Grilled snails with pepper, Cong cake or Hu bong fish soup will make visitors remember when visiting Tay Do land.

Here are the delicious dishes of Western style that tourists can hardly ignore when coming to Can Tho.

 

Fish sauce hotpot in floating season

Fish sauce hotpot served with Dien Dien flower

The West is the land where the fish sauce hot pot is produced. But the factor contributing to make this popular must be Can Tho. Hot pot cooked with fish sauce is the harmonious interference of Khmer cuisine with the Southern people.

In the West, any dish, from stir, fry, soup …, must have flowers or vegetables. In particular, the more vegetables, the more delicious the hot pot is. The list includes from morning glory, water lily, purple chopsticks, squash, dragon beans, spinach, banana flower to Dien dien flower – typical of the floating season.

Saigon also sells fish sauce hot pot, but there are few places with flower that only displays in the season of floating water like the West. People in the West often say that there is nothing “cool” with a hotpot cup filled with mound of vegetables, shrimp, eel, and fish, … slurping in the rainy days.

“Kho quẹt”

The more types of vegetables, the better

“Kho quẹt” was used to be considered a “poor dish” by local. When in need, just takepan, pour a little fish sauce and swipe again and again. When the sauce is concentrated, sticking to the pan, it can be used with white soup or dipping vegetables to eat with rice. The processing is taken as the name for this dish.

Nowadays in the restaurant, they make further by ingredients such as dried shrimp, minced meat or just fish sauce with onion. Sprinkle some pepper, this dish also makes spices for the vegetable dish (many types of boiled vegetables in a dish).

Especially, “kho quẹt” must be eaten with burned rice. With crispy crunchy rice pieces, pick up some vegetable and put them on the dish “kho quẹt” , many people can easily remember the hometown when it was still in a difficult time.

Sour soup

Meals of the Southern people rarely lack sour soup. In particular, sour soup (or hot pot)  is often cooked with the main ingredient is the fish or fish head.

Each pot of sour soup is served with a basket of vegetables including spinach, bitter vegetables … that are often grown at home or nearby. The aroma of vegetables mixed with the fat and sweet taste of skin and fish meat. Sour soup is usually eaten with rice or vermicelli.

Braised perch in brown sauce

Braised perch with the small of peppers

Due to scarcity,  perch fish is often farmed, when eating it smells of grass, thick fish organs.During the harvest season, if lucky, people will win a few genuine, tiny perches, butsmell good when being baked or stocked.

For perch or other types of  fish, besides cooking soup, the best dish is braised fish with brown sauce. The processing consists of marinating fish with fish sauce, chilli, pepper, garlic, onion, and then braise. If you want the fish  to be delicious and bold, it must be cooked in the pot to keep the sweetness. Sprinkle a bit of ground pepper on the surface to eat with rice is the best way to enjoy this dish.

Grilled snail with pepper

Do not skip snail boiling water when using grilled snail

Apart from perch, snail is also a natural product that gives the inhabitants of all over the region, not only the land of the West. Snails are baked and served immediately when customers call because there because it is grilled very fast.

Snails are put on grilled charcoal grates, after steaming, the grinding layer is broken. At that time, the cook can add ground pepper (or salt), until the boiled water can take out the snails. Before baking, some places are still marinated snails with spices to make the dish more tasty.

Cong cake

The Khmer cuisine is hidden in Cong cake

One of the most prominent specialties of Tay Do is the Cong cake. The origin of the cake comes from the Khmer and is still sold along the roads of the western provinces. This dish has the same ingredients and making like Khot banh, but it is thicker.

The cake filling is made from green bean flour with cassava root, minced meat and poured into a mold of nearly the size of a cup. Next, the cake is dipped in an oil pan, then fried until it turns yellow, then put some shrimps on the top.

The fat taste of wheat flour and green beans blend evenly in the sweetness of the shrimps. The crust is crunchy, and when eaten, there is no feeling of boredom. Cong cake has a similar way of eating like rice pancakes, rolling with vegetables and dipping in chili garlic sauce.