Buzz
Dong Nai's unique specialties never fail to captivate travelers. Being conveniently close to Saigon, it's a popular destination for weekend getaways. Wondering what specialties await in Dong Nai? Check out the list below.
Curious about Dong Nai's culinary delights? Let's dive in!
Indulge in the flavors of Bien Hoa's fish salad.
With the Dong Nai River flowing through, Dong Nai boasts a significant aquatic resource, and the Bien Hoa fish salad has become one of its most famous specialties.
Bien Hoa fish salad - a renowned Dong Nai specialty (photo: ST)
Bien Hoa fish salad is made from fresh raw fish. The delicious fresh fish slices are thinly sliced and marinated with familiar spices such as ginger, onion, garlic, lemongrass, and roasted rice powder to reduce the fishy smell. Enjoying it with the salad includes many familiar vegetables here such as basil leaves, water mimosa, lotus shoots, mango shoots... creating a delicious flavor for this dish.
This fish salad is extremely fresh and delicious (photo: ST)
On scorching summer days, there's nothing better than exploring the vast fields and gardens in Dong Nai and indulging in familiar rustic dishes like fish salad.
Salted chicken and fish rice
Dong Nai cuisine offers a rich variety in preparing locally available ingredients. You can encounter this salted chicken and fish rice dish in daily meals or upscale restaurants in Dong Nai.
Salted fish rice - a specialty of Dong Nai (photo: ST)
The best salted chicken and fish rice is enjoyed hot and is often cooked in clay pots to retain heat. With familiar ingredients like chicken meat, fish sauce, this dish is prepared to perfection.
A dish that makes many Dong Nai natives abroad nostalgic (photo: ST)
Bitter melon forest hotpot
Bitter melon forest thrives plentifully and is easily found in Long Khanh. Locals use it as an ingredient to cook various dishes such as fish hotpot, young rib hotpot, or dried shrimp.
Bitter melon forest hotpot - one of the must-try dishes in Dong Nai (photo: ST)
The leaves of bitter melon forest have a somewhat strange taste, but when cooked with various dishes, they have a unique flavor. The fish hotpot has the sweetness of snakehead fish, the bitterness of bitter melon leaves, creating a rustic yet extremely delicious dish. Such rustic dishes make Dong Nai's specialties even more diverse.
Fried rice field crickets with fish sauce
This is a rustic dish beloved by many people in Long Khanh.
Delicious fried rice field crickets with fish sauce (photo: ST)
Field crickets are carefully selected, their hind legs removed, guts cleaned out, then stuffed with peanuts before being marinated in fish sauce. They are then fried until golden brown. The crispy and fragrant fried rice field crickets with fish sauce offer a perfect blend of salty aroma from the fish sauce and rich nutty flavor from the peanuts, creating an irresistibly enticing dish. Additionally, there is also a popular dish of butter-fried crickets coated in flour that many people enjoy.
Sour soup with elephant ear leaf
The land of Long Khanh is blessed with extremely suitable basalt red soil for the growth of fruit trees. Here, elephant ear leaves are most abundant, especially in the vast rubber forests of Dong Nai.
Delicious sour soup with elephant ear leaf (photo: ST)
After thoroughly washing the elephant ear leaves, they are added to a pot of chicken broth to make sour soup. With just a little chicken meat, some seasoning for taste, along with the elephant ear leaves and a touch of onion for fragrance, you have a simple yet incredibly delicious sour soup.
Steamed chicken with pomelo
Steamed chicken with pomelo may sound unusual, but it is also a specialty of Dong Nai.
Delicious steamed chicken with pomelo (photo: ST)
Carefully selected large hens with golden skin and black feet are chosen for steaming with pomelo, ensuring the best flavor. The pomelo used for steaming is also meticulously selected. After steaming, the chicken meat is tender, sweet, with the added fragrance of pomelo blending with the meat's aroma, creating an incredibly delicious dish.
At first glance, the two main ingredients, one being a sweet and refreshing fruit while the other a familiar food item seemingly unrelated to each other, but when combined, they create an incredibly unique and delicious dish of the Dong Nai region.
Specialty fruits of Dong Nai
Tân Triều Pomelo
Famous Tân Triều pomelo dish (photo: ST)
When mentioning Dong Nai, it would be a miss not to mention Tân Triều pomelo. Tân Triều pomelos are extensively grown in Tan Binh commune, Vinh Cuu district, about 6km from Bien Hoa city. You can buy this type of fruit as a gift.
This type of pomelo has large fruits, thin skin with yellow pulp, large segments, juicy, and sweet flavor, making it beloved by many. The pomelo season is usually from October to December, during which traders from all regions, East to West, flock here to buy pomelos.
Long Khanh Virgin Mit
The Long Khanh Virgin Mit is extremely famous nationwide. This is a highly characteristic fruit of Dong Nai region.
Virgin Mit - a famous fruit of Dong Nai (photo: ST)
The Long Khanh Virgin Mit has a unique fragrance and flavor compared to regular mit varieties. When eating this type of mit, simply cut it lengthwise to easily peel the entire fruit. The mit is deep yellow, intensely fragrant, but small in size; just one or two kilograms is plenty.
Wild Uoi Fruit
This is a rather rare fruit because it's not available every season; sometimes it takes 2-3 years to bear fruit. The wild uoi fruit is small in size, wrinkled brown, and relatively expensive, ranging from 50,000 to 150,000 VND/kg.
Unique wild uoi fruit here (photo: ST)
Uoi is a large and tall tree, sometimes reaching tens of meters in height. Each tree only produces 30-50 fruits per year. Particularly, fresh uoi fruit can be sun-dried for several months.
Uoi fruit can be soaked with sugar and basil seeds to quench thirst. If you're lucky enough to visit Dong Nai from April to June, you may come across this fruit, so don't miss the chance to taste this rare delicacy.
Here are the most beloved specialties of Dong Nai. If you're in Dong Nai and unsure what to buy, be sure to check out the list above.
