Starting from the hard work of people going to the forest from early morning to late evening, they have to bring a little rice so that when hungry they will cut down the bamboo in the forest, put rice and spring water to cook it into present-day rice.
For many generations now, Lam rice has existed in the life of Muong ethnic people in Kim Boi, Hoa Binh. Com lam is simply a familiar way of calling people here with how to cook rice with cork (Muong people call it to tube).
Mr. Bui Duc Tiep, a Muong ethnic living in Ha Bi commune (Kim Boi, Hoa Binh) who has many years of experience in making green rice, said: “In the past, every time people went up the mountain to work in the mountains from dream to dark. Back. By the way a knife is worn on the side and the forest is immense, people think of ways to bring rice and sesame salt to blow rice in a bamboo tube, dipping it with sesame salt to taste delicious and full for a long time.
Hoa Binh is also the “cradle” of famous sticky sticky rice, so today lam rice has become a popular tourist product. In order to create sticky and fragrant lamina rice seeds, you must choose a kind of upland sticky rice with moderate, oblong, white and fragrant grains. The rice is soaked for 8-10 hours, then drained and placed in a cork.
Must choose biscuits that are not too old or too young. Because the aroma of cork will mingle with the aroma of sticky rice when baked, creating the characteristic flavor of lam rice in Kim Boi.
When pouring rice into cork tubes, do not compress too tightly. Finally, use sticky rice leaves to roll tightly, seal the mouth of the tube and then arrange it on the grill. In the past, people baked rice with firewood, but today mainly use charcoal because it keeps the heat well, the rice is cooked evenly.
The rice is grilled for about 50 minutes, must be directly heated and rotated regularly, keeping the heat moderate. If the fragrance comes out from the blue tube, the rice is about to ripen.
After the rice is cooked, it is brought out to peel the scorched green tube. Cutting and gripping also requires a lot of sophistication so as not to get caught up in the rice.
To make the lam rice dish more attractive, visitors can eat it with chicken, grilled meat, but the best taste is still sesame salt. When eaten, rice has a sweet taste and a very specific aroma of bamboo, mixed with the aroma of upland sticky rice.
Since tourism has developed locally, Lam rice has become a favorite food for tourists, thus bringing economic benefits to hundreds of households in the tourist attractions of Kim Boi district such as: Mineral springs, Cuu Thac, Sun Waterfall …
Mr. Tiep also added that in order to make the blue rice dish eye-catching, he created the purple color of the mint leaves, the green color of the pineapple leaves and the yellow color from turmeric. Crush, grind these leaves and filter to get the water soaked with rice. Currently, according to the needs of tourists, his family also mixes sticky rice with shredded coconut pulp.
When eating this specialty, diners skillfully separate the rice so that the rice inside doesn’t stick to the cork. The fragrant glutinous rice grains blended with the greasy flavor of coconut milk, which will surely bring attractive flavors to diners when coming to this mountainous region.
Lam rice tube of Muong people is usually smaller and tastes different from lam rice of ethnic minorities in mountainous provinces such as Cao Bang, Tuyen Quang, Lang Son …
During festivals, holidays, tourists come to visit the crowd. One day, Mr. Tiep sells more than 200 rice tubes.
It can be said that lam rice not only enriches the cuisine of Muong people but also contributes to promoting Muong Hoa Binh culture in general, Kim Boi district in particular to tourists when visiting tourism.
Dân trí