Top 10 must-try dishes when visiting Thai Binh

When you set foot in Thai Thuy, if you haven't tasted the famous jellyfish salad here, your trip would be incomplete. This dish has a unique taste, carefully prepared with great skill. Fresh jellyfish are cleaned and soaked in alum salt, then pressed flat like rice paper, giving them a chewy yet crunchy texture.

The jellyfish slices are thinly sliced, briefly boiled in hot water, and then mixed with shredded chicken, squid or dried beef, herbs, toasted pork, sesame seeds, grated carrots, and sometimes green mango or papaya. For those who enjoy spicy food, adding chili makes it even better. This jellyfish salad has even found its way onto the menus of many upscale restaurants.

Freshly caught white fish are cleaned and carefully prepared. Under the hands of talented chefs, the fish is sliced thin after removing all the small bones. The fish is then mixed with freshly crushed galangal that has been drained of its liquid. Vinegar is a key ingredient in fish salad, combined with a bit of fermented rice, minced pork belly, and various seasonings, then heated and topped with crushed peanuts, sesame seeds, and a little sugar to balance the sourness.

The fish salad is served with special herbs like 'vong cach', 'sung', 'ling lang', and lemon leaves. Many different leaves are carefully wrapped around the thin fish slices that are placed on top of the vinegar mixture, then rolled up to enjoy. The sweet and sour taste of the vinegar blends beautifully with the fresh fish, offering a unique and delightful experience. While not everyone may have the courage to try raw fish, once it’s on your list of Thai Binh specialties, you won’t hesitate to give it a go, right?

Nem Chao, also known as raw nem, is a must-try dish during weddings and festivals in Vị Thủy village, Thái Thụy, Thái Bình. Made with raw pork, it requires skilled preparation to avoid any stomach issues when consumed.

The uniqueness of this nem dish lies in using freshly slaughtered pork, which is chopped without washing and left to sit for about an hour. This creates a sticky, chewy texture as the bones, meat, and marrow combine. The pig skin is cleaned, boiled, and sliced thinly before being mixed with garlic, chili, fish sauce, MSG, and roasted rice flour.

Nhech is neither a fish, snake, nor eel. It has a long body, a white belly, and can live in both salty and fresh water. Often referred to as 'fish nhech,' this creature is versatile in cooking, but the most famous dish in Diêm Điền, Thái Thụy, Thái Bình, is the nhech salad. In Diêm Điền, there are many restaurants offering this traditional dish.

Nhech Salad is a delicious and renowned dish from Thái Bình, made from nhech fish. The fish is cleaned, sliced thinly, and mixed with rice powder, while the bones are finely chopped and cooked to create a dipping sauce for the fish. The sauce is then enhanced with garlic, chili, ginger, lemongrass, and pepper. The fish skin is separated and deep-fried to a crispy texture.

The salad is wrapped in 'sung' leaves, with a piece of crispy fish skin rolled inside, then dipped in the delicious sauce. It’s served with fresh herbs like lemon basil, mint, and perilla leaves, providing an unforgettable taste experience.

Bánh Giò is a popular dish, but the version from Bến Hiệp is especially known for its irresistible taste that keeps people coming back for more. This particular bánh giò is so delicious that even after eating a lot, you won't feel overwhelmed. It's perfect as a meal substitute, a light snack, or a quick bite.

The bánh giò here is made from rice flour, which gives it a light texture that isn't overly filling. The filling consists of lean pork, wood ear mushrooms, shallots, pepper, fish sauce, and salt. The bánh giò is shaped like a hand with its fingers tightly pressed together, wrapped in banana leaves, and steamed for 45 to 60 minutes.

With its beautiful appearance and excellent quality, Bánh Giò Bến Hiệp is building a strong reputation both locally and internationally.

The dish known as Turmeric Rice Cake gets its name from the main ingredients: rice flour and golden turmeric. But what truly makes this dish special is the filling. The filling is made by Mrs. Hỡi with fish sauce, lard, crispy pork skin, meat, shallots, and pepper.

The cakes are typically shaped either as rhombuses or circles, depending on the maker. When you taste this turmeric cake, you'll immediately experience the earthy aroma of turmeric, the chewy texture of rice flour, and the rich, fatty flavor from the meat, lard, and shallots. After finishing the cake, the lingering taste of the countryside still remains on your tongue.

