Mekong delta is home to different tropical fruits such as durian, coconut, banana, pineapple, dragon fruit and so forth. Another must-try dish in Mekong Delta is deep fried elephant-ear fish (“Ca tai tuong chien xu”) rolled with herbs in rice sheet and served with dipping sauce and snake meat.
Trai Quach – (wood apple)
Usually, a seven-year-old quach tree will start producing fruit, which looks just like a gray plastic ball, with many tiny dots on it. When it matures, trai quach spreads a faint aroma, although not as strong as trai thi, which is still enough to fascinate and attract people.
Place to eat: Cau Ke District, Tra Vinh.
Grilled larva
“Đuông” are the larva of beetles, often live in the inside top soft part of areca species trees. They are buried in fish sauce for a while. Then cover with wheat flour before being fried. Eating with lettuce and tomato. Previously đuông is a popular dish; however, it has nowadays been valuable, rare and expensive. The reason is that it is difficult to find them. Even old farmers who have been working on the farm for ages can only enjoy this dish two or three times in their lives.
Place to eat: Ben Tre.
Stir-fried gecko
Perhaps a tough dish for many others, but the stir-fried gecko with little or no water is a popular dish to local people. Geckos’ bodies are chopped into pieces. Then illicium verum and pimpinella anisum are put in. Keep pieces of gecko with those two spices for 30 minutes. Afterward, heat the pan and pour in some cooking oil. Heat the oil, then fry sliced garlic and onion.
Place to eat: Long Xuyen, Kien Giang, Ha Tien, Dong Thap.
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