Coming to Cam mountain, visitors can not only visit the beautiful scenery but also enjoy many delicious dishes of the mountains, including crabs and mountain snails, which are rare specialties that other places do not have.
Forbidden mountain snail is still fresh. PHOTO: THIEN LOC
Cam Mountain (Thien Cam Son, An Hao Commune, Tinh Bien district, An Giang province) is one of the spiritual tourist resorts attracting a large number of pilgrims and tourists in the West thanks to the cool, fresh climate of the Thuy Tu Son Ky area. With an exploratory nature, once I went to Cam Mountain, I asked Mr. Son – a “local” here, to lead the hunt for crabs.
That day, in the afternoon rain, the sky was mild, Mr. Son led us along the winding streams. He illuminated the flashlight while observing, every time he saw the crab, he used a fishing rod, dropped it by the elastic, and clicked a few times. This crab breed is very eager to eat, the moment he saw the elastic band, he thought it was a worm, so he took the clamp. The fisherman only lightly lifts the lever to put the crabs in the basket. After 2 hours, we caught nearly 1 kg of crabs.
 Forbidden mountain crab bib is very beautiful purplePHOTO: THIEN LOC |
The mountain crab is as big as the field crab but the bigger the female, the purple crab cover Many people compliment that the meat of Cam Mountain crab is delicious, both fragrant and fatty, especially the delicious crab bibs without criticism, firm flesh, crispy and soft, characteristic taste, darkly sweet, not smelly like a crab.
Another time, also in the rainy season, I met Nguyen Huu Tai, a resident living in the mountains, specializing in snail hunting. Mr. Tai said that mountain snails are only found in Cam mountain and Dai mountain. The snail is round, slightly flat, the size of the thumb, and lives underneath the caves, mountains and under the trees, mostly in banana bushes, so it is called banana snail. This snail usually crawls to the ground for food in the rainy season, especially at night, when it is cool. The meaty mountain snail is also fragrant, delicious and crispy, not inferior to the mountain crab.
 Mr. Nguyen Huu Tai, who specializes in hunting mountain snails for sale to tourists. PHOTO: THIEN LOC |
Local people say that crabs and snails are very nutritious. Some people deduce that mountain crabs eat worms, and mountain snails are strange snails, they eat leaves that taste medicinal so their meat is very “medicinal”. Whoever eats it will benefit health .
The good news is good, so tourists who are discerning about cuisine, every time they go to Cam mountain, often find crab hunters and snail hunters with pre-order. Because more and more tourists are ordering, the price of mountain crabs from 150,000 VND / kg now increases to 200,000 VND / kg; mountain snails from 200,000 VND / kg soared to 300,000 VND / kg but still not enough to sell. The best mountain crab is fried tamarind, steamed in water, while the most attractive mountain snail is boiled lemongrass or stir-fried with onion fat with salt and lemon pepper.
According to many tourists, the hunting of crabs and snails on Cam Mountain is still inadequate at present. There is an opinion that if hunting in the neo-genocide style, one day, not far from mountain crabs and mountain snails will be extinct. There is an opinion that crabs and mountain snails are tourism specialties, “wild birds, water fish, everyone can eat”, why not exploit to serve tourists from far away …
Thanh Nien