Sweet taste of Huong River mussels

On hot summer days, my mother went to the market near our house to buy mussels to cook soup. The mussels were shelled and stir-fried until fragrant, then pickled bamboo shoots were added to cook the soup.

On hot summer days, my mother went to the market near our house to buy mussels to cook soup. The mussels were shelled and stir-fried until fragrant, then sour bamboo shoots were added to cook the soup. Mussel soup was sweet and refreshing, a popular dish during the summer. Mussel soup with sour bamboo shoots seasoned with Vietnamese coriander was a rustic dish but full of country flavor.

Eating mussel soup, I suddenly remembered that Hue is famous for its mussel rice. Initially, mussel rice was a dish of the poor people in the Hen Islet area along the Perfume River in the past. Duong Van An's book O Chau Can Luc describes Hen Islet as a beautiful island. In the Book of Changes of Hue Citadel Architecture, this place is named "Ta Thanh Long". The people here make a living by catching fish and shrimp at night.

200 years ago, during the reign of King Gia Long, because her family was poor and her husband went fishing day and night, a woman named Huynh had to work hard on the riverbank to catch mussels. Every morning, when they had not caught any shrimp or fish, the couple had to eat cold rice with mussels they had caught early in the morning. It is hard for anyone today to imagine a poor couple, not knowing what to eat in the morning, having to eat rice with mussels, but the mussel rice dish became famous.

Writer Hoang Phu Ngoc Tuong once wrote: "Cold rice with small, rolling mussels that makes the cook impatient is called mussel rice." During the reign of King Thanh Thai, mussel rice was brought to the palace for the king to enjoy.

According to writer Hoang Phu Ngoc Tuong: "Vietnamese people eat rice in any form, it must be hot, except for mussel rice which must be cold." Mussel rice can be eaten forever because mussels from Con Hen are the best, and were once offered to the king to enjoy. Ask yourself, what in the world does the king like that is not the best?

You can never get bored of eating mussel rice because of its harmony. A bowl of mussel rice has mussels, crispy fried pork skin served with raw vegetables (banana flower, star fruit, herbs), peanuts,... Mussel rice is delicious thanks in part to the combination of spices such as shrimp paste, fish sauce, salt, chili,...

When selling, in addition to the bowl of mussel rice, the seller also includes a bowl of mussel water and a tray of spices so that customers can season it themselves. Therefore, this dish can be said to be eaten forever without getting bored because the ingredients blend together. For example, mussels, sour star fruit, ... are cold in nature but dried shrimp, ginger, chili, garlic are hot in nature so they can compensate each other; cooking oil, fried pork skin create a fatty taste but banana flower has a bland taste; star fruit creates a sour taste, vegetables create a fragrant taste, ...

To have a delicious bowl of mussel rice, full of Hue flavor, the most difficult step is choosing the mussels. Usually, the mussels must be from Con Hen, the small mussels. These mussels are usually soaked in rice water overnight before being stir-fried.

Ingredients such as pork skin are also fried until puffy, peanuts are also roasted until cooked evenly, then these two ingredients will be mixed with cooking oil to create the characteristic fatty flavor of the clam rice bowl. The banana stem is cut into thin strips to eat with.

Mussel rice must be served with very spicy chili to be delicious and authentic. When selling mussel rice, the seller will put thinly sliced ​​banana flower first, then rice, seasoned with pork floss, sesame, cooking oil, peanuts, herbs, bean sprouts, etc. on top.

In Hue, mussel rice is sold in many places. If you want to eat delicious and cheap food, remember to visit Con Hen or markets like Dong Ba and at food stalls along the streets of Hue,... In addition to mussel rice, there are also mussel vermicelli, mussel noodles, mussel porridge, stir-fried mussels with rice paper,...

Poet Vo Que - former Chairman of the Union of Literature and Arts Associations of Thua Thien - Hue, compared the delicious mussel rice dish:

I heard the spicy red chili

Find in the mussel a stream of green fragrance

Fragrant pork floss, cold rice, fresh vegetables...

I invite you to a sincere morning of home-cooked dishes./.

Nguyen Van Toan

Source: https://baolongan.vn/ngot-lanh-vi-hen-song-huong-a198113.html