Traditional specialties of the Gie Trieng people

With a strong flavor of the mountains and forests, the dish of frog cooked with bamboo shoots is one of the unique traditional culinary features of the Gie Trieng people in Duc Nong commune, Quang Ngai province. This dish also shows a lifestyle attached to nature and creativity in preparation.

According to village elders and local people, frog cooked with bamboo shoots is usually prepared during the rainy season, when frogs breed and appear the most. This is also the time when the Gie Trieng people go to the fields for long days to cultivate and harvest. In conditions of lacking fresh food, they take advantage of available natural ingredients such as frogs, bamboo shoots, forest leaves, and green squash to prepare the dish. Over time, the dish has become an indispensable part of the cultural life of the community. The preparation process requires meticulousness and experience. First of all, the cook must choose the right type of bamboo shoots, not too young or too old. If the bamboo shoots are young and have thin stems, they will easily burn during the grilling process, and if they are too old, the thick skin will make the frog meat difficult to cook, losing its delicious flavor. After being chopped into segments, the bamboo shoots will be cleaned and drained.

Next is the process of preparing the ingredients, the firm frogs are cleaned, the organs are removed, marinated with traditional spices such as crushed wild pepper, chopped pickled shallots, salt and finely grated green squash. All are mixed well, stuffed into bamboo tubes, then covered with fresh forest leaves. The bamboo tubes will be placed on the charcoal stove to grill. The technique of grilling this dish is also a delicate feature. The griller must place the bamboo tubes at an angle of about 45 degrees to the stove, continuously rotating them so that the heat is distributed throughout the tube, helping the frog meat to cook evenly without burning. The grilling time lasts from 25 to 30 minutes, depending on the thickness of the tube and the amount of ingredients inside. When the bamboo tubes begin to give off a fragrant smell and make a bubbling sound, that is a signal that the dish has reached the required level of doneness.

Mr. A Xay, a son of Dak Rang village, Duc Nong commune, shared: “In the past, every time the rainy season came, the whole village would go catch frogs. Each family would collect a few, then cook together. Frog cooked with bamboo shoots is a dish that is associated with my childhood memories and many villagers. This dish is delicious and warms the neighborhood.” The finished product, when poured out of the tube, will have white, soft but not mushy frog meat, with a characteristic sweet aroma. What makes the dish even more special is the broth - a mixture of essences secreted from frog meat, green squash and bamboo shoot water during the grilling process. This broth has a cool, slightly spicy taste from wild pepper, a faint smell of smoke and the aroma of forest leaves covering the tube. All of these blend together to create an overall rich, refreshing, indescribable flavor.

Besides the culinary element, the dish of frog cooked with bamboo shoots is also closely associated with the community life of the Gie Trieng people. In the past, during the harvest season, families often went to the fields together, lived and cooked right in the hut. During the day, the men would go out to look for frogs with homemade torches made from bamboo shoots and pine resin. The next morning, the women would use the frogs they caught to prepare the dish. The way of sharing work and preparing meals together created a sense of connection and warmth in each family. Those field meals, though simple, were full of affection and imbued with the scent of the mountains and forests.

Nowadays, as modern life gradually replaces the traditional farming lifestyle, this dish is no longer as popular as before. However, on festivals or in cultural activities, the dish of frog cooked with bamboo shoots is still recreated as a culinary culture of the Gie Trieng people.

Lac Thuy

Source: https://baolamdong.vn/dac-san-truyen-thong-cua-nguoi-gie-trieng-381003.html