Dried Mango Salad with Salted Fish, a Specialty that Captivates Visitors in Can Tho

Being a renowned dish in Can Tho cuisine, dried mango salad with salted fish is a top favorite among Southern people and ranks among the top in everyday simple meals. The reason lies in its ease of finding, simplicity in preparation, and lack of fussiness. This simple dish consists of grilled salted fish and sliced green mangoes, leaving a lasting impression on many distant travelers in Can Tho.

Common in the Western river region, during the harvest season, people in the South often choose large live salted fish, clean them from scales and guts, then soak them in saltwater for about an hour before drying them. Diners prefer dried salted fish over fresh ones because they can be processed immediately. Fresh fish tend to spoil quickly, losing their flavor, while just a day of sunlight can turn them into a delicacy.

Dried salted fish is easy to eat, can be grilled and dipped in chili salt or deep-fried to golden perfection, cut into small pieces to enjoy with tamarind sauce, and accompanied by a sip of beer. Its flavor is rich, thanks to the salt, combined with the natural sweetness of the fish meat. When mixed with sweet and sour green mango salad, it is also considered a favored appetizer among men.

Despite its simple preparation, requiring minimal effort, this mango salad still leaves a lasting impression. The main ingredients include green mangoes, carrots, dried salted fish, shallots, lime, garlic, chili, fish sauce, sugar, and cilantro.

Grill the dried salted fish over charcoal until fragrant and tear it into small pieces, ensuring to remove all fish bones. Sour green mangoes are often freshly picked from the garden, peeled, leaving the fruit intact. Thinly slice the mango lengthwise with a knife or use a peeler to create long strips.

The next step involves soaking mangoes in a mixture of fish sauce, sugar, and minced garlic and chili for 30-45 minutes to reduce the sourness. Meanwhile, carrots are shredded, cilantro is finely chopped, and shallots are thinly sliced for mixing. Once the mangoes are soaked, the chef carefully removes them to mix with the prepared ingredients, finally garnishing with cilantro.

The rich flavor of dried fish blends with the aromatic scent of cilantro combined with sour mangoes and pungent shallots soaked in fish sauce and sugar, along with the sweet and crisp taste of carrots, making this dish a rustic countryside delicacy even more impressive. On days with guests or when needing a casual dish for the husband, women from the Mekong Delta are very handy with this simple dish.

When visiting the people of the Mekong Delta during the flood season and being treated to mango salad with dried fish, you will feel lucky and endlessly praise the host. If you want to buy it as a gift or make this dish yourself for your family, you can easily purchase it at almost any agricultural product store in the Southern provinces. The price is around more than 300,000 VND per kilogram of packaged dried fish.

Source: VnExpress

Reference: Travel guide Mytour