Returning to Tan Chau silk land (An Giang), visitors will have the opportunity to enjoy a famous specialty with an extremely strange name, which is snakehead.
Ms. Anh Loan (in Tan Chau) said that snakeheads belong to the same family as mussels but have thinner shells. The size of the lizard is only slightly larger than an adult’s fingertip. Their shells are mostly oval, but there are also a few more special ones that are triangular or round. This is a seafood species that often lives in brackish estuary waters. In particular, in the high water seasons, in the Tan Chau floodwaters, there are extremely many trees appearing.
Just like mussels, this species holds a lot of sand and mud, so cleaning is extremely important. Before being processed into a dish, it must be soaked in water for a few days to release all the soil and sand. After that, people must wash them thoroughly with water before they can be used for cooking.
From lya can be made into many attractive dishes such as stir-fried with garlic, stir-fried with lemongrass, stir-fried with spicy tamarind, boiled, dried in the sun… Among them, for local people, Tan Chau lya salted and then dried in the sun is a rustic dish. most special.
“Bought liana, soaked in water for one night, then washed, drained, then salted with MSG and chili for about 2 hours, then dried in the sun for 3 hours before it can be eaten. Lya meat is inherently rich in protein. fat, minerals… When dried in the sun, the water remaining in the shell is very sweet and the meat is very fatty.”Ms. Loan shared how to make dried lya dish.
The dipping sauce served with the dish is also very important, usually sweet and sour tamarind fish sauce mixed with a little chili or satay depending on each person’s spicy taste level. When eating, many people like to hold the lime peel and dip it directly into the sauce instead of using a spoon or toothpick to separate the meat and then dip it.
Mr. Hai (another resident of Tan Chau) shared his experience in processing snakehead: “The secret to making delicious bamboo shoots is to use medium heat, not too high and not too small so that the snakeheads are just cooked, keeping the sweetness, the meat does not shrink… The sweetness of the bamboo shoots blends with the fish sauce Tamarind is both sour and spicy, creating an attractive feeling that cannot be mixed with any other dish.”
In the past, snakeheads were caught by coastal people to eat to “save hunger”, they were present in rustic rice trays in times of poverty. Now, the snakehead has become a famous specialty, many tourists come here to buy it to enjoy. At restaurants and eateries in An Giang, snakeheads are included in the menu to serve tourists.
Ms. Oanh (57 years old, from An Giang) shared that every day when the season comes, she rides a bicycle with many people in the village to exploit bamboo. With a selling price of 5,000 VND, a 20 liter can helps her earn an income of more than 200,000 VND/day.
In An Giang, the name Lia only appears in the local flood watershed areas of An Phu and Tan Chau. When asked about the origin of this name, people just laughed: “When our grandparents called, we followed them and did not find out the reason.”
This is considered a specialty of Lang Son, appears only seasonally and costs from 300,000 – 500,000 VND/kg.
Specialties from 4 directions
