In addition to the majestic and poetic landscape, Ha Giang is also famous for a rich and passionate cuisine that makes any visitor curious. Let’s explore some of distinctive foods from the Ha Giang that are definitely worth trying.
# Rice spring rolls (Bánh Cuốn)
Rice spring roll is a delicious dish in Dong Van that is beloved by many tourists. The crust of the cake is made from rice which is ground into powder and mixed with water and steamed on a boiling water pot. The cake is soft and chewy, when cleverly separating the thin outer layer, the inside of the peach egg will melt and blend with mushroom and minced pork meat. Ha Giang’s rice spring rolls are dipped with natural sweet bone broth, sprinkled with a little green onion and raw vegetables.
# Au Tau Porridge (Cháo Ấu Tẩu)
Au Tau porridge is the most delicious and special dish in Ha Giang, made with Au Tau – a tuber that grows on limestone mountains.
After going through many preliminary processing steps to remove the toxins in the tubers, people will simmer them with delicious upland sticky rice and pork feet to form this strange porridge. Au Tau porridge is a specialty dish in Ha Giang which helps to improve health and prevent bone and joint diseases. Porridge has a slightly salty taste, but is sweet, when used, you should add a little green onion and pepper to increase the taste.
# Five-color Sticky Rice
Five-color sticky rice is an indispensable dish in the meals of the Tay ethnic people in Ha Giang. Sticky rice is cooked from delicious upland sticky rice, both fragrant and flexible. It is cooked with 5 colors: original white from glutinous rice, red from gac fruit, green from pandan leaves, yellow from turmeric juice and purple color from herbal leaves (or purple sticky rice). All the rustic and natural ingredients of the mountain town have blended together to create the unique flavor of this delicious Ha Giang dish.
# Thang Co (Thắng Cố)
Thang co is one of many delicious Ha Giang dishes that anyone coming to this land wants to try.
Beef offal, after being preliminarily processed, washed and marinated with 12 special spices, will be simmered for about an hour, forming a pot of thang co with an attractive flavor for diners.
Ha Giang people often only eat pure Thang Co when fully feeling the taste of the dish. However, tourists can add some other spices such as sugar, garlic, chili powder to eat together and make the dish more delicious.
# Men Men (Mèn Mén)
Men men, also known as corn porridge, is also a dish of the Mong ethnic people which is made from sticky corn.
The corn is manually pounded with a stone mill, the food will be cooked twice to create a dish.
# Buckwheat Cake (Bánh Tam Giác Mạch)
You cannot ignore the very famous buckwheat cake when visiting Ha Giang. This cake is made with the seeds of the dreamy purple flower – buckwheat which becomes symbol of Ha Giang. The cake has a light aroma, with a sweet, spongy, smooth taste, rich in the rustic flavor of the highlands.
#Sour Pho (Phở Chua)
Sour Pho is a very popular dish, originating from China. Ingredients to make a bowl of sweet and sour pho include pho noodles, pork or roast duck, roasted peanuts that have been fried with oil, sausages. The most important point that creates the unique flavor of this dish is the sweet and sour sauce used to make pho. Broth is mixed from rice vinegar with sugar, seasoned with a little spice and added tapioca to create consistency.
# Thang Den (Thắng Dền)
Thang Den is a sweet dish made from rice flour ground from the most delicious sticky rice of Yen Minh town, which is famous for its fragrant plasticity. When eating, the cake will be sprinkled with a little Hoa Mai sugar water and sprinkled with delicious roasted peanuts to create an extremely sweet snack. This is a very suitable snack for the cold weather of Ha Giang in the winter days.
# Buffalo meat uptaired kitchen ( Thịt trâu gác bếp)
Thit trau gac bep (buffalo meat upstaired kitchen) is made by traditional method of Thai ethnic people. The meat is cut into larger slices approximately 15 cm in length, 8 cm in width and about 3 cm in thickness. Then, maker seasons them with salt, sugar, chili, lemon grass, garlic, ginger and indispensable La mac khen (a kind of forestry pepper). After being marinated for about 2 hours, the slices of meat are skewed with the sticks then hung upstairs the kitchen. The buffalo meat is dried slowly by the smoke from the kitchen. It makes the outside color of the meat turn deeply brown while the inside still looks red and fresh. About 8 months or one year later, the sticks are taken down and thit trau gac bep is ready to eat.
Source: Collection
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