Top 7 Most Famous Specialties in Ba Vi

When it comes to Ba Vi, people often jokingly say 'Ba Vi, the land of golden cows,' as it has long been famous for breeding and producing high-quality cow's milk. The cow's milk here is derived from healthy cows, well-cared-for, with a balanced diet of various grasses grown throughout to supply both farms and individual households.

The cow's milk is all natural, and the extraction and storage processes are always carried out according to the correct standards, ensuring food safety and hygiene. This milk is rich in nutrients and has given rise to many other famous products such as yogurt, caramel, fresh milk, milk cakes, and other products that serve the local residents.

Ba Vi's specialty has gained much favor from tourists both within and outside the country when they visit and stay at this destination. If you have been to Ba Vi, you must have witnessed the immensely large and modern dairy farms. The farms adhere to strict standards in raising cows and goats for milk. Therefore, goat's milk and cow's milk in Ba Vi are highly renowned.

The milk here is not only delicious and hygienic but also rich in nutritional value. Goat's milk and cow's milk are used to make fresh milk and yogurt with a characteristic aroma, creaminess, and richness. In addition to fresh milk and yogurt, milk from goats and cow's milk are also used to make other products, such as milk cakes. The milk cake is considered a Ba Vi specialty that every visitor wants to taste. The cake has high nutritional content, and when eaten, it has the sweet, fragrant, and creamy taste of milk along with butter. You can also enjoy a milk cake with a cup of hot tea on chilly days.

Wild Boar in Ba Vi, also known as one of the exquisite dishes in the North. Wild boar meat is incredibly flavorful, tender, and not overwhelming to the palate. It is prepared into dishes such as salads, five-spice stew, stir-fries, steaming, pan-searing, all with a unique mountainous flavor. When in Ba Vi, you cannot help but be amazed by this specialty, widely favored by many restaurants, available everywhere, and warmly embraced by tourists. Don't forget to savor the wild boar meat dish. It is also a highly delicious and attractive specialty of Ba Vi, Hanoi. You can hardly resist it, as it has received numerous praises from delighted travelers.

Gifted with majestic mountainous terrain, wild boar meat is also highly sought after. The meat can be prepared in various ways. You can enjoy wild boar meat dishes at restaurants and eateries in Ba Vi. The meat is both firm and tender, sweet, and nutritious, making it especially popular. Wild boars, also known as boar piglets, are usually light in weight, but their meat is quite firm, making it a specialty in Ba Vi, commonly found in the high mountainous regions of the Northwest. Wild boars are mainly left to roam freely, foraging for food. Particularly, wild boar meat is low in fat, with thin, soft skin. Regardless of how it is prepared, dishes made from wild boar meat are rich and diverse, each with its own flavor and color.

Grilled five-spice wild boar is a unique and favorite dish for many food enthusiasts. Although the preparation is similar to many other grilled dishes, what makes it special is the selection and marination of spices. The chef skillfully blends them together to create a succulent, fragrant dish that is both delicious and nutritious. The grilled pork has an attractive color, with the edges burnt brown, while the inside of the meat remains tender. A sprinkle of finely chopped fresh green onions adds to the overall appeal. For those who avoid fatty meats but dislike the dryness of lean pork, this cooking method will resolve all those concerns. On cold days, hot and spicy dishes often have a more enticing allure.

Ba Vi is a transitional mountainous region with many relatively low hills, leading to the formation of large-scale farms (usually 1 to 2 farms on one hill) used to raise chickens. Along with the natural conditions favorable for livestock farming, chickens here are delicious and renowned, bearing the name hillside chicken. They are raised in free-range conditions in the garden. The breed of chickens raised here is mainly the La Mia breed, with a weight ranging from 2 to 2.2 kg per chicken, suitable for release into the field.

Ba Vi hillside chicken is processed into various dishes such as Chicken Salad, Boiled Chicken, Chili Lemongrass Chicken, Chicken Hot Pot, and Chicken Salad. The rustic way of cooking here also creates unique dishes that everyone wants to savor, leaving an unforgettable impression. From traditional chicken dishes that everyone has tried and loved such as Boiled Chicken, Stir-fried Chicken... now takes on a new flavor and appearance, combining the original taste of Northwestern people with the sophisticated taste of Hanoi people. The diverse perceptions of the chefs have helped transform the familiar chicken dishes of the Vietnamese people into dishes with a national soul and identity. Many foreign diners who come to eat are also amazed and admiring.

With the low mountainous terrain and free-range conditions, their foraging and jumping make their meat firm and more flavorful. The rustic way of cooking here also creates unique dishes that everyone wants to savor, leaving an impression that is hard to forget. Ba Vi Hillside Chicken is a brand that consumers trust with affordable prices and easy availability. If you come to Ba Vi and have not tasted Ba Vi hillside chicken, your trip will be truly regrettable. Hillside chicken restaurants are often located on Thang Long Avenue or near Highway 32.

Ba Vi is also an area with many ethnic groups living together in the mountainous regions of the district, such as Dao, Thai, Muong... With different eating habits and customs, they have brought to this place a simple yet unique dish, which is forest vegetables of Dao people.

