Another, more elaborate way of making com chay is to leave cooked rice out to dry then deep-fry the grains in oil until they puff out (it takes 30 seconds or so) to make crispy rice crackers. These rice crackers can then be stored in a well-sealed container for several weeks. They make a handy pantry item. You can drop them into hot sauce or soup as croutons or use them to scoop out a savoury sauce as I did in Ninh Binh.

Rice crackers

Ninh Binh is considered the homeland of com chay. The story goes that once there was a young man by the name of Hoang Thang from Ninh Binh who worked for a famous Chinese restaurant owner in Hanoi. The young man was a sharp and creative chef and soon he was creating chefs more delicious than the master chef. But then the young chef fell in love with the restaurant owner’s daughter but his boss disapproved of his intentions so Thang returned to his hometown. There he opened a restaurant which made a special style of com chay thanks to the techniques he’d learned from the Chinese chefs.

Hoang Thang’s restaurant was a success and he soon turned the dish into a local speciality. Impressed by the young man’s achievements, the owner of the Chinese restaurant in Hanoi changed his mind and offered his daughter’s hand in marriage to Thang. The two men then worked together and opened a number of successful restaurants.

Today in Ninh Binh you will find com chay everywhere – often served with goat meat. But for those of you in Hanoi head to Ninh Binh Goat Meat & Rice Crust Restaurant, 5/22 Luong Khanh Thien street, Hoang Mai district, Hanoi, Phu De – Truong Yen Restaurant, 391 Nguyen Khang street, Cau Giay district or Ha Restaurant, 63 Pham Hong Thai, Ba Dinh district.
Source: Timeout (Vietnam’s leading magazine for travel, lifestyle, leisure and culture)

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Otter Snout Clams

Before cooking, otter snout clam shells should be removed and washed before the meat can be made into tasty dishes as follows:

Grilled Otter Snout Clams

Fry some dried onion with chicken oil until it releases a scent. Cover the otter snout clams with this oil and then grill. You can also add peanuts, coriander, pepper and chilli oil to enhance the flavour.

Raw Otter Snout Clams

After cleaning, the otter snout clam meat is kept in its shell. Before serving, squeeze on some lemon juice and add some chilli sauce or wasabi. This dish can be eaten with red caviar.

Otter snout clams can also be fried, steamed, or roasted with cheese and fresh milk. Its unique fragrance enchants both tourists and the locals in Quang Ninh, and it has become the signature dish to be served at Quang Ninh parties in recent years.

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Vietnamese phở noodle soup with sliced rare beef and well done beef brisket.

Phở is served in a bowl with white rice noodles in clear beef broth, with thin cuts of beef (steak, fatty flank, lean flank, brisket). Variations featuring tendon, tripe, meatballs, chicken leg, chicken breast, or other chicken organs. ‘With the lot’ (made with chicken broth and all or most of the shop’s chicken and cattle offerings, including chicken hearts and livers and beef tripe and tendons) is known as ‘Phở đặc biệt’ (specialty phở) There are also various vegetarian varieties of phở.

Broth
The broth is generally made by simmering beef (and sometimes chicken) bones, oxtails, flank steak, charred onion, and spices, taking several hours to prepare. Seasonings include Saigon cinnamon, star anise, charred ginger, and cloves

Noodles
The noodles, called bánh phở in Vietnamese, are traditionally cut from wide sheets of fresh rice noodles similar to Chinese Shahe fen, although dried noodles (also called “rice sticks”) may also be used. Fresh noodles have a chewy, al dente texture, though they are more expensive and highly perishable. Dried pho is much softer and more affordable. Pho noodles should not be confused with clear noodles.

Garnishes
The dish is garnished with ingredients such as green onions, white onions, coriander leaves (cilantro), ngò gai (culantro, or long coriander), Thai basil, fresh Thai chili peppers, lemon or lime wedges, and bean sprouts.

Origins and regional differences
Because not much was written about the origin of phở until recently, its beginnings are a bit murky and mostly culled from oral histories. Still, the consensus among academics, diners and restaurateurs is that it originated about a century ago in northern Vietnam. It was originally sold by venders from large boxes, until the first phở restaurant was opened in the 1920s in Hanoi.

Phở gà at a typical phở street stall in Hanoi. Note the lack of side garnishes, typical of Northern Vietnamese-style phở.

While a distinctly Vietnamese dish, phở has French and Chinese influences. The origin of the word was one subject in a seminar on phở held in Hanoi in 2003. One theory advanced at the seminar is that the name comes from the French feu (fire), as in the dish pot-au-feu, which like pho uses the French method of adding charred o­nion to the broth for color and flavor, one of the techniques which distinguishes pho from other Asian noodle soups. Some believe the origin of the word to be the Chinese fen. In addition to rice noodles, multiple spices (such as star anise and cinnamon) are staples of Chinese cuisine (although the cinnamon used in phở, Saigon Cinnamon, is not a true cinnamon and is a local ingredient).

