Formerly a teacher, Ho Viet turned to start a business with smoked meat learned from the Gie Trieng people in Kon Tum.
10 years of “stupid learning”
The smoked meat production facility of Mr. Ho Viet (40 years old) is located in Dak Ha town, Dak Ha district, Kon Tum province.
According to Mr. Viet, living in Dak Glei district (Kon Tum) for more than 10 years, he often sees Gie Trieng people making smoked meat to bring to the fields to eat. When he returned to Dak Ha district, he tried to imitate it and gave it to friends everywhere to enjoy. Eaten a few times, and many people have put him on sale.
Working as an art teacher at a junior high school, he quit teaching to focus on developing his own products. However, Mr. Viet faced many difficulties during the start-up stage, especially finding the right kind of firewood that gave off the right aroma, creating the flavor he wanted.
“In Dak Glei district, Gie Trieng people often use rag firewood to make smoked meat with a rich, aromatic flavor, typical of the Central Highlands. After moving to Dak Ha district, because this type of firewood is rare, I tried dozens of types of firewood, but could not find the same taste as before. This greatly affected the quality of meat when sintering, and the taste was not satisfactory, “said Ho Viet.
After many months of smoking meat with all kinds of firewood, Mr. Viet also found a coffee tree that smells almost like the original smoked meat. In particular, the coffee smoke that permeates the meat stimulates the taste buds. Since then, Mr. Viet has chosen firewood and coffee to smoke meat.
“When making smoked meat, it must be marinated to taste, ensuring it is delicious without spoiling. People who don’t know it often don’t preserve it for long or the meat will smell bad,” Mr. Viet confided.
Anh Viet said that in order to keep the meat from spoiling, the key lies in adjusting the intensity of the fire, the taste of smoke and the time on the rig. After many tries, he used the trunk of a coffee tree to burn the smoke and smoked the meat, and then adjusted the fire to be suitable, and found that the meat was very fragrant and delicious. When he found the secret, he was so happy that he burst into tears. This is what makes his smoked meat unique.
After 8 months of testing, a product with a unique flavor was also born. His smoked meat was praised by many and ordered in large quantities. In addition to serving diners nearby, Mr. Viet also vacuums and refrigerates products to send to people far away. The meat is refrigerated, when eaten, just re-grilled on the charcoal stove, the taste is still like freshly baked meat.
Famous specialties
To make smoked meat, Mr. Viet only uses village pork, which is raised freely by local people. The meat used to smoke is usually in the thighs and shoulders. Meat is cut into fibers about 30x4cm and then marinated with fruits, seeds, tubers and roots of forest trees such as Luh berries, Roong-Go seeds, Sãoh tubers…
After marinating for about 30 minutes, Mr. Viet will skewer the meat on a stick and hang it on the stove. He said, this step must be done quickly to reduce the time the meat is exposed to the air and the environment, keeping the meat fresh and delicious. Just turn the meat evenly on the kitchen like that for 2 days and 2 nights, it can be used.
According to Mr. Viet, more than 3kg of fresh meat can make 1kg of smoked meat. Therefore, he sells smoked pork at a high price, 625,000 VND/kg. Each month, his establishment makes several pounds of smoked meat. On holidays and Tet, the facility processes more than 5 tons of smoked meat, sometimes not having time to send products to customers.($1=25,000 VND)
Not only making a typical food to introduce to people in all regions, Mr. Viet also helps people in the villages consume pigs at a higher price than the market.
Mr. Viet said: “In the days when the pig price went to the bottom, I still bought more to support people. Even though the market price was only 100,000 VND/kg, I still kept the price and bought meat for my relatives for 130,000 VND. /kg of mature pork. After making smoked meat, I also give my relatives the pork belly, heart, head … to improve the meal.”
Making smoked meat not only to sell to earn extra income, Mr. Viet also has the desire to develop community tourism and local cuisine. For that reason, he always creates conditions to provide free pig breeds for ethnic minority people to raise and commits to spending when the pigs are old enough to be released from the barn.
For many years, Mr. Viet has purchased and supplied pig breeds in Ro Koi communes (Sa Thay district), Ngoc Reo (Dak Ha)… Thus, each year, each household has an income of over 50 million VND from farming. sell pigs to Mr. Viet.
According to Mr. Ho Viet, coming from a poor village in Dak Glei district, most of Gie Trieng’s people face difficulties in economic development. Therefore, he wants to create jobs for people here to gradually escape poverty and improve their lives.
Photo: Internet (vinlove.net)