Ca Mau Specialties

There is such a simple dish that it cannot be more simple any more. But it becomes a specialty of a locality. Though going away from home for a long time, people still remember Rach Goc special crabs.

Rach Goc special crab

Rach Goc crab has had a brand name from the ancient time because the crabs in this locality are actually more delicious than those of other places. The seventh and eighth months of every lunar celendar are the crab season. This crab eats the fallen fruits of avicennia germinans, so it has ochre crab-roe and its meat tastes scented and is firmer than other places. The crabs after being caught are washed and salted on the spot. After salt penetrates the crabs for 5 to 7 days, they can be edible.

Besides, the crabs are processed by boiling with citronella and are eaten with a sauce. The sauce which is processed simply but very special includes chopped citronella mixed with nematode rice, a little capsicum for pungent flavour and a little spice. With this eating way, the crabs taste sweet and scented since the mixture of tear gas from the capsicums, citronella and sour taste and strong gas from nematode rice. Boiled crabs which are eaten with sauce are integral dish for tourists.

U Minh salted fish hot pot

The main materials of U Minh salted fish hot pot is salted trichogaster pectoralis (good one). The salted trichogaster pectoralis is cooked until its meat and bone are separated. Take all bones out, putting enough sodium glutamate and sugar into the hot pot. In order to rise it smell, people add some chopped citronella and its beaten root to the hot pot. The secret to make the hot-pot sauce fatty, scented and viscid is that people add a little milk instead of sugar. It depends on our liking that the hot pot is added pork or fish. But U Minh hot pot must include fresh fish meat. The most delicious and right ones are eal, anabas meat, ophiocephalus maculates or white catfish.

Besides fish meat, the hot pot can be added fresh water crab meat, snails, half fat and half lean meat. The most interesting thing in eating the hot pot is to enjoy many vegetables. The hot pot is a dish that collect the most wild vegetables. It may be right to say that there is not any dishes which are eaten with as many vegetables as the hot pot in the world

Fried chopped cuttle spawn in ending land

Cuttle spawn is fried to make cha with yellow color as roasted cinnamon pork. It looks nice and smells specific scent. Cha is cut into slices of finger shape and set on the table with dill and girdle cake. Roll one by one and dip in fish sauce or mixture of salt, pepper and lemon. This specialty which brings eaters the softness of vegetables, toughness of girdle cake, viscidity, spong and fat of cuttle spawn cannot be mistaken for any other dishes.

Grilled clam dipped in mixture of salt and pepper

This dish brings both special flavour and endless happiness for tourists from everywhere. Clam in Ca Mau is rare now because it become an valuable and rare dish. Selecting clams, wash them, leave them to dry off, arrange them in a plate. The spice includes salt, pepper, sodium glutamate and vegetables. When the brazier is on fire, put it on the table and place a grilling frame on it. After that it is possible to put many clams on the frame at the same time. This dish can be served for many people wonderfully in amenity of a feast. When the clams open its mouths, this means they are just done and very sweet to eat at the time. If the clams are grilled overdone, they become dried and their meat is tough and taste vapid.

Ca Mau shrimp

Shrimp is the special gift of the sea for those from inland to visit island. Shrimp meat tastes both delicious and sweet, brings sea scent and is different to the tastes of sugpo prawn and lobster etc. The way of processing the shrimp is simple. Steaming, boiling or grilling shrimps and dip them in the mixture of salt, pepper and lemon or fish sauce with tamarind and sugar can attract tourists from everywhere. Skillful people with high spirit in enjoying food will find a way of pressing the shrimp and dry it under the sun and consider it a an extremely good dish for serving guests or friends.

U Minh crabs in tamarind sauce

In order to have this delicious crabs in tamarind sauce, caught crabs can lively crawl and be washed. Separate their plastrons and cut their legs and put them into a hot oil frying pan and then add garlic to create scent. The dark color of crabs turns gradually red and then scarlet and looks very nice. Make tamarind sauce thick with not too much water and then add sugar, salt, sodium glutamate etc. for delicious taste. After that pour it into the pan of crabs on the slight fire for the spice to penetrate crabs. Well-done crabs have good smell. Place them in a plate and sprinkle the plate with roasted peanuts and persicaria. Enjoying crabs in tamarind sauce with crispy taste, sweet and firm meat and sour pungent fatty tastes will have a strange feeling. One who eats the dish too much still desires its special scent and tastes.