The variations in meat, broth and additional garnishes such as lime, bean sprouts, ngo gai (thorny cilantro), hung que (Thai/Asian basil), and tuong (bean sauce/hoisin sauce) appear to be innovations introduced in the south.

The specific place of origin appears to be southwest of Hanoi in Nam Dinh province, then a substantial textile market, where cooks sought to please both Vietnamese (local rice noodles - originally of Chinese origin) and French tastes (cattle before the French arrival being beasts of burden, not sources of beef).

Phở did not become popular in South Vietnam until 1954.

Cultural practices
Phở can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The noodles are usually picked up with chopsticks and placed onto a soup spoon. The spoon is then dunked into the broth and topped with meat/condiments and eaten. Vietnamese phở restaurants usually retain the cultural practice of not delivering the bill to a customer’s table, since it is considered rude—in the Vietnamese culture, it is seen as a way of trying to rush the customer out the door.

Most tables usually have a numbering system and have chopsticks, spoons, serviettes and condiment dispensers. Hot sauce, usually either an XO sauce or sate chili sauce, and hoisin sauce are also available for those that like to dip their meat in them or add them to the soup.

Styles of phở

The most common variety of phở is a beef phở, called phở bò.

Another variation of phở uses egg noodles instead of rice noodles, which was based in Northern Vietnam. There are also Korean, Thai, and Lao variants of phở. Lao phở (feu) is usually topped with fried garlic. Another style of phở which is rare even among Vietnamese is phở tái lăn (phở with medium-cooked beef). Other cultures, such as the Chinese and Korean cultures, have adapted phở and provide a larger amount of onions as a side that is usually mixed with Sriracha sauce and Hoisin sauce.

Adapting to local tastes and diets, some Vietnamese restaurants in the United States offer chicken-based phở, called phở gà, or phở without visible pieces of meat (called phở rau), or vegetarian phở (called phở chay). Phở rau (rau literally meaning “leafy greens,” but implying vegetables) may use a meat-based broth, while phở chay (literally “Buddhist vegetarian phở”) features a non-meat broth. The time it takes to make the non-meat-based broth is much shorter and less tedious but has a different and lighter broth taste compared to the traditional beef noodle soup. Seafood-based phở is also commonly available

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Only a few years ago, breeding crocodiles was unimaginable work for the residents of the suburban district, most of who were farmers who struggled to make ends meets.

Crocodile catching is a popular activity for visitors to the crocodile village

In late 2003, a crocodile village was set up in the district by the Hoa Ca Crocodile Company, kickstarting a “crocodile boom.”

Saigon Crocodile Village was built on a swamp, the ideal habitat for crocodiles.

The eight square kilometer complex includes a breeding area, restaurants serving crocodile dishes, a factory that makes craft products from crocodile skin, an exhibition center as well as a shop that sells souvenirs made from crocodile skin, claws and teeth.

The crocodile village is part of local authorities’ poverty alleviation project in which local farmers were provided with financial aid and year-old crocodiles for breeding.

Crocodile breeding requires constant care and facilities for various stages of the reptiles’ growth.

Mature and young crocs must be kept separately and each farm must have different areas for breeding, hatchlings and the reptiles that will be slaughtered for their meat.

Each area must include a small pond which resembles the natural habitat of crocodiles, where they animal can mate and protect their eyes from getting dry.

Most of the crocodiles bred in the village are the freshwater Crocodylus siamensis which only lay eggs once a year.

The most difficult process of raising crocs is taking care of the newly-hatched babies. They are cared for in a special room with a stable temperature and moisture levels to avoid diseases.

When the crocs reach one to two years old, they will be moved to a different area to preserve the quality of the skin. Their skin will be processed by the villagers to become craft products and souvenirs.

The village’s exhibition center displays more than 100 items made from crocodiles, including wallets, belts, suitcases, footwear and household ornaments.

Visitors from around the world go to the village for the thrill of feeding the deadly reptiles or catching a glimpse of their blazing red eyes at night.

A wide variety of crocodile dishes are on the menu at the Nha Hang Sau Hoa Ca (Crocodile Restaurant), such as curried crocodile, crocodile steamed with ginger, barbecued crocodile and crocodile spring rolls.

Crocodile meat is light pink and similar to veal but softer and tastier. It is also more nutritious than beef, pork and chicken.

The crocodile village has registered Ca Sau Hoa Ca as a trademark in Vietnam for its special crocodile dishes.

The Crocodile Village has been granted permission from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora to export crocodiles products.

The new trend of farming has provided employment to hundreds of local families.

In 2005, HCMC authorities recognized crocodile farming as a key industry which will generate revenue and create tourism and export opportunities, Saigon Times reported.

Last year, HCMC was home to 168,000 farmed crocodiles, exceeding the agricultural sector’s target of having 100,000 crocs by 2010.

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