Located in the southernmost part of the country, Ca Mau is a rich land with old forests, seas and rivers. The diverse ecosystem along with the ingenuity and creativity of local people have created a unique culinary culture, making visitors who have enjoyed it feel nostalgic.
Ca Mau and its most diverse ecosystem
Rarely is there a place where the natural picture is filled with colors like the land of Ca Mau cape. When visiting Ca Mau, you will be able to take a boat through the mangrove forest in U Minh Ha, watch the fishing scene on Thi Tuong lagoon, known as the “sea and lake in the middle of the plain”, or watch the yards of storks flying with their wings.
Exploring the vast mangrove forests of Ca Mau is discovering the second most diverse ecosystem in the world after the Amazon rainforest in South America. This place is the home of hundreds of species of plants, hundreds of species of fish, shrimp and dozens of species of animals, and visitors will feel the wild, clear air and ecstatic beauty.
Thanks to the richness of nature and the mild equatorial climate with two distinct rainy and dry seasons, cultural diversity is home to many ethnic Kinh, Khmer, Chinese… Mau has woven a simple yet attractive culinary culture, demonstrating cultural interference with interesting mixed dishes such as noodle soup, spicy silkworm cake, and crab vermicelli.
Ca Mau cuisine – the quintessence of the cape region
The “exotic delicacies” in Ca Mau seem to be endless, thanks to the parallel existence of two freshwater and mangrove ecosystems, giving visitors extremely rich travel experiences.
If you have the opportunity to visit U Minh Ha National Park, the first dish that visitors should try is grilled snakehead fish. Ca Mau people especially love grilled dishes, so much so that there is a saying: “first grilled, second fried, third stir-fried, fourth boiled”, in which grilling is a way of preparing dishes that was born during the period of exploration of Ca Mau. , a way of processing that is not too sophisticated or delicate, but still retains the fresh flavor of the ingredients. To fully experience the deliciousness of grilled snakehead fish with wild vegetables, visitors should find a space close to nature, where heaven and earth expand and enjoy the liberal spirit of the people of the land. nose.
Another famous dish of U Minh Ha is fish sauce hotpot. With the typical flavor of the hot pot broth cooked with fish sauce, mixed with the aroma of minced lemongrass and spices, the flavor is more passionate and attractive. The deliciousness of fish sauce hotpot comes only from the ingredients that are rich in Ca Mau flavor, but also from the fragrant and hospitable hearts of the people here.
Insects are an interesting element in culinary culture in U Minh Ha. Dishes made from bees, date palms, crickets or ginseng may make visitors hesitant to try at first, but once they try, they will immediately fall in love.
Deep in the U Minh Ha forest, there is a famous profession of beekeeping and honey collection. In addition to collecting sweet and fragrant honey, bee pupae are also an ingredient in making the Ca Mau specialty young bee salad. Young bee pupae are mixed with herbs, basil, laksa leaves and sweet and sour fish sauce. Mixing the salad will retain the essence of young bees and create a delicious dish with a strong flavor of the U Minh Ha forest region. Enjoying young bee pupae has become an indispensable part for tourists in their journey to explore the Cape.
The mangrove ecosystem also brings to Ca Mau specialties from the river such as mantis shrimp, mudskipper, fish sauce, milk oysters, and blood cockles. Mudskipper is also a rare specialty that is hard to find, because this fish can both swim underwater and climb on trees. Above all, mudskipper has high nutrition, firm meat, soft and delicious. You can enjoy mudskipper grilled with salt and chili, cooked in spicy and sour hot pot or braised with pepper… Dried mudskipper is also a popular gift for tourists to give to friends and relatives after each trip. The most famous specialty in the southernmost region of the country is definitely crab. It is said that Ca Mau is the “kingdom of crabs” with two main types: fragrant sweet meat crab and fatty brick crab. The best crab is Nam Can crab, a coastal district with two sides facing the sea and the Cua Lon river flowing through carrying salty silt. This is a crab with firm meat, fresh water, fatty bricks, high nutritional content and is in the top 100 Vietnamese specialties.
Ca Mau people have a variety of ways to prepare crabs that you won’t get tired of eating. You can eat steamed crabs to enjoy the sweet and fatty taste of the crabs, or try roasted crabs with perilla sauce and tamarind-roasted crabs with rich flavor. All dishes will be more attractive when combined with soy sauce – oyster sauce – MAGGI seasoning products.
Without elaborate preparation methods, Ca Mau people like to enjoy and honor the rustic, rustic flavor of the dish and take advantage of available ingredients, spices, and green vegetables from homegrown plants. Your journey to explore the cape will be truly interesting and complete when you enjoy the above-mentioned specialties because they are the quintessence of heaven and earth that nature has bestowed on this land.