Bac Lieu Specialties

Regarding fruits, longan is the famous specialty of Bac Lieu. Bac Lieu longan is actually planted in Vinh Chau, Vinh Loi with small size and yellow chrome skin like cow skin, which is therefore called cow skin longan. Bac Lieu longan has thick pulp, thin skin and sweet taste and is described through the verse:

Vinh Chau longans with thick pulp and thin skin
Tra Nho sugar canes are sweeter than that of other places

Con xai, xa bau: the traditional specialies of Chineses in Bac Lieu

In order to have good con xai, the raw material (Tua xai cabbage used to make pickled cabbage) to make con xai must be young and fresh. First, the cabbage is cut into small pieces or preserved and put it under the sun until being withered. This is the most important step to do, otherwise it will become spoiled. After finishing drying, mix it with unrefined salt, sugar, alcohol and integral ginger for creating smell. It takes con xai 2 weeks to be ediable since being salted.

For xa bau, the way to make it is simpler. Bought turnip must be cleaned and sliced into small long pieces. Dry it under the sun. When salting the dried turnip, prepare such spices as sugar, five-taste flavour powder, alcohol and mix them up. When the sugar melts and penetrates into the turnip, it can be edible. It is wonderful to have this dish with rice porridge. One often says: “Being a Chinese, he or she has to eat rice porridge with xa bau”.

Cu Cai cake

Drop in Bac Lieu market to enjoy another specialty that is cu cai cake. The cake originates from Chinese. It is made of white wheat flour mixed with ground turnip powder, which is flattened as steamed thin rice pancake. Inside includes small dried shrimps or tiny peeled ones which are pounded slightly, minced pork and some steem green peas. All are well stir-fried and added flavour properly. Cu cai cake is eaten with dill, houttuynia, hung lui vegetable, hung cay, que and salad. Sauce is integral. Mix fish sauce with lemon, sugar, garlic, chilli properly.

Pungent rice vermicelli with beef

Bunbocay Just as the name of the dish, it is cooked with many fresh capsicums, which makes the red color of the soup pure color. Besides, there are a plate of fresh green cinnamon and a plate of unrefined salt and red capsicums ground with a piece of lemon. Squeeze lemon juice into the bowl of bun bo cay and add cinnamon (enough quantity, too much or a little will lose the flavour of bun bo cay) into the bowl and mix all stuffs in the bowl. Pick up a piece of pork (or lean pork or sinew) and dip it in the mixture of salt and capsicum and then put it into our mouths. Ever stuff has its own special flavour. After finish eating, you will be satisfied in pungent taste with tear move and the crispy, tough, fatty of beef and sour taste from lemon stimulation. But the most happy is that the pungent taste and its heat make pore sweat, which make the body cheery after a night of being drunk and eating the bowl of bun bo cay.

Vinh Hung sour salted fish

Mam chua smells scented in palish color (not red as salted fresh-water fish) and is preserved its shape, but all its bone are soft. Mam chua is eaten with cork fruit or guavas and even carambola, green banana, green tamarind or some slices of cucumber. In order to increase the flavour and feel easily to eat, there should be green capsicums. Pick up one mam chua made of trichogaster pectoralis meat, anabas meat or mystus planiceps meat which needn’t be torn and put it into our mouths. If it is sour salted ophiocephalus maculates, we must tear it into smaller parts). Biting and chewing the capsicum and a piece of guava, we can feel the salty taste and sour taste of mam mixing each other on our tongue.

Ngang Dua tam vermicelli

Ngang Dua tam vermicelli looks simple but is difficult to make because the material is little and is required to be ordinary rice which is produced around the area. With a pair of skillful trained nimble hands, local girls make tam vermicelli which is well known and liked by many people.

Ngang Dua tam vermicelli includes 2 kinds: salty and sweet ones. Depending on tourists’ tastes, when sitting around shoulder pole, tourists can enjoy the rural coastal flavour of Bac Lieu. For these reasons, Ngang Dua tam vermicelli becomes an original strange dish attracting tourist from afar.