Top 7 Most Delicious and Expensive Dishes in Nam Dinh

Visitors to Nam Dinh never forget to try Nam Dinh Beef Pho. While Hanoi Beef Pho is known for its full bowl of ingredients, Nam Dinh Beef Pho captivates with its broth and beef preparation. There's no single traditional recipe for Nam Dinh Beef Pho, as each family has its own, but what makes this dish addictive is the small, soft pho noodles combined with a slightly rich, fragrant broth, with a deep, refreshing flavor. The broth is one of the key factors in the success of Nam Dinh Beef Pho. Along with that are the tender, sweet slices of beef that make visitors want to keep eating.

When in Nam Dinh, visitors can visit some delicious eateries like Xuyen Alley's Pho, Tặng's Pho on Hàng Tiện Street, or Đán's Pho on Hai Ba Trưng Street to taste how this flavor differs from Hanoi Beef Pho!

Sìu Châu Candy is similar to peanut candy but more fragrant and delicious. The name Sìu Châu candy itself arouses curiosity and excitement in many people. According to the people of Nam Dinh, the name Sìu Châu candy has been around for a long time and is closely associated with a famous candy shop. This shop was located in front of Triều Châu temple by the Ngự Vị Hoàng river (a famous river in Tú Xương's poetry), so people in the area used to call it the delicious candy in front of Triều Châu temple, then simplified it to Triều Châu candy, and eventually became known as Sìu Châu candy or simply Sìu candy as it is known today. The ingredients for making Sìu Châu candy are easy to find, including peanuts, sesame seeds, sugar, and malt.

The peanuts used to make the candy must be carefully selected from large, plump, shiny, and round nuts. When roasted, they should be crispy, fragrant, and have a firm shell. Sesame seeds can be white or black, and each type will give the candy a different flavor and color. After roasting the sesame seeds and peanuts, they are separated from the shells. The next step is to cook sugar with malt over a large flame. When the sugar mixture boils, add the peanuts and sesame seeds and stir well until they are combined and the mixture turns a reddish-brown color.

The final step is to pour the hot candy mixture onto a tray with glutinous rice flour to prevent moisture and quickly roll out the candy thinly to cut it into pieces or divide it into small square pieces to fit the mouth. Enjoying a piece of Sìu Châu candy is crispy, fragrant, and sweet without sticking to the teeth. Enjoying the candy with a cup of hot tea in the cool air and light spring rain is incomparable.

A specialty of Nam Dinh that every visitor will surely buy as a gift - Giao Thuy Rice Ball Rolls. This is a long-standing dish of Thanh Nam people, closely associated with the lives of people in Nam Dinh until now. Visitors will find when unwrapping the first layers of Giao Thuy rice ball rolls, round and attractive like those in Ta Hien street. The ingredients for making this dish are not simple. Made from firm pork skin, the pork must be cleaned and shaved. Then it is hand-sliced and mixed evenly with spices to bring out a rich flavor.

The tiny rice ball strands are rolled into sung leaves, looking truly enticing. Visitors just need to wrap a bit of rice ball in sung leaves, add some herbs, especially Dinh Lang leaves, and dip it in a delicious, flavorful fish sauce. Just a taste will immediately reveal the fragrant, rich flavor of the rice ball, the slightly bitter taste of Dinh Lang leaves that visitors can't resist and only want to eat more.

When unwrapping the sung leaves, visitors will be overwhelmed by the distinctive aroma of Nam Dinh specialty rice ball rolls. The fragrant aroma of the rice ball strands made from Nam Dinh eight-grain rice blended with the fragrant, slightly bitter taste of sung leaves will leave a lasting impression on visitors. So much so that they'll want to buy it as a gift or bring it home to enjoy with family and friends during meals.

The reason why this candy has such an interesting name is because it resembles a popular dish in the northern region of Vietnam - dồi. The candy has a crunchy and sweet opaque white outer layer. Inside, the filling consists of peanuts or roasted peanuts, which are very fragrant. It is often enjoyed with a hot cup of tea. Especially in the cold winter weather of the northern region, enjoying this treat during that time is truly wonderful.

Nam Dinh Sticky Rice Candy – The candy shell is made from boiled sugarcane juice to form candy glue, giving it a crispy texture. The candy shell is thin, only about 1mm thick. The filling is made of roasted peanuts placed inside the candy shell.

