Must Try List for Cao Bang Food

Being listed among the top cities with the most attractive culinary culture in Vietnam, Cao Bang specialties win over diners from all over the world with their unique and distinctive flavor.

1. Cao Bang Sausage (Lạp Xưởng)

Cao Bang food - Sausage

The Cao Bang sausage, or Lạp Xưởng, consists of loin, shoulder, rump, and pork belly. With the secret of the esoteric marinade, Cao Bang sausage has a sour, salty, and somewhat spicy taste that comes from ginger and local spice leaves. With a unique and delicious flavor, this dish gradually becomes an important part of Cao Bang's cuisine.

2. Roast Duck With Seven Flavors

Often found on important holidays and the Lunar New Year in Cao Bang, the seven-flavored roast duck is marinated with an heirloom recipe, elaborated at each fibre. After absorbing the spices, the duck is smeared with a little vinegar and honey on the body and cooked over bamboo charcoal until golden brown. 

Cao Bang food -  Roast Duck

The seven-flavored roast duck is best served with herbs, vermicelli, steamed rice paper, sticky rice, or savory vegetable rice, along with a few cups of traditional corn wine.  It's definitely a Cao Bang culinary specialty that any visitor must try.

3. Sour Pork

For a long time, the ethnic groups of Tay, Nung, Hmong, and Dao in the Bao Lac, Bao Lam districts of Cao Bang province have been famous for their delicious sour pork. Made from mountain-raised pork, along with the ingenuity and creativity of the locals, this dish is renowned throughout Vietnam. 

Cao Bang food - Sour Pork

The pork, after being cleaned and seasoned, will be covered in guava leaves and fermented in bamboo tubes. It would be better if you sauté sour pork and eat it with white rice. Although it is a simple dish, it is extremely appealing and exquisite.

4. Trung Khanh Chestnuts Cao Bang

Cao Bang food -  Chestnuts

Much sought after by tourists, this type of fruit is grown in the district of Trung Khanh, 58 km away from the city of Cao Bang. Chestnuts in Cao Bang are generally abundant from September to October in Lunar calendar each year and only in Cao Bang where all the weather conditions for chestnut growth are met. The chestnuts of Trung Khanh are appreciated for their intense flavor, large size, and round shape.

5. Banh Bo (Vietnamese honeycomb cake)

Cao Bang food - Vietnamese honeycomb cake

This local dessert is made up of three main ingredients: black sugar, yeast, and white rice. The taste of the cake is sweet and light, the outer part is spongy yellow while the filling is soft and smooth. It is baked in a large mold and then cut into small pieces, when it arrives at the buyer it still retains the heat. Banh Bo is tasty, warm, and really attractive.

6. Jiaogulan Tea

A drink from the land of Cao Bang that you must try is Jiaogulan tea. Made from a medicinal herb grown in the northern mountainous areas, Jiaogulan tea contains many crucial vitamins and minerals such as flavonoids, saponins, zinc, selenium, manga, phosphorus, iron, etc. 

Cao Bang food - Jiaogulan tea  

Visitors can buy it in filtered, dried, or freeze-dried sachets to give as gifts to friends and family after the trip to Cao Bang.

7. Black Jelly

Cao Bang food - Black Jelly

Black jelly is made from a local plant from the northeastern forests of Cao Bang. In addition to the sweet and fresh taste, it is considered an effective remedy for cooling off in the very hot summer. On hot summer days, there's nothing better than enjoying a bowl of black jelly with apricot/maple syrup and crushed ice. Nowadays people also make it into powder for housewives to cook themselves.

8. Coong Phu Cake

Cao Bang food - Coong Phu cake

Coong Phu is a typical cake of Cao Bang's specialty. This dessert is made from glutinous rice flour, sugar, peanuts, sesame, and fresh ginger without the filling and has many colors. A warm bowl of sweet Coong Phu will be an ideal choice for visitors traveling to Cao Bang, especially in winter.

9. Ant-egg Cake/Pie

Cao Bang food - Ant's Egg Rice Cake

You can't ignore this culinary specialty of Cao Bang. Tay Ethnic Ant Egg Rice Cake is made with ant eggs, rice flour, and fig leaves. Every year from March to May of the lunar calendar, when you come to Cao Bang, you will see this cake appear in many places because it is the time of the change of seasons when ants lay eggs.

10. Banh Gai

In addition to honeycomb cake, Banh Gai is also popular with tourists. People use high-quality sticky rice, granulated sugar, shredded coconut, green beans, or chopped roasted peanuts to make the filling. In addition, banana leaves are used to wrap the cake.

Cao Bang food - Banh Gai

Banh Gai has a dark green color, sweet flavor, and a natural aroma of green bean paste mixed with sugar. If possible, enjoy it with green tea to feel the "taste of heaven and earth" of the mountainous region!

11. Black Vermicelli

Cao Bang food - Black Vermicelli

Black vermicelli is part of the typical Cao Bang specialty. Its main ingredient is the galangal plant and it is produced using traditional methods, without chemical intervention. Black vermicelli brings a natural sweet aroma, they are soft and chewy, not too sticky, and they can be made into several delicious dishes.

See more articles on this topic:

>> Nguom Ngao Cave - A Must-See on the Cao Bang Loop

>> The Majestic Ban Gioc Waterfalls in Cao Bang Travel Guide

>> The House on Stilts of the Lo Lo Ethnic Group in Cao Bang

>> Cao Bang - Grand Trekking of the North-East Vietnam