Culinary characteristics of the San Diu ethnic group

The culinary culture of the San Diu people has retained many unique features, clearly shown in the way of processing, using spices, preserving food...

According to experts, for any country in the world , cuisine has a particularly important position in creating national culture. Nowadays, cuisine is also a factor to attract and position the national brand.

According to Dr. Tran Quoc Hung, Center for Research, Preservation and Development of San Diu Culture in Vietnam, in addition to common features, San Diu culinary culture possesses its own unique characteristics, demonstrating ingenuity and sophistication in processing and combining foods. It is also a cultural beauty through rules and behavior in eating and drinking; reflecting culture through the culinary lens.

The San Diu people still preserve many beautiful features in their cooking methods and unique dishes.

First of all, the common point is that the San Diu people's meal structure is divided into three meals, the food ingredients (rice, vegetables, meat, fish...) are like many other ethnic groups. To diversify the dishes, the San Diu people know how to combine ingredients through many different processing methods. The dishes are processed with heat and without heat. Besides drying, salting..., the processing methods using heat are very diverse through cooking utensils, such as stir-frying, steaming, stewing, stewing, frying, braising or ways of processing food that is cooked directly with fire such as burying, grilling...

Culinary culture is also most notably expressed during the holidays and Tet of the people, with dishes imbued with national identity, such as: Khau nhuc, thinh thit, sour marinated meat, wormwood cake, colored sticky rice, humped chung cake, tai long et cake...

On this occasion, the San Diu people prepare all the traditional dishes and cakes to worship their ancestors, including many unique dishes, very elaborate and different. Humpback Chung cake is one of them, from the stage of choosing ingredients, wrapping the cake to have six corners, a beautiful hump is a whole process of practice.

The same goes for Banh Bac Dau, you really need to have a "profession" to make it. Banh Bac Dau is made from sticky rice that is soaked thoroughly, pounded in a stone mortar until smooth, the flour is taken out, and filtered many times. The flour is kneaded thoroughly with water, then boiled 2-3 times until it is smooth, cooked, and then shaped into cakes with sesame, peanuts, and rock sugar filling. Pounding rice, filtering flour, and shaping techniques make up the soul of this cake... San Diu women are often in charge of making the above cakes and that is also the criterion for evaluating their industriousness.

Khau nhuc is a holiday dish of the San Diu people, elaborately prepared and very delicious.

Creativity and sophistication in processing are also shown in the dish khau nhuc, a dish prepared during holidays, Tet, weddings... The dish is made from delicious pork belly, boiled and hung up, using a needle to carefully pierce the skin to let all the fat escape, then brushed with honey to soak, fried until golden. The dish's filling determines the flavor of the dish, elaborately prepared from delicious minced lean meat, wood ear mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms and nearly 40 types of spices, such as rau thau xoi, onion, garlic, dia lien, cardamom, phui nhui (tofu), cham cham (salted lemon), fish sauce, salt, MSG, soy sauce, honey, five-spice powder, lotus seeds, basil...

On Thanh Minh festival, San Diu people also worship their ancestors with sticky rice, especially in many places using black sticky rice, which is processed quite elaborately with sau leaves (a small leaf found in the forest, abundant in the locality) crushed and filtered to get the water to soak with sticky rice before putting it in the steamer. Black sticky rice cooked from yellow flower sticky rice or sticky rice is both sticky and fragrant, and has the special flavor of sau leaves.

The way the San Diu people arrange food and drinks on their meal trays shows respect for their elders and their juniors. The best dishes are placed in the middle and tend to be closest to the oldest person. Vegetable dishes are placed around them. During meals, young people always invite and wish the oldest person a good meal, the oldest person often gives up and gives the best dishes to the children. When guests come to the house, especially those from far away, to show their hospitality, the San Diu people always invite them to eat enthusiastically and give the best pieces to their guests.

Not only that, San Diu cuisine is also sophisticated in processing agricultural products, creating drinks that have clear health benefits and cure diseases. The drinks of the people are very rich. First of all, we must mention wine, including distilled wine, sticky rice wine... distilled from rice, sticky rice, corn, and cassava that are carefully fermented.

There is a very special type of wine, which is molasses wine, which uses sugarcane bagasse. The people squeeze the bagasse again, use this water to ferment with yeast for a few days and then distill it. Each type of wine has its own unique flavor. In many places, the sticky rice wine of the people has a sweet taste, a strong aroma of yeast, the wine is easy to eat, suitable for women in confinement, providing an abundant source of milk to feed their children.

San Diu ethnic people prepare silver-head cakes and many other delicious dishes to offer to their ancestors and to entertain guests.

In addition to carefully prepared dishes, the San Diu people's favorite daily drink is thin porridge. This type is quite popular, used by the people in meals, as a thirst quencher or when going to work or going to the fields, very good for health.

In general, San Diu culture has long been close to and intermingled with the cultures of other ethnic groups, so the cuisine also has intermingling. However, many unique culinary features are still preserved by the people, as secrets and "brands" that express the culinary cultural identity of the San Diu people.

Ta Quan

Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/dac-sac-nghe-thuat-am-thuc-trong-van-hoa-nguoi-san-diu-3327078.html