor destination, especially for young men and women, students during the fruit season, starting from April, and also during summer breaks. The advantage of Lai Thieu is its proximity to Ho Chi Minh City, with the two central points only about 20km apart. The sweet fruits of Lai Thieu are so enticing that young people can reach here in less than an hour even by bicycle.
Here, visitors can enter the orchard to buy fruits by picking them on the spot to eat or take away, or buy them at various specialized fruit stalls throughout Lai Thieu.
Grilled beef needs no extra oil as it already has a thin layer of fat wrapped around it. When it meets the flames, the fat sizzles, preventing the meat from sticking and imparting a tantalizing aroma. Within minutes of hitting the grill, the smoke wafts, carrying with it an enticing scent that tantalizes even the most distant of hungry bellies, beckoning them to indulge further.
No need to wait long for the beef to cook through. You can roll it up with vermicelli and a plate of assorted greens, beautifully arranged like in the picture – dip right into the bowl of pre-mixed fish sauce provided by the eatery. Absolutely delicious!
Bèo Cake at Chợ Búng
The bèo cakes at Chợ Búng in Bình Dương are exceptionally delicious thanks to the pork skin with coconut water. The cakes, white in color, paired with pickled vegetables and fresh herbs, are extremely appetizing.
Unlike other types of bèo cakes, Chợ Búng's bèo cakes are made from specialty red rice. To make the cakes delicious, the rice must be stirred until the grains dissolve into a thick, sticky paste in the pot. Once the mixture is stirred with the desired coconut milk, it is poured into the bèo cake mold and steamed until cooked. The next step is to prepare green beans as a topping to spread on the cakes.
The deliciousness of bèo cakes depends on the pork skin and dipping sauce. The pork skin is a mixture of thinly sliced pork and spices such as garlic and broth powder. The pork must be selected from the thigh, wrapped in skin, and roasted until golden. Coconut water is added to the pot to simmer into the pork for a fragrant aroma. Next comes the fish sauce, seasoning sprinkled over the bèo cakes, vermicelli with pork skin, or dipping sauce for pork rolls. When eating, arrange the bèo cakes on a plate with pickled vegetables or salted radishes, fresh herbs, bean sprouts, and crushed peanuts, then pour in the fish sauce.
Today, bèo cakes are synonymous with the locale of Chợ Búng as it has established the brand for Bình Dương's pork skin bèo cakes. From the bèo cakes, under the skilled hands of culinary artisans and creative minds, two new dishes have been 'invented' from pork skin, contributing to the richness of the bèo cake feast: rolled pork skin and vermicelli with pork skin.
When in Bình Dương, you can visit two eateries: Mỹ Liên located near National Highway 13, near the Cầu Cống intersection, or Ngọc Hương eatery in front of Chợ Búng market. It can be said that seeing thousands of neatly arranged white cakes on plates and baskets of sliced pork skin, each fiber resembling the other, surely everyone wants to taste its flavor.
Roast Chicken with Puffed Rice
Roast chicken is usually eaten with steamed buns, sticky rice with mung beans, but at the renowned restaurants in Bình Dương, roast chicken is served with puffed rice. There are many types of puffed rice: black bean, mung bean, peanuts, red gac fruit, and jasmine rice. The main ingredient for making puffed rice is glutinous rice, and depending on the type of puffed rice, only glutinous rice is needed. A large round plate of evenly golden-brown puffed rice is placed next to a plate of fragrant, fatty, perfectly cooked roast chicken; anyone who sees it wants to eat it.
The price of a plate of puffed rice ranges from 15,000 to 20,000 Vietnamese dong, and anyone visiting Bình Dương should not miss this specialty dish.
How to fry a piece of puffed rice to make it round, hollow inside, evenly golden-brown, and delicious is a secret. The rice for making puffed rice is mashed with cooking oil, a little sugar, and especially no baking powder. Depending on the size of the plate, the chef cuts a piece of this rice with just the right amount and puts it into hot oil, cooked on a charcoal stove, the piece of rice placed in the oil is turned evenly and pressed down onto the bottom of the pan with two kitchen tongs.
After about 5 minutes, the rice cake begins to puff up. At this point, the chef's hands must be very skillful, otherwise the rice cake will be warped, broken, or the rice will not be evenly puffed, resulting in lumps in the middle of the puffed rice. Rice cakes that are unevenly cooked or burnt are not of good quality. The puffing time ranges from 10 to 15 minutes.
Shrimp Noodles
In your lifetime, you may have tasted many types of noodles like noodle with pork hock, noodle with crab soup, noodle with fish, noodle with snails… but shrimp noodles may not have crossed your palate yet. This is a type of noodle that is both cheap, delicious, and very popular. If you ever happen to pass through Bình Dương, please take a few minutes to try this unique shrimp noodle dish.
The distinctive feature of Bình Dương's shrimp noodles lies in the way the noodles are made. Shrimp noodles are not the type of noodles sold in markets or bought from famous noodle-making establishments. The vendors make the noodles right there on the spot, meaning that they start kneading the pre-made rice flour dough and steaming it in a pot of boiling water only when customers arrive at the shop. Therefore, the noodles here look small, soft, and translucent. On the other hand, the shrimp used in shrimp noodles are fresh, live ones caught from ponds and lagoons. The shrimp here look plump and firm, very sweet.
Because of these unique and unparalleled features, the shrimp noodles in Bình Dương have a very special taste. They crush live, shell-less shrimp, then briefly blanch them in boiling water, add noodles to the bowl, pour in the broth to stir the noodles immediately afterward, sprinkle a little ground pepper, a little MSG, a little scallion. And there you have it, a steaming hot bowl of shrimp noodles, emitting a very enticing aroma.
Shrimp noodles are usually served with grilled rice paper. Many first-time eaters may not find it delicious or appealing, but after several tries, they become addicted without even realizing it. Addicted to the sweetness of the noodle broth, to the fragrant aroma of scallions. Shrimp noodles, a specialty, make for a very unique breakfast dish.
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Source: Travel guide by Mytour – As reported by VietQ
Check out the list of hotels in Bình Dương
MytourApril 21, 2014
