After cleaning, the sour ant nest will be mixed with banana flowers, and seasoned with MSG, soup powder, garlic, chili, and a little fresh lemon juice, creating a unique salad.
The Thai ethnic group in Mai Chau (Hoa Binh) is famous for many traditional specialties that attract diners from near and far, such as grilled fish (steamed) with papaya leaves, bamboo-tube rice, grilled chicken/duck in bamboo tubes, snail cake, and rice cake. gai, upland sticky rice, grilled chicken with mac khen…
However, there is a rustic dish that has been familiar to Thai people for a long time but is an obsession for many first-time visitors. That’s an ant mannequin.
According to Ms. Lo Huong Giang, a Thai ethnic person in Xam Khoe commune (Mai Chau, Hoa Binh), currently working as a chef in a local resort: “The type of ants used to make mannequins has a mild sour taste, so people called sour ants.
Ants often live and nest on tall, large trees in the forest, appearing in abundance in the summer, from March to August.
According to Ms. Giang, finding and catching these ant nests is very difficult, requiring people to be experienced, sharp-eyed, and proficient in climbing.
To find ant nests full of ants and eggs, people have to go deep into the forest to search. When brought back, the chef meticulously picked out the anthill to clean all the bark and dry leaves stuck inside.
To make sour ant salad, Thai people combine it with banana flowers, usually young bananas and plantains. Banana flowers are washed, soaked in water mixed with lemon or vinegar for 15-20 minutes, then taken out, drained and sliced thinly.
This dish has a slightly acrid, slightly sour and spicy taste, quite attractive. Gourmets often tell each other that enjoying dishes made from ants and ant eggs must be very leisurely to feel the deliciousness and unique taste that no other dish can have.
“This is the first time I know about and enjoy sour ant salad. When I looked at the ant nest on the plate, I was a bit scared and got goosebumps, but when I ate it, I felt the sour taste was pleasant and somewhat greasy, unlike other dishes. “I’ve enjoyed it,” Ms. Thanh, a tourist from Hanoi, shared.
In our country, there are a number of delicious dishes made from ants, famous in localities such as ant egg cake of the Tay people in the Northeast mountains, yellow ant salt in the Central Highlands, ant egg sticky rice in Bac Giang or ant egg soup in Quang Binh. .
For the Ro Mam people in Le village (Mo Rai commune, Sa Thay district, Kon Tum), fish salad – sour ants is a traditional specialty. The fish and sour ants salad is praised by locals as delicious and cool for the body.
The main ingredients of this dish, in addition to sour ants, are also large, meaty river fish, spices include: salt, MSG, coriander, and chopped green onions. The fish – sour ant salad is very rich, retaining the sweet and fragrant taste of river fish, the sour taste of ants, mixed with the strong aroma of wild vegetables.
According to expert opinions, ant eggs, bee eggs, and silkworm pupae essentially have very good nutritional value. However, ants are a wild animal. When nesting, they often secrete toxins to protect their young, so the possibility of consumers ingesting toxins cannot be ruled out, which can cause allergies and poisoning.
($1=24,000 VND)
Photo,Video: Internet (Vinlove.net)