Impressing with eye-catching colors, red jellyfish has long been a cooling dish that is “hunted” by Hanoi culinary devotees when in the summer.
To reschedule, every year around the beginning of February to May of the lunar calendar, culinary devotees in the capital are eager to find familiar sidewalk shops to enjoy the “famous” summer cooling dish. It is a red jellyfish.
Red jellyfish are seasonal, but the best is around March of the calendar. At this time, a few street vendors or sidewalk stalls are busy preparing red jellyfish plates filled with enough attractive ingredients to serve diners.
Unlike white jellyfish, which is well-known, red jellyfish only appear in Hai Phong and Nam Dinh waters. The jellyfish in Hai Phong has a dark, dark red color while the jellyfish is a lighter, lighter red color imported from Thai Binh.
After catching a jellyfish, one must immediately soak in a bucket of water mixed with roots or bark of the parrot so that the jellyfish does not dissolve, has no fishy smell, and maintains a beautiful red color.
Depending on their preference, diners can choose to eat jellyfish legs or body. Pieces of red jellyfish are sliced into slices and served on a plate. Jellyfish feet are crunchy, lumpy and jellyfish body soft like jelly.
Not only eye-catching color, red jellyfish dish is also memorable because of its special taste and unique way of eating. Diners can enjoy red jellyfish with suddenly or spice, but the best is served with shrimp paste.
Each set of red jellyfish costs about 30,000 VND. In addition to the red jellyfish, the ingredients are herbs (oregano, perilla), grilled beans with turmeric, old coconut pulp and a few slices of lemon.
When eating, diners place the jellyfish on the perilla leaves, in turn add thinly sliced copra and slices of baked beans, curl and dot with shrimp paste. Small shrimp fish sauce bowl is squeezed with lemon, chili, beaten evenly until foam emerges, aroma.
The red jellyfish smells of kumquat, jelly clear and succulent. Taking a bite is enough to feel the coolness radiating throughout the oral cavity. Therefore, many diners “addicted” to red jellyfish often call this an effective “cool down” dish in the summer.
Red jellyfish is odorless, tasteless but still has its own deliciousness thanks to the aroma of vegetables, coconut pulp combined with the taste of turmeric grilled beans. The strangely cool taste of red jellyfish makes diners funny to call this dish the Vietnamese version of sashimi.
Thao Lan – a diners from Saigon to Hanoi for the first time ate red jellyfish could not help but enjoy. “The dish is very strange, soft like jelly but still feels like sashimi. I can’t eat shrimp paste so I dab the jellyfish with suddenly. Being a person who likes rolls, there are many ingredients to eat, so I am satisfied with the dish. red jellyfish, “she shared.
“I have been eating red jellyfish for 4-5 years. If anyone is first enjoying it or sensitizing it will find the jellyfish a bit fishy, not familiar with food. The jellyfish is soft, smooth, succulent, not fishy, has a cool coolness, so it dissipates heat very well, “Quoc Cuong said.
Coming to Hanoi, diners can enjoy red jellyfish at sidewalk eateries or simply carry street vendors with three or more chairs. Small space but enough for you to feel the taste of this “famous” delicious dish. Follow Dân trí
The owner of the 3-life red jellyfish restaurant in Hanoi revealed the best part of the jellyfish when the season is over, revealing that she only uses a bamboo knife instead of a steel knife to cut the jellyfish, making the dish more mysterious.
In this world, perhaps only the culinary field is favored by people and cherishes the element “heirloom” more than anything. Because from the point of view of many people, what else is unknown, but only food and drink must be inherited to have weight, because if they are not delicious, how can they be sold over many generations? Did you hear that right?
And in Hanoi, there are many traditional restaurants, typically these days, everywhere people go out to eat red jellyfish, the characteristic cool gift of spring and summer. Located on a corner of Le Van Huu street, the red jellyfish of Con Ngu has passed through nearly 3 generations, until her daughter’s life is over 70 this year, but still passionate and enthusiastic when talking about magnetic attraction. Pieces of succulent jellyfish, put in your mouth with coconut pulp, grilled tofu and shrimp paste, must be called fragrant and extremely rich.
The owner of the red jellyfish shop, Known as Ha Thanh, is located on Le Van Huu Street.
Is the rumor of red jellyfish very fishy?
Many people in Hanoi for a long time have never tried the red jellyfish dish for fear of the fishy feeling and cold eating. People are afraid that this is true because every jellyfish row is the same, the first moment you step in, you will see a characteristic smell rushing to the nose of the diners. Anyone who eats a lot is considered normal, but those who are not used to it but can not bear it will have to cover their nose and cover their mouth or run away.
However, in fact, that little smell is not really fishy, but just a little bit of betel pulp somewhere like pickled tree roots, but it has a strange cool “look”. In general, the feeling is a bit difficult to describe, but it only takes the first few minutes, and from then on, after being immersed in the jellyfish shop’s space, it is very normal, even diners like to breathe because of listening. it’s refreshing.
The space of Instrument Ngu Jellyfish Shop with jellyfish smell is quite characteristic right from the moment you step in.
