Top 8 Tempting Street Foods in Gia Lai Province

If you've ever tasted fried sticky rice, you'll never forget the crispy and delicious texture of the sticky rice combined with the rich meat filling inside. And if you've ever had a bite of the golden, crispy fried sticky rice in Gia Lai, you'll surely never forget that taste. That's why it's no coincidence that fried sticky rice is listed among the most enticing street foods in Gia Lai. Delicious fried sticky rice must have a crispy outer layer, a soft inner layer of sticky rice, and a fragrant, flavorful meat filling in between, all blending together to create an irresistible taste. If you haven't had the chance to try it, you can follow the recipe below.

Steps to make fried sticky rice Gia Lai:

• Step 1: Clean the sticky rice and soak it overnight or at least 8 hours for it to soften....
• Step 2: After the sticky rice is cooked, spread it on a greased tray and cut it into bite-sized pieces.
• Step 3: Fry the sticky rice over medium heat until golden brown, then drain excess oil on paper towels.
• Step 4: Take a large bowl and mix 300g minced meat with 1/2 jicama, 1/4 carrot, 1/2 cup wood ear mushrooms, 1 finely chopped purple onion, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, 1 teaspoon seasoning powder, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon fish sauce, mix well and let it sit for about 15 minutes to absorb the seasoning.
• Step 5: Saute some chopped purple onions until fragrant.
• Step 6: Finally, cut the fried sticky rice in half, fill with the filling, and enjoy. Fried sticky rice pairs well with chili sauce and pork floss.

Visiting Gia Lai's mountainous streets without tasting the assorted sweet soup would indeed be a great regret. Despite its small size, this place is always bustling with customers. The variety of sweet soups here is immense, ranging from hot sweet soups to cold ones, cocktails, and more. However, the most famous in Gia Lai is still the assorted sweet soup. Assorted sweet soup is a familiar snack for people of all ages in Vietnam. This dish can be enjoyed year-round, but it's especially loved on hot summer days. Thanks to the combination of various ingredients, the flavor of the assorted sweet soup becomes richer, not overly sweet but delicious and refreshing, especially when served with ice.

Steps to make assorted sweet soup Gia Lai:

• Step 1: Prepare the ingredients
  • Red beans: Soak and remove impurities. Soak the beans in cold water until they become soft.
  • Corn: Remove the kernels, wash, and drain.
  • Rice flakes: Soak in water for about 10 minutes, then drain.
  • Tapioca starch: Wash and soak in water for about 10 minutes, then drain.

• Step 2: Cook the sweet soup
  • Bananas: Peel and cut into 1 cm pieces. Choose ripe bananas to prevent them from becoming mushy when cooked.
  • Wheat flour + tapioca starch: Mix wheat flour with half of the prepared tapioca starch. Knead until smooth, then shape into small balls.
  • Red beans: Boil until soft, then add 1 teaspoon of sugar, and set aside.
  • Sweet corn: Cook in boiling water. Dissolve the remaining 25g of tapioca starch in a little water. When the corn is cooked, add the tapioca starch mixture and 2 teaspoons of sugar, stir well. Continue cooking until the sweet corn soup thickens, then add 50 ml of coconut milk and bring to a boil again before turning off the heat.
  • Rice flakes: Boil until cooked, then soak in cold water and drain.
  • Make agar agar jelly: Dissolve agar agar powder + sugar + 300 ml of water. Bring to a boil, then pour into a bowl and let it cool. If you have molds, pour the mixture into them for beautiful jelly shapes. You can also use pandan juice, beetroot juice, etc., to color the jelly. Once the jelly has cooled, place it in the refrigerator until set. When ready to serve, cut the jelly into bite-sized pieces.
  • Finally, add coconut milk, shredded coconut, and some crushed ice, mix well, and it's ready to serve.

Sizzling Pancake is a dish favored by all three regions of Vietnam, each with its own unique ingredients and ways of enjoying it based on regional culture. What makes sizzling pancake so irresistible to many is its combination with various types of vegetables. In the central and southern regions, people often wrap sizzling pancakes with mustard greens, lettuce, and dip them in a sweet and sour fish sauce. Meanwhile, in the western region, sizzling pancakes are poured in large pans and served with various characteristic vegetables. If you ever visit Gia Lai, be sure to taste the sizzling pancake here to see how it differs from the Hanoi version. Mytour suggests the following recipe for making sizzling pancakes.

Steps to make sizzling pancake Gia Lai:

• Step 1: Prepare the ingredients:
  • Finely chop the meat, cut the shrimp into threads, slice the onions, wash the bean sprouts, and julienne the carrots. Soak the green beans and let them cook.
• Step 2: Prepare the pancake batter
  • Mix the prepared pancake flour with a small spoon of salt, a cup of beer, and water, stir well to create a smooth mixture without lumps.
  • Add the chopped green onions and soaked green beans, let the batter rest for about 20 minutes. Note not to make the batter too thick, which would result in thick and crispy pancakes that are difficult to cook.
• Step 3: Prepare the pancake filling
  • Marinate the shrimp and meat with pepper, salt, and finely chopped dried onions to taste for 10 minutes, then stir-fry in oil. Stir-fry until the meat and shrimp are cooked, then set aside.
• Step 4: Fry the pancakes
  • Place a non-stick pan on the stove with a little hot oil, evenly spread the batter in the pan to form a thin layer, cover, and cook for 1 minute. Then add the shrimp and meat filling on one half of the pancake and fold it in half, wait for the pancake to become crispy and evenly cooked on both sides. Repeat until all the batter and filling are used up.
• Step 5: Prepare the dipping sauce for the pancakes
  • Mix 5 tablespoons of filtered water with 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, 1 tablespoon of lime juice, then add finely chopped garlic and chili, mix well, season to taste.

