Moc Chau is the land of green tea hills with an area of 2.025 km, located in Sơn La Province in Northwest of Vietnam and 200km drive to Hanoi. highlands full of life and delicious Vietnamese foods. Let’s explore what to eat in Moc Chau with the Best Asia Tour travel guide article. Below is a list of some of the most popular Vietnamese foods and vegetables in Moc Chau.
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Fried Veal cooked with fermented bean curd
The calves born in Moc Chau when born are sexually determined, if they are female, they will be kept for milk, while the male calves will not be reproduced. When the calf was eliminated, the people in Moc Chau plateau turned it into a nutritious, delicious and attractive dish – Veal cooked with fermented bean curd.
Fried Veal cooked with fermented bean curd
The way to make this dish is not so difficult, with the material is veal (However, the most delicious veal must be made from the meat of young calves that have just been born 7 days old, only breastfed but haven’t eaten any kind of grass on the steppes, like that, the new veal is absolutely delicious with every piece of veal crunchy, firm, and not only not dry, but also very soft and sweet). Veal is cut into small pieces, marinated with lemongrass, ginger, spices and then dipped it through boiling oil. Because of the premium veal, the dish is soft, sweet, and not fat.
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Brassica Oleracea
Moc Chau Brassica Oleracea is only available in winter and spring. It was originally planted here by the locals around the fields to serve the needs of their families and to treat their guests. In the middle of autumn to the end of autumn, they bring seeds to spread around the garden, around the fields without fencing, beds, nor need to care, water or bath. Just like that, the plant will extract the sap of the tree itself, get the nutrition from the ravine ground, and grow from the cold mist of the Northwest mountainous region. Yet, the Moc Chau Brassica Oleracea are green, tall, and smooth, just looking at them and feeling great.
Brassica Oleracea
In recent years, due to the increasing demand for eating it of tourists from everywhere, ethnic people in Moc Chau have learn how to plant in rows and beds for trading purpose. However, the way of planting is still rudimentary so it still retains its wild domestic flavors.
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Mộc Châu Spring fish
When the blooming season of white mustard flowers in Moc Chau comes, it is also the time for tourists to come to this place. Enjoying local food is one of the activities that tourists should not miss. In the early winter days, when dew widespread across the way, tasting hot spring fish will leave you with many beautiful impressions of this land.
Mộc Châu Spring fish
It does not seem to be known by their own name but collectively referred to be called spring fish. Because in this dish, there are many different types of fish, including goby, sometimes with catfish or perch. There are stream fish in Moc Chau often have a round body, round mouth, some catfish, some are scaly, some are small as the little finger, the big one is only slightly more than 2 fingers. This is a type of fish spawning naturally in streams flowing from natural glands and they are simple to wash, clamp bamboo sticks then grill it on the charcoal, it would be fragrant and sweet that without saying a word.
To make this dish more sophisticated, the fish after being prepared is marinated with some forest vegetables, lemongrass, chili, and use bamboo sticks to grip. Putting it on charcoal about 15 minutes until the fish turns brown and smells good is edible. Adding some spicy sauce, this dish will make you got drunk. Due to the simple and easy to make, it is often baked, cook sour soup, or cook with wild banana trees.
The most popular and delicious dish when you come to local restaurants in Moc Chau is fried spring fish which is loved because of the crispy of the fish meat and bones and fish meat after being processed will no longer be fishy. The taste of it is fleshy, sweet and crunchy. In particular, spring fish is always eaten with lush green vegetables such as lettuce, chopped cabbage, mixed with coriander and basil so it creates a feeling of not bored. There are also some places with eating with a delicious banana salad.
Restaurants often offer guests two options for a dipping sauce with some pieces of fresh chili or ginger soy sauce. However, no matter what sauce did you choose, you will never feel full.
You can find this dish easily at any of the street food courts in Moc Chau. The average price ranges from VND 80,000 to VND 100,000 for 1 portion. The most famous fish restaurant in Moc Chau is Dong Hai Moc Chau restaurant, or other choices are 64 and 181 Xuan Bac restaurant.