To achieve a vibrant yellow color, it's essential to choose mature turmeric, clean it thoroughly, boil it just right, extract the juice, and then knead it with the rice flour. This ensures the cake will have the desired color, a special fragrance, and no strong turmeric odor.

Đại Đồng Gai Cake has a long-standing tradition that dates back centuries. With its unique flavor, this cake has become a must-try specialty in Thai Binh. The chewy texture, fragrant aroma, and sweet taste combine to capture the essence of the rural countryside, making each bite of Đại Đồng Gai Cake an unforgettable experience.

The ingredients for making Gai Cake are simple and natural, sourced from the countryside, including thorny leaves, sticky rice, sesame, peanuts, green beans, winter melon preserves, coconut flesh, sugar, pork fat, lotus seeds, and banana oil. However, the production process is quite intricate, requiring patience, attention to detail, and expertise. The first step is preparing the cake's skin. Fresh thorny leaves are stripped of their flesh, soaked in water for a long time (the longer the soak, the softer the cake), boiled for about 12 hours, then drained and pressed before being ground into fine black flour.

The next step is to prepare the filling. Green beans are soaked, cleaned, steamed, and mashed. Pork fat is cut into thick cubes, and the winter melon preserves are diced into small pieces. These ingredients are then mixed with sugar, peanuts, and lotus seeds, forming a filling that is adjusted to the desired size of the cake.

Once the cakes are shaped, they are dipped in lard and rolled in sesame seeds to give them a glossy appearance and prevent the leaves from sticking. The cakes are then wrapped in dried banana leaves and steamed for about two hours until fully cooked.

On a chilly day, sipping a warm cup of ginger tea while enjoying the sweet, fragrant flavor of Cay Cake will make you forever remember the unique taste of Thai Binh’s countryside.

Cay Cake is made from sticky rice grains, which are first roasted into puffed rice, then ground into flour, and rolled into small pieces. These pieces can be dyed red with gac fruit before being fried to a crispy texture. The crispy pieces are then combined with the sweet malt syrup made from rice sprouts, coconut preserves, ginger, roasted peanuts, and sesame seeds. All ingredients are mixed carefully in the malt syrup, cooked until perfect, then poured into molds. The final step is to cut and pack the cakes.

The process of making Cay Cake requires great skill and care, using a variety of ingredients and detailed steps. Thanks to this meticulous preparation, Cay Cake has become a beloved specialty and a trademark of Thai Binh, now available across Vietnam.

If you take a bus trip to Thai Binh, you will undoubtedly spot many signs along the way advertising "Quỳnh Côi Fish Soup". This dish is considered a must-try when visiting this peaceful rural area. But what makes it so special, and why must it be Quỳnh Côi Fish Soup and not from another region? The secret lies in its unique flavor, derived from simple ingredients that are abundant in the countryside, such as fish, vegetables, and rice, creating a taste that is unmatched anywhere else.

In the past, Quỳnh Côi people used to prepare the soup with wild tilapia, known for its firm and fatty meat, caught from the rice fields in October. To ensure that the fish remains flavorful without falling apart, the chef carefully removes the meat from the fish, marinating it with spices like onions, ginger, fish sauce, and pepper, before frying it to a perfect golden crisp. The remaining bones are simmered with pork bones to enhance the broth's sweetness. The rice noodles are made from last season’s harvest and are expertly rolled thin by skilled hands.

A proper bowl of fish soup should offer the rich taste of fish, the subtle sweetness of the broth, and the chewy noodles, all harmoniously blending together. The taste is so memorable that you'll never forget it after just one try. Despite the elaborate preparation, a bowl of this delicious soup is priced very reasonably, ranging from 25,000 to 30,000 VND.

You might think, "Guavas are available everywhere," right? But once you try the Bo Guava, you’ll change your mind. Priced higher than most other varieties, by at least 10,000 VND or more, the Bo Guava offers a taste experience that’s unlike anything else. Grown in Hoang Dieu, the original homeland of Bo village, this guava thrives in light alluvial soil and is harvested only once a year in July. No other guava compares to the Bo Guava.

When eating Bo Guava, don’t use a knife. Cutting it that way would result in a sour bite. Instead, take a bite with your teeth to fully experience its unique flavor. At first, you’ll taste a slight bitterness, followed by a gentle sourness, and then a subtle sweetness that gradually fills your mouth, lingering in your throat. These distinct flavors make Bo Guava a cherished local delicacy that perfectly embodies the soul of this countryside region.