When it comes to the afternoon snack habit of mountain town residents, it's about street food or dishes at renowned eateries on the streets of Pleiku such as: Fish cake soup – Nguyen Dinh Chieu, Steamed rice cakes, sweetened jelly dessert – Mac Dinh Chi, at the crossroads of Ly Thai To Street with Phan Dinh Phung Street. Chicken vermicelli – Tran Cao Van Street and crab noodle soup eateries in the small market area on Phan Dinh Gio Street, mixed rice paper salad, papaya salad. But more special than all of those are Gia Lai Steamed Rice Cakes, Clear Dumplings

Steps to make steamed rice cakes Gia Lai:

• Step 1: Mix the batter
  • Evenly mix 125g of rice flour, 25g of tapioca starch. Slowly add 250ml of cold water to the flour, mix well and add 350ml of boiling water and continue mixing until the flour dissolves completely.

• Step 2: Pour the cakes
  • Spread a layer of cooking oil inside a bowl and pour the batter about 2/3 full. Then place it in a steamer, steam for about 8–10 minutes, when the batter turns opaque and firm is done.

• Step 3: Make the filling
  • Use a grinder or crush ground shrimp and dried shrimp.
  • Heat a pan with a little cooking oil, sauté the garlic until fragrant and add the 2 portions of shrimp, stir quickly over low heat until the shrimp are dry.
  • Add cooking oil to another pan, add chopped green onions, lightly stir for 3 minutes then turn off the heat.

• Step 4: Cut the baguettes into small pieces and fry until crispy
• Step 5: Make dipping sauce
  • Lightly crush the shrimp shells, put them in a small pot and boil with 1 sliced shallot. Then, strain, keeping only the liquid and boil with fish sauce, sugar according to your taste.

• Step 6: Finish and enjoy the steamed rice cakes dish
  • Place the steamed rice cakes on a plate, add 1 tablespoon of shrimp, some chopped green onions, and some crispy fried baguettes. Serve with green chili fish sauce.

Bamboo-tube Cooked Rice is a familiar dish in mountainous regions, and especially, it's an indispensable specialty of Gia Lai province. Bamboo-tube cooked rice is delicious and quite easy to make without being too complicated, but it requires meticulousness and care. Talking about ingredients, rice, banana leaves, ginger, coconut water, and salt are essential. The rice used for cooking is selected, plump, and aromatic. When cooking, people will put the soaked rice into cleaned bamboo tubes. One end of the bamboo tube is tightly sealed with the carved section of the bamboo trunk, and the other end, after pouring water, will be plugged and grilled over the fire until cooked. When grilling, pay attention and rotate the bamboo tubes regularly so that the rice cooks evenly and the bamboo tubes don't burn on one side.

Steps to make the best bamboo-tube cooked rice:

• Step 1: Clean and soak sticky rice for about 4-6 hours. Drain the rice, let it dry. Grind the ginger in a mortar until smooth.
• Step 2: Wash banana leaves thoroughly, cut into squares or small pieces as desired. Roll the banana leaves back and tightly seal one end of each bamboo tube.
• Step 3: Mix soaked sticky rice with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and finely ground ginger. Use your hands to mix well so that the salt and ginger are evenly distributed in the rice. Then, put the sticky rice into the bamboo tubes (not completely filled). Pour coconut water until it covers the rice. Roll another banana leaf and seal the remaining end of the bamboo tube containing the bamboo-tube cooked rice.
• Step 4: Burn straw or place over charcoal. Place the bamboo tubes with rice on top, and grill until cooked. During grilling, remember to rotate the bamboo tubes regularly to ensure even cooking and prevent them from burning on one side.
• Step 5: Once the bamboo-tube cooked rice is cooked, remove it to cool. Use a knife to split the bamboo tubes, remove the outer layer, and enjoy the hot bamboo-tube cooked rice!

Have you ever explored the culinary culture of Gia Lai? The land of red soil that perhaps many will immediately recall Gia Lai's sour fermented fish sauce, Tay Nguyen bamboo-tube cooked rice, forest sour bamboo shoots, forest fish hotpot, grilled snakehead fish… Few pay attention that Gia Lai also has a dish that looks similar to the grilled skewers of the North, it's grilled skewers.

Grilled skewers are an extremely familiar snack for young people in Gia Lai. Grilled skewers typically come in 2 types: rice paper skewers and grilled meat skewers. Rice paper skewers are made from ground meat, dried vermicelli, then rolled in a thin layer of rice paper and grilled, very crispy, fragrant, and often eaten with sweet and sour tamarind sauce. As for grilled meat skewers, they are made from pork or beef, served with bean sauce or tamarind sauce.

Steps to make grilled meat skewers Gia Lai:

• Step 1: Prepare ingredients
  • Buy clean pork, remove the fat and grind it finely.
  • Soak the vermicelli in warm water for 15 minutes, then wash it clean, finely grind it, and mix it with the pork. Season with a little fish sauce and seasoning powder.
  • Take a piece of thin rice paper, put some prepared ground meat on it, fold it into a rectangular shape, about the size of an adult's little finger.

• Step 2: Grill the skewers
  • Skewer 4-5 pieces onto a stick, place them on hot charcoal until the outer layer of rice paper is golden and crispy. (be sure to flip regularly to avoid burning)

• Step 3: Prepare the dipping sauce
  • Choose ripe tamarind, put it in boiling water, stir well, remove the seeds and fibers, mix with a little sugar. Finely chop lemongrass, garlic, chili, ginger, mix with tamarind water, add a little seasoning powder and fish sauce to create a thick mixture with just enough sour, spicy, salty, sweet.