Thanks to its remarkable natural scenery, Mai Chau has been a famous tourist destination in Vietnam for years. However, it is not the only thing that steals the hearts of the travelers. There is a saying that goes like this: “The quickest way to someone's heart is through their stomach”. These Mai Chau recipes are gonna make you say yum yum.
1. Grilled wild boar skewers
The breed of pig used for this dish can only be found in mountainous areas of Vietnam like Hoa Binh, Ha Giang, Lao Cai, and Yen Bai.
2. Bamboo cooked rice
This dish uses premium sticky and fragrant rice as the main ingredient. After being soaked in water, the rice is mixed with fresh coconut and stuffed into a bamboo tube.
3. Sour salted pork
The thinly sliced pork is marinated with salt, pounded dry, and mixed with yellow flower sticky rice wine and some wild spice leaves. After that, the pork is tossed to absorb the spices and kept in a basket lined with banana leaves underneath.
4. Bitter bamboo shoot
This is a specialty dish of the Northwest mountains and forests. People here choose newly sprouted bamboo shoots, grill them, and peel the rind to get the flesh. You can dip this part of the flesh in a mixture of chili salt, Sichuan pepper, and garlic.
5. Mai Chau sticky rice
The rice grains are carefully selected and soaked overnight. When cooked, they can be very soft and sticky.
6. Grilled stream fish
The good news for fish fans, it is going to taste very different from typical seafood.
7. Mountain snail
Different from the French snail, this type of snail only appears in the summer. It can be: boiled, stir-fried with lolot leaves, steamed with longan leaves, steamed with lemongrass, stir-fried with lemongrass and chili…
8. Buffalo
The meat will be finely chopped and stewed with broken rice and sour Polygonum Chinese L.
9. Grilled Chicken
With the unique recipe of the Northwest Mountain range, you won’t find anything like this.
10. Grilled meat roll in pomelo leaf
This special dish of Mai Chau has a strange bitterness mixed with the sweet taste of grilled meat.
11. Stir-fried wild bee
After the hive is brought back from the forest, the old bees are used to make wine, and the young ones are selected to stir-fry with bamboo shoots.
>> If you are interested, this is the Complete Mai Chau Travel Guide.