In the past few years, there has been a trend of cuisine made from fruits. In the beginning, dishes made from fruits mainly appeared in garden tourist areas to serve tourists. Nowadays, many housewives buy ingredients to process themselves.
| Many gardeners harvest green mangosteens and sell them at high prices as raw materials for processing. In the photo: Mangosteen garden in Long Thanh district. |
Grasping this need, many gardeners harvest and sell green fruits to use as ingredients for food preparation. Accordingly, rustic and popular garden fruits become high-priced specialties, attracting sales in big cities.
Make your own specialties from fruits
Last summer’s fruit season, chicken salad and seafood salad made from green mangosteen became “culinary phenomena” that attracted diners. Accordingly, from garden eateries, garden tourist areas to a number of eateries and restaurants in big cities, they have included this dish in their menus to serve diners.
| Consumers can easily order green mangosteen on online sales sites. |
Grasping this relatively new culinary demand, at the beginning of this year’s summer fruit season, online sales sites continue to flourish selling green mangosteen as raw materials for processing. Green mangosteen has become a specialty sold at a much higher price than the price of ripe mangosteen. Currently, many online sales sites in Bien Hoa city are selling green mangosteen at extremely high prices. Specifically, unpeeled mangosteen is sold for 90-110 thousand VND/kg, peeled mangosteen is priced at 700 thousand VND/kg. Customers just need to place an order and it will be delivered to their hands. Meanwhile, currently ripe mangosteen is retailed at markets and fruit stores for only 50-80 thousand VND/kg.
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| Ms. Nguyen Thi Hanh’s selling point for garden fruits on Cach Mang Thang Tam street, Bien Hoa city. |
In addition, some small traders selling vegetables and fruits in Bien Hoa city also imported green mangosteens to sell to housewives to buy to prepare delicious specialties for family meals. However, because this is a product with a high price and is picky about buyers, consumers often have to order in advance and it is difficult to buy immediately like other common vegetables and fruits.
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| Durian segments are used to prepare dishes. |
In addition to mangosteen, old durian segments have also become ingredients used to prepare many delicious dishes such as: fried – grilled durian, stewed durian with chicken, stewed with pork ribs… Accordingly, some gardeners also make additional products. Old durian segments sold on the market. Mr. Tran Quang Hiep, Head of the Durian Cooperation Group in Xuan Que commune, Cam My district, said that recently, there has been a culinary trend in the market to prepare dishes from durian. His family takes advantage of durian fruits that have thick flesh but are not mature enough to fall prematurely or have small fruits. The fruits are not purchased by traders, so they are separated into segments, removed seeds, and then frozen for supply to the market. He also took care to label Sau Hiep durian with an address and phone number so that consumers would have a clue to order when needed.
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| Mulberry. |
Home garden products are on the rise
Along with the trend of garden travel, urban consumers are also increasingly fond of rustic dishes that are only available in the countryside. Grasping this need, the business model of rustic fruits that are only available in gardens is increasingly appearing in big cities.
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| Ca na dish soaked in sugar, salt and chili. |
Ms. Nguyen Thi Hanh’s stall on Cach Mang Thang Tam Street, Bien Hoa City often has unmatched garden fruits such as: cashew fruit, jujube fruit, noni fruit, cana fruit, Southern crocodile fruit… These are originally miscellaneous plants that are often used as a snack for children in the countryside because they are sold and no one buys them. But now, the above fruits have become specialties sold at high prices. Ms. Hanh shared that in recent years, seeing that urban consumers prefer rustic dishes, she looked for more of these fruits to sell. For example, cashew growers only collect the seeds and the fruit is thrown away; The rice bowl is a wild plant that grows on wasteland, but consumers are willing to spend 40-50 to buy 1 kg of cashew fruit or a kg of rice bowl to eat raw or process.
According to Ms. Hanh, the buyers are also very diverse. Some people buy it to remember their childhood dishes. Many people find it strange and want to try it. Not only selling, Ms. Hanh also researches and collects more dishes made from these garden fruits to advise customers. Specifically, like cashew fruit, in addition to eating fresh, housewives can cook sour soup with fresh shrimp, cook hot pot, make salads, make vegetables to eat with vermicelli fish sauce, braised fish…
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| Cashew hot pot dish cooked with chem copy. |
Ms. Ha Thi Huong, a small trader specializing in selling mulberry fruit at Bien Hoa market, said that the source of this mulberry fruit is from Lam Dong province. Products made from mulberry fruits such as: mulberry jam, syrup, mulberry juice… from Da Lat are well known. Accordingly, a few years ago, Ms. Huong tried to sell this unique fruit dish. Seeing that the customer base was stable, she sold it until now. Ms. Huong commented: “Dishes made from mulberry fruit are good for health, so consumers are increasingly interested in buying them for use. Although it is an uncommon fruit, I still import it regularly because more and more regular customers buy large quantities to soak in wine and make mulberry juice for later use.
Fruits that no one buys from the garden have quite high prices when brought to the city. According to the explanation of the sellers, the reason is because this is a custom order, high shipping costs, high loss rate…
Binh Nguyen