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Mộc Châu Salmon
Salmon is a fish that only lives in cold regions such as America, Europe which has been successfully imported to raise in Moc Chau. With a rich taste, beautiful meat color and high nutritional value, salmon is becoming a famous dish for travelers when traveling to Moc Chau. The delicious of this dish is not only its taste but also because of the curiosity that wants a taste of many diners. With a cool climate throughout the year and a cold winter, Moc Chau salmon has firm meat, no fat, it is suitable for being cooked into many different dishes. The most outstanding dishes are salmon hotpot, salmon salad, grilled salmon.
Mộc Châu Salmon
In the cold weather of Moc Chau, enjoying a hot pot of salmon and drink a little bit of the corn wine with the forest vegetables still standing down in the morning mist will surely get an unforgettable impression.
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Mộc Châu Taro/Coco-yam
Many people are familiar with this taro which is grown by the Dao people in Moc Chau (Son La Province). Other lands also have this kind of taro but to compare with the deliciousness of taro made by the Dao people no place can beat it. The shape of this taro/coco-yam is also very strange, its “skin” like the skull taro and have a random size. When you slice, it has a yellow color and looks like Japanese sweet potatoes, or white tubers also.
Mộc Châu Taro/Coco-yam
According to many people, this kind of taro cannot plant at home, only Dao people in Moc Chau, in particular, such as Chieng Sai, Chieng Chung … can cultivate, planting new ones for high productivity. Moc Chau Taro is usually sold around July to October, November. If you have the opportunity to go to Moc Chau during these times, do not forget to buy some as a gift for friends and family.
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Mộc Châu Chayote
Although the harvest time is up to 8 to 10 months per crop, but with its high productivity, Moc Chau chayote becomes the main crop of many families in Moc Chau.
Mộc Châu Chayote
With the advantage of the farmyard and climate of the vasty steppe region, suitable for temperate and subtropical plants, chayote trees come to Moc Chau and grow very fast, with good quality.
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Mộc Châu Strawberry
About a kilometer away from the Ang village area, there is an area where orchids and strawberries have been experimented and produced for recent years. Strawberry experimentally grew in Moc Chau around 4-5 years ago, it has become its foothold by suitable geological and climate. Many gardeners are now expanding the area for planting and export to big cities and processing it into jam, wine.
Mộc Châu Strawberry
Strawberries have been experimentally cultivated in Moc Chau for several years and the results have been positive due to its suitability to the highland soils and cool mountainous climate year-round. Similar to the weather in Da Lat but less rain, Moc Chau plateau has initially produced delicious strawberries but has not been sold much.
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Mộc Châu Tea
Currently, Moc Chau has around 3,000 hectares of tea with different types. The rolling hills of tea made Moc Chau a poetic green pearl. These tea trees are closely connected with the lives of residents. Up to now, It is one of the symbols of Moc Chau plateau.
Mộc Châu Tea
Besides, tourists can also enjoy the taste of the most famous teas of Moc Chau plateau. It is San Tuyet tea which made from a few hundred years old tea tree here. There are also Oolong tea, Kim Tuyen tea. Each of them has different tastes and cannot be confused with other teas in Vietnam.
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Moc Chau Five-Colored Sticky Rice
Another special dish in Moc Chau is sticky rice with five colors. When you going on the trip to Moc Chau, you will discover it everywhere because it is almost popular in Northwest Vietnam. The main ingredient to make it is sticky rice, but to make it becomes colorful like that you should need some other ingredients are leaves and fruits from the forest such as magenta, pandan, turmeric, and spiny bitter gourd. That is the reason why the colors you see in this sticky rice are totally got from nature; they are not artificial at all. Depending on each type of forest leaves, the food will have red, yellow, orange, purple, black, etc.
Mộc Châu Five-colored Sticky Rice
People believed that the five colors of sit symbolized the five elements: white is for metal, green is the color of forest, black is the color of water, red is the color of fire, yellow is the color of earth. It is thought that the existence of the five elements makes the lushness of Sky – Earth – People. With the Tay people – the ethnic people who famous for making this dish have the habit of eating five-colored sticky rice during holidays, especially the Tet holiday, they believed that it will help them meet many good and lucky things.
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Mộc Châu Dairy products
With thousands of cows raised on the farm, dairy products from Moc Chau are one of the things you should try when you arrive here. If you have a chance, you should enjoy one cup of fresh milk heated up just after being squeezed.
Mộc Châu Dairy products
Other products made from milk that you should try are yogurt, butter or whey. You can buy these products in any store on the way to the Town.
