“The green coconut leaves many ships
Hands on the wind, bricks call the moon. ”
(Tran Dang Khoa)
Coconut tree – an image very familiar to the people of Vietnam. And especially, the more beloved the Ben Tre – coconut.
Brief description of the food from coconut
In his simple little kitchen, the people of Ben Tre take advantage of the root to the top of the coconut to create the famous dishes, but most prominent are the main materials such as:
Coconut water
Coconut water is an easy to find ingredient and is always available, used directly as a beverage that is enough to release the sultry summer day. Coconut water is also widely used in the processing of stews, ram, fried, baked, most typical is the meat warehouse, coconut shellfish, coconut milk store, coconut milk sauce, sweet gravy of meat the countryside is mixed with greasy fat makes an impression hard to fade for Ben Tre.
But the “superstar” in the dishes from the fresh coconut juice is coconut, the name does not hear anything special. In order to get a coconut loaded with rice, the nuts are round and shiny, the chef has to spend less than 2 hours with a lot of effort in selecting raw materials and processing. Making coconut rice must have delicious rice was cleaned with fresh coconut water, cooked in coconut large round scoop, not filled with water, full of water. Rice is cooked in the coconut, soaked until drained, ripe, not frugal or dull, each grain of coconut and fatty smell of incense. Best of coconut rice when eaten hot with lobster shrimp, crispy crispy.
Coconut
Coconut is the key ingredient in Ben Tre dishes, especially sweet. Ben Tre coconut fat fat, the smell that sweet, fragrant, fragrant, … contributed in most tea, cake. If the Hanoi tea has a sweet jasmine and green beans pass through the tip of the tongue, the essence of Ben Tre is the coconut milk. Combined with the home-made ingredients such as sweet potato, taro, pumpkin, black beans, red beans, Ben Tre people have “molded” hundreds of specialty tea “has eaten”.
In addition to the tea, the fruit cake from coconut milk is equally attractive thanks to the fatty sweet taste and eye-catching colors. Just with a little variation with coconut milk, ordinary cakes like cakes, sweet cakes, tapioca cakes, … have added a little mark Ben Tre with unique cuisine. Typical is grilled coconut cake with crunchy crunchy crust and aromatic coconut aroma, mixed with the noodles of coconut chips inside.
Coconut
Not only using familiar materials such as coconut milk, coconut water, people in Ben Tre also make use of each part of coconut to create food – one of them is coconut. Pickled coconut is the young leaves of coconut, crispy, not fat, characteristic fatty. Referring to the coconut is referring to the salad of coconut shrimp shrimp, the recipe is quite like lotus salad, but the greasy flavor, accompanied by a little sour side of the additive creates a playful dish with a spoon The tongue is not bored.
Ben Tre people also used coconut to “transform” for the familiar dishes, typical coconut pork buns. One can either replace or combine coconut and coconut milk with the price of bread, add sweetness to the cake, which is full of spicy and sour, create a characteristic of Ben Tre.
Considered as the coconut of Vietnam, some people still joke that “Ben Tre” should be changed to “Ben Dua” new suitable. Indeed, under the shades of green coconut trees, a unique culinary culture has been formed without the complexity of raw materials – the culinary culture of coconut with specialties to take advantage. From the tree itself, sticking with the life of people.
