Tourists who have the opportunity to set foot in Long An on their Mekong Delta tours should not miss the specialty dishes such as mystus sour soup, grilled lobster, fish sauce, aromatic rice at Dao market, sausage, and Go Den wine.
Going to Long An, in addition to enjoying the natural scenery, the unique culture of indigenous people and the enjoyment of delicious food, or souvenirs for relatives are the indispensable needs of every visitor. Here, you will be introduced 10 specialties of the famous land of Long An.
1. Nang Thom (Aromatic) Rice in Cho Dao
Dao area, My Le commune, Can Duoc district, Long An province is the original place of rice with delicious flavor especially Nang Thom rice. The sleek elongated ivory white rice in Dao market is the precious gift of this land. The freshly rubbed rice is as if covered by glue for it sticks in our hands when touching. These grains are so fragrant and last very long. Believe it or not, after 4-5 months after the packaging date, they still smell incredibly good.
The famous delicious rice at Dao market is known as the incomparable grain. Rice is cooked to a very glutinous and fragrant eat, especially, it will not be rancid overnight. Since the rice is very good so most farmers, after harvesting, reserve them for relatives or acquaintances so the number sold to the market is very limited.
2. Long An frizzling pancake
Long An frizzling pancake is a good food not only for the people here but also an indispensable must-try for tourists when traveling here. Long An pork is best in Duc Hoa town. Locals cherry-pick materials as well as glutinous rice ( powder form) from Chau Thanh, Can Duoc, Can Giuoc. Fresh pork belly, firm and round green beans, large banana leave. Cake fillers ran the gamut from salty- sweet to banana or grated coconut. Once you try Long An cake, you will hardly forget the delicious taste of this unique viand.
3. Long An watermelon
The area of watermelon in Long An province is over 1,100 hectares, mainly in Chau Thanh, Tan Thanh, Moc Hoa, Vinh Hung, Thu Thua. Watermelon is potent at detoxification, diuretic-related issues and is used to treat many diseases such as pimples, mouth ulcers, sunburn, alcohol detoxification … Long An watermelon has been exported to China, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar.
Today, watermelon is considered one of the most popular fruits of all kinds, especially when the weather is scorching hot. Watermelon is not only delicious and easy to eat but also provides our body with a large amount of water, uncountable invaluable vitamins, and minerals. Moreover, in traditional medicine, both the flesh and peels are used as medicaments.
4. Long An fish sauce hotpot
Fish sauce hotpot is the combination of all edible stuff from the sea, ponds to rice fields such as fish, shrimp, crab, squid, cow, pig, and especially a rich and varied number of vegetables. Almost all the edible wild veggies have made their way to this acclaimed dish such as water spinach, wild cabbage, water lily, wildflowers, bean sprouts, herbs, tamarind leaves, immatured seedy banana, cucumber, bitter vegetables, red peppers, pineapple and so on.
Especially we can not miss the integral part – coconut. With that mighty list of ingredients, the food has brought to the customers the deliciousness and nutritious richness of the food. It also provides a rich source of nutrients, vitamins and a lot of minor substances.
5. Sour mystus soup
Big fat fish close to the size of a big toe with swollen tummies are full of tiny nutrient-rich eggs. This aquatic critter is best paired with chili and lemongrass or cooked in sour soup. Pick out the fish with fat, yellow eggs from the steaming hot pot of soup, dip in spicy fish sauce and munch on them in the cool evenings. What an incredible feeling to try
This fish cooked with sesbania is another “cooker crouching” dish. A tinge of bitterness from that edible flower strengthen the richness.
6. Fresh long An sausage
In Long An, there is a very delicious and unique sausage that is fresh sausage. The characteristics of fresh sausage are very different from other sausages that it contains almost no lard at all. Normally, it can be baked on charcoal or fried (with little fat), but there is a very good way to fry called “roll with water”. In lieu of using oil (fat), they use water. Pour the water into the sausage’s level, use the chopsticks to finely relocate those red sticks till they are done to a turn.
7. Go Den Wine
Long An specialty wine is sold near and far along Highway 1A in the area of Go Den, Ben Luc district.
The prestigious Go Den wine must be cooked from one of glutinous rice grown locally, such as Mo, Mu U, and Than Tuyen. Traditional brewing takes time to ferment about a week to get the unique taste of Go Den.
8. Chau Thanh Dragonfruit
Long An is probably the only province in the western part of Vietnam to grow dragon fruit. And Chau Thanh district is aiming at turning this fruit to the strategic produce. Chau Thanh dragon fruit is not as big as Binh Thuan dragon fruit (The acclaimed zone of this fruit), but it has a sweet and rich taste. Visitors can buy dragon fruit to eat or gift it to relatives.
9. Duc Hoa Peanut
If you have the opportunity to visit Duc Hoa on the Lunar New Year, you will see the beautiful landscape of peanut plants. The vast bronze lacquer covered itself with an eye-catching green color. Under the green foliage are bright yellow flowers. If you have a little idea you will discover a very interesting thing about peanuts. Take a closer look at the peanuts that are formed on the ground surface after the flowers are pollinated. After this, the fruit grows gradually lower.
10. Grilled snakehead fish
Grilled fish (the most delicious is baked with straw), the dish has dated back from the south discovery conquest – with a rich flavor that many visitors to Long An dying to have a bite. We have to wait until the floating season finishes, then the new fish become fatty.
Take a bamboo stick, sharpen it, impale the stick from head to tail, then slowly cooked in the middle of glaring straw.