The candy makers must first have good health to handle the candy shell-making process. People who are not familiar with the craft may mistake the white color of the candy for glutinous rice flour and sugar. No, it's just sugar and malt placed in until it reaches the desired crispiness (according to the profession's standards), then the candy is taken out to cool down before being placed on a mold (of course, the special powder for this task). With the strength of the craftsman's hands, they tirelessly knead and pound until the malted sugar becomes white and fluffy. The entire candy block is thinly rolled out, the thinner the better, and then the peanut filling, sugar, malt, and vanilla mixture are placed in the middle, rolled into a round shape like a cigar. Then comes the skilled technique of the candy maker, pulling the candy in the palm of their hand so that the strands of candy are long and the filling inside and the outer candy shell do not break to reveal the peanuts. Then, a special knife is used to cut the candy into pieces like pork dồi.

Candy makers nowadays have a much easier time than before to devote their efforts to maintaining traditions, improving techniques, making sticky rice candy worthy of being one of Thanh Nam's specialties.

Nam Dinh is also famous for its delicious, fragrant, and sweet Gai cakes, which are a typical specialty of this Thanh Nam land. The most famous Gai cake in Nam Dinh is Bà Thi Gai Cake.

To make this specialty Gai cake of Nam Dinh, the ingredient selection stage is very important. The cake makers must choose fresh pandan leaves, remove the tough parts, wash them clean, boil them until soft, let them cool and drain, and then grind them to produce a smooth and cool dough. Sticky rice must be chosen from fragrant or third-month sticky rice, cleaned and finely ground, smooth to the touch, without lumps. Mix the pandan leaf powder, fragrant sticky rice flour, yellow flower flour, and arrowroot powder thoroughly. Pour boiling pandan leaf water with sugar onto the flour and knead well to create a smooth, dark green cake dough. Spread the dough thinly, cut it into small pieces, and then place the filling in the middle.

Green beans for the filling must be evenly shaped, without holes or pests, soaked in warm water, cleaned of husks, and then cooked until soft. Lotus seeds are also chosen whole and evenly shaped, cooked until soft, or you can use candied lotus seeds as the filling for the cake. Grated coconut is finely ground, toasted with white sugar. Mix all these ingredients together with a little cooking oil to make the cake filling. The cake filling with green beans, lotus seeds, grated coconut, and lard creates a golden yellow color, shiny and smooth. After wrapping the cake, use red-dyed coconut fiber and rattan (dyed red) to tie the cake. Steam the cake for 2.5 to 3 hours. When the cake is cooked, take it out and store it in a thermos to keep it warm and fragrant for the consumer. Absolutely do not boil the cake because boiling the cake will reduce the nutrients in the starch.

After 4 layers of dried banana leaves, the black-green cake with sesame seeds begins to reveal itself. And once eaten, the dense, sweet taste lingers in the mouth, the rich, smooth, refreshing taste of the shiny lard, the sweet taste of the green beans, the fragrant, cool aroma of the pandan leaves, awakening every corner of the palate. This is what makes the delicious taste of Nam Dinh cuisine that people from Nam Dinh remember even when they are far away.

Xiǎo Pao Cake is also one of the delicious rustic specialties of the people of Nam Dinh. Travelers need only see the xiǎo pao cakes to recognize their resemblance to cream puffs, with their small, round shapes.

Xiǎo pao is a type of cake with a thin crust like baked mooncakes but softer and more fragrant. It is meticulously and carefully kneaded from wheat flour. The filling of xiǎo pao consists of char siu, eggs, wheat flour, a bit of lard, and some characteristic spices of the people of Nam Dinh. Travelers need only see the chefs marinating the pork with garlic, five-spice powder, a little oil, and adding a bit of fragrant honey, resulting in a shiny golden color when baked. When the cakes come out of the oven, the aroma of the baked cakes blends with the fragrance of the meat, making it irresistible for travelers.

That's why xiǎo pao cakes have become a familiar dish for the people of Nam Dinh as well as for young children, not only because of the characteristic aroma of the cakes but also because of their small size and convenience for buying to take away for work and school.

Pot-Grilled Fish is a traditional dish that every family in Nam Dinh has during Tet. This specialty dish stands out not only for its unique name but also for the distinctive way it's prepared.

After the fish is cleaned and marinated with spices, it's placed in an aluminum pot lined with straw and banana leaves, surrounded by bricks. Then, the area around it is continuously heated for 30 minutes, covered with a thick layer of husk, and burned for another 4 to 5 hours.

Because grilling fish may result in burning, great care must be taken to maintain an even fire to ensure the fish cooks evenly. The sight of golden-brown fish with a fatty, fragrant skin is so enticing that travelers would want to eat it right away. Achieving such a delicious dish requires skilled hands and patience in grilling the fish. It takes a lot of time to make this dish delicious.