Stir-fried finger leaves with garlic, triumphalism, Nam pia, kitchen buffalo meat … are all famous Northwest specialties, if you eat them once, you will never forget!
The Northwestern mountains and forests have a wealth of delicious products, so most of the Northwest specialties are also derived from these unique products, creating their very own dishes with attractive flavors!
Try out the highland specialties!
List of Northwestern specialties ‘addictive’ anyone!
1. Win hard
This is a typical traditional dish of the Mong. “Winning” meat is made from beef, buffalo meat, horse meat and pork. Parts such as heart, heart, liver, blood, meat, bones are put in a pan of boiled water, vegetables can be added with typical spices such as cinnamon, lemongrass, cardamom, lime leaves, ginger … and the tree wins.
Thang Co – a famous specialty of the Northwest (Photo: Cungphuot.info)
When cooked, Thang Co will have a distinct strong smell and thick color, which is difficult to eat if you experience it for the first time. When eating, the pan is still on the stove, and then scoop out the bowl to get there.
This dish is usually made on festivals, forest protection vows, days with crowded people such as village festivals, clans, or fair markets.
Super attractive winning dish! (Photo: Cooky)
2. Meat buffalo, pork at the kitchen guard
This Northwest specialty can be ‘addictive’, eaten once and crushed. The fragrant buffalo meat has a hint of kitchen smoke, but still retains the sweetness of the meat.
Kitchen buffalo meat is a typical dish of the ethnic Dien Bien people . To make delicious buffalo meat, one must carefully filter all tendons, filter the silver, then cut pieces along the grain and marinate with a mixture of spices including lemongrass, ginger, garlic, chopped dried chili, crushed cocoon Then leave for about 2-3 hours, then take a skewer and dry on charcoal, let the meat cook slowly, evenly.
Fragrant pieces of kitchen buffalo meat (Photo: Dulichviet)
When eating, people often put in the saucepan about 30 minutes. The sweetness of buffalo meat is rich in the richness of spices, creating an attractive appeal for upland specialties.
3. Sauteed finger leaves with garlic
Hearing the finger leaf, many people will have to say that “finger leaves cannot be eaten” because of their “poison”, perhaps just eating 2-3 leaves is enough to lead to death. But you cannot expect that in Muong So (Lai Chau) people have processed this leaf into a dish, and it has long been a specialty.
Actually, there are two types of toes that are poisonous and non-toxic. And the garlic-fried finger leaf dish is of course made from a non-toxic type, and even the finger leaves can be used to cook the soup.
Stir-fried finger leaves with rich garlic (Photo: Dulichviet)
After finishing the dish, it has an attractive aroma, the acrid taste, the pulpy taste, the tip of the tongue is sweet and mildly scent. However, when hearing the name of this dish, many diners did not dare to try.
4. Goby fish buried in ash
If you have the opportunity to come to Phong Tho district, do not miss the goby fish with ashes – a specialty of the Thai ethnic group . Goby is available in rivers and streams, after being caught, it is preliminarily processed and marinated with finely chopped spices such as lemongrass, chili, ginger, pepper, cocoon, basil, cuttings … 
Specialty goby fish of the Thai ethnic group
After about 15-30 minutes of marinade, the fish will be packed in the leaves and buried in hot ash, about 30 minutes, turn it over once, just like that a few times the fish will cook.
5. Sapa Salmon
One of the delicious dishes to try when coming to Sapa is salmon. Salmon is raised right in Sapa, so the meat is always fresh, delicious and cheap. 
In the cold weather, there is a salmon hotpot in Sapa
This delicious fish dish most popular is the hotpot with fish head cooked in hot pot, fresh fish served with the freshest vegetables such as chayote, vegetables … Fried salmon is also popular. Another way to eat salmon is to eat it raw with mustard and perilla. On the cold nights of Sapa, spinning around the hot pot, it was nothing more interesting.
6. Buffalo skin rotten
It sounds a bit ‘scary’, but this is the Northwest specialty of the Thai people that is extremely attractive. To make this dish, people cut the buffalo skin and filtered the skin, leave the feathers on, put in a banana leaf roll, and incubate for about two days.
Buffalo skin is rotten, but delicious, hard to resist
In summer, hot weather will make buffalo skin “rot” faster. After the incubation process is complete, the hairs in the skin will fall off and be used to process the grilled buffalo or buffalo skin.
7. Bamboo shoots
Bitter mangosteen is a product and is a very popular dish of the Dien Bien people, and referring to the Northwest specialties, people immediately think about the bamboo shoots.
With bitter laxative bamboo shoots, one can process into many attractive dishes such as stir-fry, boiled, baked, stewed or salted. The simplest is the bitter bamboo shoot with cross-seasoning (a unique Thai sauce) that many people fall in love with.
Bamboo shoots are the product of upland people (Photo: VOV)
For many people who come to Dien Bien, they like grilled bitter bamboo shoots because it still retains its bitter and acrid taste. Unlike other types of fresh bamboo shoots, which need to be soaked in salt to remove all the bitterness, the taste in Dien Bien bitter bamboo shoots is unforgettable bitterness.
8. Nam Loc
This is a Thai specialty , often appearing in banquets for guests of upland people. The main ingredient of the dish is the organs of herbivores such as cows, goats … all cooked well. This dish is quite “difficult to swallow” because of the bitter taste of the heart and “pia” (young feces). 
Nam pia is extremely healthy (Image: Cooky)
Nam pia dish , seeing its ingredients, many people are a bit “panicked”, but this Northwest specialty dish is very nutritious with health, especially its melancholy effect. There are some people who, when hearing the introduction of pia guava for the first time, shake their heads vigorously, then try it, and gradually become addicted to this dish when it is not good. Although this dish is made from “misleading” ingredients, it is very healthy, especially for those who are weak.
9. Lam rice
Going to the Northwest without enjoying the specialties of Lam rice is a big mistake! For a long time, Lam rice has been considered as the favorite food of tourists whenever they have the opportunity to visit the Northern villages.
Bac Me lam rice – famous specialty
People often choose ingredients that are the best sticky rice grown in the upland fields, brought home soaked, washed and sprinkled with salt. Bamboo pipes are the tubes used to cook rice. After taking the bamboo stalks, bamboos, bamboo leaves from the mountain, people will cut off one end, pour sticky rice into a bamboo tube and pour water to reach the top layer of rice, then take banana leaves, leaves button and stopper one end.
The aroma of glutinous rice with sesame salt is delicious
After completing the above steps, the rice is burned on the charcoal stove, slowly spinning and burning, so for about 1 hour, when the end of the tube emits a fragrant aroma, the rice is cooked. tasty. Before eating, people use a knife to split the outer layer of the bamboo tube (now burned black), then strip off the innermost white shell and enjoy the rice dipped in peanut salt, sesame salt. Visiting the Northwest, gathering around the kitchen to cook green rice, inhaling the aroma of sticky rice and waiting for the rolled lamination to be cooked?
Traveling in the highlands, do not forget this list of attractive Northwest specialties to both taste and buy as gifts for friends and relatives!