The nearly 30-year-old Moc Mien restaurant in Dong Van town specializes in the sale of au Tau porridge, a dish made from a tuber that is inherently toxic if improperly processed.
Moc Mien restaurant is located in the town center on Highway 4C, nearly 1 km from Dong Van old town. This is one of the oldest au Tau porridge shops and a familiar eating place in Dong Van. The owner of Moc Mien has been selling since 1996. The shop not only serves people in the area but also tourists when stopping in town. Because au Tau porridge is a night dish, the shop is only open in the evening from 6pm.
Au Tau porridge is a typical dish in Ha Giang. Because of the bitter taste, the dish is also called bitter porridge.
Au Tau is a familiar tree of the local people, also known as au Tau, Thu O… which is grown a lot in the highlands of Ha Giang. Poisonous and dangerous fresh tuber, through the processing hands of the people, has become a delicious dish. Au Tau is also a precious medicinal herb, with therapeutic effects such as relieving colds, relaxing muscles, dispelling fatigue, and helping to sleep well.
The ingredients of au Tau porridge include tubers, rice, pork, spring rolls, eggs, vegetables and other ingredients. Ms. Mien spends dozens of hours a day soaking ingredients, pre-processing, and simmering to get a pot of edible porridge. The cooking process requires the cook to have a lot of experience and patience.
The soul and also the main ingredient of this porridge is au tau tuber. Being a poisonous tuber, if processed and used improperly, it will be dangerous. Therefore, to make porridge, tubers must be soaked in concentrated rice water for about 10 hours and simmered for many more hours until all the toxins are released and the tubers are soft.
Ms. Mien said that after simmering the tubers, she would taste them first to make sure the poison in the bulbs had completely disappeared before she could start selling them to customers. If the poison remains, the tip of the tongue will go numb. If not sure, she must continue to cook and try until the poison is gone before selling.
Porridge rice is a kind of glutinous rice with yellow flowers, so it is pure white, has a soft, flexible, and smooth aroma. Pork sausages are selected from locally raised pigs, fresh and delicious, after being picked up, they will be burned to crisp, scraped clean and cut into pieces, crispy before simmering. Minced pork, stir fried.
The ingredients of white porridge, au tau, and pork rolls are cooked in separate pots. When there are guests eating, porridge and ingredients are placed in a bowl and sprinkled with coriander and perilla. In addition to side dishes such as pork rolls, minced meat, guests can add chicken eggs or duck eggs.
The bowl of porridge has the broth of the yellow pork shank mixed with the white, pureed porridge. The bitter, fleshy taste of au tau, the greasy aroma of pork shank and minced meat, combined with the strong aroma of perilla, the spiciness of pepper, and the aroma of scallions create a warm gift for an evening in the highlands.
Moc Mien porridge shop has a simple but spacious space. In front of the entrance is a stall, including a cooking area and a place where a pot of white porridge is always heated on the stove to keep it warm. Next to it is a pot of cooked au tau, processed pork rolls, minced pork, eggs, herbs … are neatly arranged. Guests can eat in or take away.
Each week, a person is advised to eat only 1-2 bowls of Au Tau porridge. Each bowl costs 30,000 VND($1=24,000 VND). In Ha Giang, au tau porridge is also popularly sold in Ha Giang restaurants, Ha Giang city area, and Dong Van town.
Post and photo : Xuan Phuong