It is said that red jellyfish are collected in Hai Phong and Nam Dinh, but to be the most famous, the Hanoians have contributed to its popularity. After catching jellyfish, fishermen must immediately put in water tanks mixed with roots or bark of tiger parrots so that the jellyfish does not melt and retain the original red color of the jellyfish. And does the characteristic smell of jellyfish come from here, is the smell of the bark of a tiger parrot soaked in water?
Red jellyfish with beautiful colors are very suitable for spring-summer.
The jellyfish “bundles” fit in the hands of a longtime salesman.
Red jellyfish is not steamed or grilled like other seafood, but only eaten raw with grilled tofu, coconut pulp, herbs including perilla, oregano and a small bowl of shrimp paste, squeezed with lemon juice. up extremely attractive. This is probably one of the very rare dishes that do not have any grease, so when eating the feeling of coolness is the first thing that can be recognized.
The standard way to eat it is to choose a large perilla leaf and place it inside with marjoram, tofu, copra and jellyfish. The taste of tofu mixed with copra adds a little aroma from 2 types of leaves and finally adds a little salty aroma of shrimp paste, no pen can describe. Maybe it takes to eat once and slowly brooding to feel it clearly.
How to eat red jellyfish of the Hanoians.Listen to the owner of the restaurant, in Hai Phong, people still eat with vinegar, but it seems that shrimp paste is the true love of this seafood
Only use a bamboo knife to cut the jellyfish sharp, adding the mother’s chinaware pot to make the dish even more passionate
Jellyfish after being preliminarily soaked in Hai Phong, they will be put in large and sealed plastic bags and transferred to Hanoi. Quan Instrument Language entered each time also had to come to this bag. The next step will be to remove the jellyfish and soak it like one or the cucumber salt, compress it tightly so that the amount of salt inside the jellyfish secretes. After a certain period of time, knowing the jellyfish has reached an edible level, it will be washed away, put in a pot with a little water and then sold.
“Once upon a time when the jellyfish eaters started to eat it, but now, no one eats like that, so I have to take a while to let it down. My family is 3 or 4 years old now. I started working as a jellyfish when I was 15 years old. Before, my mother sold it at the market today, but since my life, it has been more than 20 years, “ said Mrs. Ngu’s daughter.
The descendants of Cu Ngu jellyfish goods are so famous for the day market that the Hanoi gourmets have to wait inside and out, sometimes waiting in line for their turn.
Having said that, the person who took over the brand of red jellyfish inherited to love the ceramic pot and said it was a treasure that her mother left behind. Before she died, Mrs. Ngu gave her 5 ceramic pots, but until now, most of them have broken, only one remains, so she is very precious, all day walking in and out, looking at the jellyfish pots, whatever you do. be careful little by little lest you fear breaking the last memento.
The ceramic pot has passed 2 generations and is still very good now.
As she was talking, she had a guest come in, it was a middle-aged girl who ate jellyfish every afternoon. Old woman’s daughter is over 70 this year, but her hands and feet quickly grabbed a bamboo knife and cut through the jellyfish’s body. Strange, normally only a knife made of iron and steel could sharpen it like that, but no one thought that only a thin bamboo stick would have such intense power, no matter how far the jellyfish came out.
A male guest nearby said: “If jellyfish cut with a stainless steel knife, it will only spoil and run out of water, so we have to use this bamboo stick. Her family has used bamboo sticks for a long time, but it seems to be the smell of bamboo. blending with this jellyfish juice makes jellyfish fragrant. I’ve been here for many years, every year seeing her using only that same bamboo stick, but it’s really sharp.
As for Mrs. Ngu’s daughter, she kept smiling, she said that her mother used a bamboo stick, she also used it, it was like a habit, so now that she switched to an iron knife, she must find it strange.
Choose the best part of the jellyfish to serve, so every day, they sell out 2 oats
Jellyfish at Instrument Ngu restaurant has many special features compared to other stores because the owner only likes to sell jellyfish feet, very few take jellyfish covers. Listen to her, this leg is 4 times more expensive than the cover because it is more crispy. If you buy 100 thousand jellyfish feet, that same amount of jellyfish cover only costs 30,000. Perhaps, the jellyfish from the Instrument Ngu house is delicious and has been eaten by generations of Hanoians, so they can enjoy the best part of the jellyfish.
“Jellyfish will be the most beautiful red on new sunny days. At that time, the sun makes it shine like a gem. On average, during the days of the season, I sell more than 2 oats. selected and made clean.For tofu, I rented a grill in a prestigious place.
In the morning around 10 o’clock, I usually sell to a couple to deliver food, but in the afternoon, almost 4 o’clock is out of stock, whoever is late must go home and wait the next day. There are also a lot of people who come to ask me to buy the brand name, but I think what is inherited should only be done by a family member to take out the sacred “.
The jellyfish at the Instrument Language store is usually the foot section, although it is expensive, it is much better than the cover.
Saying that, the hands of old woman’s daughter continued to cut jellyfish. For many years now, she has been using that bamboo stick from when her hands are still smooth and now wrinkled. She used to be sick from a fall, until now her leg is still a bit limp, but when it comes to jellyfish season, she has to put up for sale, otherwise she feels so much apologetic to her.
After her life, do not know who the red jellyfish brand Instrument Ngu will be held here so that the Hanoians can still eat this periodic delicacy !?