Buzz
Throughout your spring journey from the Red River Delta to the Northwest region, there are regional specialties you should consider buying as gifts for your loved ones and friends.
Here are some exceptionally exquisite items you can purchase as gifts for your loved ones this upcoming Tet holiday:
Indulge in the flavors of Hanoi's preserved fruits and green rice flakes.
With a blend of sour, spicy, salty, and sweet flavors reminiscent of Hanoi's culinary essence, preserved fruits are a popular choice for gifts when leaving the capital. You have a diverse selection of preserved fruits such as apricot, plum, ginger, tamarind, kumquat, lime, persimmon, peach, and plum... concentrated mainly on Hang Duong street.
A specialty of Hanoi, green rice flakes are enticing with their chewy outer layer and a filling of green beans mixed with creamy coconut, infused with the natural fragrance of pomelo. You can purchase them on Hang Than street.
Green bean cakes from Hai Duong
For a long time, this type of cake has become a specialty that every resident of Hai Duong must be proud of. The cake is made from pure green bean flour, mixed with a little fat and sugar to create a flavor that is both sweet and savory on the palate. The cakes are packaged in convenient paper boxes for gift giving.
Ninh Binh Crispy Rice
As one of the specialties of the ancient capital region, crispy rice is meticulously processed from carefully selected ingredients. To make delicious crispy rice, sticky rice is used, cooked in a cast iron pot over charcoal fire, ensuring even heat distribution, creating a crispy layer throughout the bottom of the pot. After removing the crispy rice, it must be sun-dried naturally in a ventilated area before frying to achieve a crunchy texture. Delicious crispy rice has a light yellow color, evenly cooked grains, crispy yet chewy texture.
Nam Dinh Thorny Cake
In Nam Dinh, there are many households growing thorny leaves, which are the main ingredient that contributes to the distinctive flavor of thorny cakes. Along with the cake filling is a combination of various ingredients such as peeled green beans, fatty pork, peanuts, lotus seeds, and coconut... to blend together and enhance a unique aroma, fragrant and sweet. The most famous is Mrs. Thi's thorny cake, which many people buy as gifts whenever they visit this place.
Thai Binh Leaf Cake
Making leaf cakes involves many complex steps, from soaking glutinous rice, cooking red sticky rice, extracting ginger water, roasting rice into 'ne' grains (peeling off the rice husk), rendering fat, grating coconut, soaking in sugar for 15 days. Additionally, preparing areca nuts, pomelo flower fragrance, pumpkin jam... First, the roasted glutinous rice grains are fried until crispy and have a brownish color. Then, the remaining ingredients are mixed together until they stick together into a dough-like mass and pressed into a pre-made mold to form the finished leaf cakes.
Thai Nguyen Sweet Soup
For a long time, Thai Nguyen sweet soup has become a special gift for many tourists when visiting the land of tea. After a strict picking and processing process, the sweet soup has a characteristic mild fragrance, a clear green water color, a gentle bitterness when freshly drank, followed by a deep lingering sweetness. There are various types of sweet soup in terms of flavor and quantity for you to choose as gifts.
Halong Squid Cake
What defines the distinctive flavor of Halong squid cake lies in the hand-mashing technique, instead of using a grinder like many other places. After seasoning, the round pieces of cake are fried in boiling oil until they turn an eye-catching golden color and emit a tantalizing aroma. Thanks to this, Halong squid cake has a naturally crisp texture and rich flavor, perfect to enjoy with sticky rice or steamed rice cakes.
Dried Bamboo Shoots from Hoa Binh
Dried bamboo shoots are processed from fresh bamboo shoots by sun-drying and completely dehydrating. If exposed to sunlight, the bamboo shoots will naturally turn a yellowish color. If the weather is unfavorable, those making the bamboo shoots will hang them in the kitchen attic, where the shoots will turn yellow when dried. At this point, the bamboo shoots are torn into smaller pieces and sun-dried again until completely dry. Dried bamboo shoots can be used in various dishes such as bone broth, duck vermicelli... suitable as gifts for family.
Thai Nguyen Rice Cake Tubes
These cakes are made from glutinous rice, wrapped in banana or dong leaves, without filling. The glutinous rice must be soaked in water several times until the water becomes clear. Continue soaking the rice for a few hours until it softens. Cut the banana leaves into square pieces, roll them into funnel shapes, then pour the rice inside, gently press the outside to compact the rice, fold the edges of the leaves, and tie the cakes with soft lát mé (a type of grass). The rice cake tubes are strung into pairs or small clusters, boiled for about 2 hours until cooked, and sold in bunches at markets across Thai Nguyen.
Dien Bien Sausage
Sausages are usually made a few months before Tet to ensure they last all year round and remain delicious whenever eaten. The main ingredient for sausages is young pork intestines. The filling for sausages is lean pork, shoulder meat, or buttock meat, the delicious parts of pork. The sausages are tightly stuffed, sun-dried for about 3 days, then hung in the kitchen attic. They are a dish for many festive occasions in Dien Bien.
