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When you visit Long Son (Ba Ria - Vung Tau), indulge in a delicious and affordable seafood meal aboard a raft amidst the surrounding rivers.
Vung Tau Travel: A day of indulging in seafood at Long Son
From Ho Chi Minh City to Vung Tau, when you're about 8 km away from Ba Ria city, take a turn at the Long Son intersection and travel approximately 4 km to reach Long Son island commune. This place is renowned for its oyster farming, cage fish farming, and is currently a hotspot for enjoying delectable seafood at much lower prices compared to Vung Tau city.
Upon arrival at the pier, visitors can choose between nearby or distant rafts according to preference. Distant rafts will be ferried to, while nearby ones offer the experience of walking on a swaying bridge over the river. These rafts are floating wooden platforms supported by sturdy concrete pillars, spacious and airy, equipped with kitchen and restroom facilities. The most notable ones include the 'Small Male Oyster' raft and the Long Son raft village, which are always bustling with visitors on weekends.
Before dining, guests are given a tour of the restaurant's high-quality aquaculture area. The rafts are divided into several sections with wooden pathways, each housing tanks of live fish such as snapper, grouper, and barramundi, lively and splashing water all around. Oyster rafts are tethered together, floating on the water's surface with plastic drums, and above them hang sheets of metal roofing laden with hanging trees. You'll witness oysters firmly attached to the metal sheets, as big as scallops. Whatever dish you desire, simply request, and the staff will fetch it with a net. Within about 15 minutes, you'll have a piping hot, fragrant dish before you.
The seafood at Long Son Island not only boasts freshness and firm texture but also carries a unique flavor, sweeter and more aromatic than elsewhere, perhaps due to the natural advantages of its water and climate. Seafood is prepared in various ways such as grilling, steaming with lemongrass, lime marinating, tamarind dipping, and more. Types of fish, squid, shrimp, crab, or snail are turned into many exquisite dishes like spicy salt grilled brown fish, grilled squid, tamarind crab, sour soup with mullet fish, braised pomfret with onions, and snail grilled with fat and onions.
However, to preserve the original flavor of fresh seafood, eating raw or steaming are two commonly chosen methods. Plump blood cockles only need a quick grill over charcoal or a brief dip in boiling water to retain their full sweet and savory taste. A renowned specialty that cannot go unmentioned is oysters. Oysters here are always fresh, with sweet flesh, mostly enjoyed raw with lime dipping sauce, alongside the option of cheesy baked oysters. Additionally, a local delicacy in Long Son is the razor clam, similar in shape to clams but three times larger, often cooked into a highly enticing dish of razor clam grilled with fat and onions.
The taste of seafood seems multiplied when savored by tourists on floating rafts on the Dinh River, surrounded by the pure nature, watching boats passing by. The prices of seafood in Long Son are reasonable, averaging about 200,000 Vietnamese dong per person for indulging in delicious dishes from crab, squid, shrimp, fish, and more. After enjoying fresh and delicious seafood, tourists can easily purchase some to bring back as gifts, with guaranteed quality, proper weight, and fairly reasonable prices.
Visiting Long Son, you can also explore the distinctive architecture of the famous Grand Houses, learning about Mr. Tran, who contributed to the development of this land. To add more excitement, tourists can transform into fishermen catching fish at the mouth of the Rang River. Fishing here is not too difficult, just release the iron cages into the water, wait until the water recedes, and use a winch to pull up the cages. If desired, you can also take a boat tour on the river, visit golden sandy beaches for sightseeing, photography, and view Vung Tau city from a distance.
Long Son is gradually becoming an ideal destination for day trips for families, groups of friends.
According to Ngôi Sao
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By Mytour TeamJune 2nd, 2016