In Ba Vi, similar to other mountainous provinces, there are many different types of forest vegetables. Forest vegetables are not only clean and delicious but also rich in nutrients and quite exotic. Some famous types of forest vegetables in Ba Vi include folded ferns, wild vegetables, wild banana flowers,... These forest vegetables can be eaten raw, stir-fried with garlic, boiled as a side dish, or used to make salads, and they are all delicious. Ba Vi has many types of forest vegetables unique to this region, such as Cau Ngoc Lan, Tam Te, Rau Nhip,... sourced from the wild. And these vegetables can also be used for medicinal purposes.

Don't forget to enjoy the specialty of Ba Vi, which is forest vegetables. All create a familiar, wild mountain taste, something simple that leaves a good impression on tourists when they come here. Depending on each person, each type of vegetable will have its own way of processing.

When it comes to Ba Vi's specialties, one cannot ignore Da River fish. Over time, this has become a famous and familiar dish for tourists. The fish is caught from the depths of the Da River, making it fresh, sweet, and firm. These could be various types like carp, catfish, or snakehead fish, weighing several kilograms. If you're lucky, you might even catch some weighing up to ten kilograms. After being caught, the fish is immediately processed to preserve its freshness. Popular dishes include stewed snakehead fish with banana flowers, pan-fried catfish, snakehead fish soup, or steamed carp... All these dishes are prepared simply, without too many spices, to maintain the sweet flavor of river fish while eliminating the distinctive fishy smell.

For a long time, Da River fish has become one of Ba Vi's specialties. These dishes are often available at Ao Vua, Khoang Xanh Suoi Tien, Dam Long... In the heart of the Da River, there are many delicious freshwater fish. Trout, tilapia, carp, and snakehead fish, to name a few, can be made into dozens of different dishes. Among them, the grilled fish skewers stand out. Each fresh fish is pierced with small sticks from mouth to tail, secured with bamboo clips to prevent breaking or falling. These skewers are then grilled on a fragrant flame. Additionally, in cold weather with sudden rains, the hot pot with various forest greens becomes appealing for those who love hot pot dishes with nutritious forest vegetables. Sitting together, enjoying and chatting, one can feel the warmth in their hearts.

All these dishes attract visitors with their decorations, preparation, and flavors. There are so many delicious dishes in one destination that you can't possibly try them all at once. So, diners remind themselves to return when they have the opportunity to experience more culinary sophistication from Ba Vi.

Recently, emu meat has become a popular choice among many housewives looking to enhance their family meals. Characterized as poultry, it's preferred by many over chicken and duck. Emu meat has a distinct delicious taste, with firm and not fatty texture, sweet flavor, softer than beef, and aromatic... According to nutritionists, emu meat has lower cholesterol levels than pork and lamb. Meanwhile, its water content, protein, and amino acids are equivalent to beef and chicken. It can be prepared in various ways, such as stir-frying, grilling, soup-making, curry, boiling, steaming, and frying...

Today, in Ba Vi, there are many households specializing in raising Emu for meat and eggs to supply the market. Particularly, this region is famous for Emu sausage known for its incredibly delicious and high-quality taste. Emu meat is red and has an intermediate flavor between grass-eating animals and poultry. Due to its high iron content of 3.2 mg/100g (compared to 1.1 mg/100g in chicken and 1.2 mg/100g in pork), Emu meat is considered rich in essential minerals such as phosphorus, manganese, and copper, even higher than in beef and chicken. Emu meat is also rich in selenium, beneficial for the immune system and reducing the risk of diseases, especially beneficial for the elderly and pregnant women. Emu fat is also an effective remedy for treating joint inflammation and muscle pain. Emu, belonging to the poultry family, is an egg-laying bird. Each egg can weigh about 1.3-1.4 kg, measuring 15cm long and about 13cm wide.

These large eggs, with hard, shiny, and white-silver outer shells, are often used as decorations. After removing the inner contents, the eggshells are preserved. In the past, Emu feathers were popular in European countries, used to make jewelry such as hats, caps, and cloaks for wealthy ladies. Under the feathers is the skin. Emu skin is also used to make jewelry. In Ba Vi, tourists can enjoy Emu dishes such as spicy hot pot, stir-fried strips, or cured meat...

Ba Vi, blessed with a cool climate all year round by nature, has created the ideal conditions for livestock and agriculture. When visiting Ba Vi, tourists have the opportunity to admire lush green fields, clean cattle farms, and, most importantly, indulge in the exquisite taste of veal - incomparable anywhere else. A specialty that comes with the Ba Vi milk cow brand. Rarely does anyone come to Ba Vi resist the call of this mountainous delicacy.

Veal is a captivating specialty of Ba Vi that enchants travelers. The calves, raised on clean farms, are fresh and delicious. After being thoroughly cleaned, they are processed in various ways such as grilling, stir-frying, steaming, rare, etc. With just a few simple and readily available ingredients, along with tender veal, you can create an attractive and nutritious dish. Ba Vi is renowned for its veal brand, well-known to many international tourists for its distinctive flavor. The veal is not only tender and fragrant with the scent of grass but also delicious and sweet due to the fresh, clean spring water.