Explore Vietnam

1. Ca linh bong dien dien hotpot (Vietnamese: Lẩu cá linh bông điên điển)

You can enjoy this special dish during the flooding season in Mekong Delta between September and November. “Bong dien dien” is called Sesbania sesban flower, wild yellow, tine flower which blossoms winding channels, river banks. “Ca linh”, called Danio dangila, a small fish and its meat is fresh and juicy. Dangilas during the early season are fat, soft and you can eat even their bones.

The sour soup is made of coconut, tamarind, fish sauce, sugar, garlic. It’s very delicious combanition of flavors; the fish is sweet and soft, the flower is slightly bitter and the other is sour, sweet, fragant. It’s eaten with white rice vermicelli and cooked rice. 

2. Keo fish hotpot (Vietnamese: Lẩu cá kèo lá giang)

“Ca Keo” is called spiny goby, small fish which looks similar to eel. “La Giang” is ecalled river-leaf creeper growing in forests, side of ponds. After eating this hotpot, you will never forget the sweet of the fish and the sour of river-leaf creeper. It’s served with thin strings of banana flower, bean sprout, water spinach, knotgrass or rau dang. Ca Keo and La Giang hotpot comes with fish sauce mixed with tamarind juice. 

3. Fermented fish hotpot (Vietnamese: Lẩu mắm)

Fermented hotpot is a speciality of southwest regions of Vietnam you have to try. Two most important ingredients to make this hotpot dish are fermented fish and eggplants.

 

There are three fermented fish: Mam ca sat, mam ca linh and mam ca tren, which are the best sauce in Mekong Delta. Besides, lau mam requires various different ingredients such as: Shirmp, cuttlefish, fresh ca hu (a kind of freshwater fish), snakehead. You will never forget specific flavors of the hotpot: a light sweet taste, little spicy and the strong fragrance of fish sauce.

This special dish is served with a lot of fresh vegetables hummingbird flower (bong so dua), Sesbania sesban flower (bong dien dien), limnocharis flava (keo neo), water-lilies, water spinach. People in the Mekong Delta eat this hotpot with rice vermicelli. 

This dish has sour taste of fermented rice, green tamarind and three-leaf cayratia. Eel hotpot requires fresh eel and they are dipped into boiling water for sweet taste. It’s served with banana flower, water spinach, bean sprout, limnocharis flava, mint, water mimosa.

Eel

Three-leaf cayratia

6. Hot pot with duck and fermented tofu (Vietnamese: Lẩu vịt nấu chao)

Pieces of duck have been marinated in four spices including rice wine, slices of old ginger, white and red fermented tofu for 4 hours before being put in the pot, then bring in a special dish with great color and taste. It’s eaten with taro, water spinach, mustard green and rice vermicelli.