Not only attractive by its natural scenery, Sa Pa also makes tourists "fall in love" with dishes imbued with the flavor of the mountains and forests.
Among them, the wild chicken tray served with bamboo rice is a choice that many people come to fully experience the cuisine of the highlands.
Wild chicken, also known as Sa Pa black chicken, is a native chicken breed of the H'Mong people, raised naturally on hills and mountains.
Thanks to that, the chicken meat is firm, low in fat, with crispy skin and a characteristic rich sweet taste, completely different from industrially raised chickens.
This is also the ingredient that creates the appeal for chicken dishes in the specialty tray.
A standard wild chicken tray is usually fully prepared with many diverse dishes, each dish has its own flavor but is perfectly harmonious.
Prominent examples include grilled green pepper rooster with golden skin, fragrant and slightly spicy; lemon leaf steamed rooster retains its natural sweetness, with a faint scent of pleasant essential oils.
Besides, there are crispy and flavorful salt-roasted local chicken; spicy garlic and chili fried chicken that stimulates taste buds; fragrant lemongrass and chili stir-fried chicken, bringing rice.
In addition, many places also serve crispy and fatty roasted chicken or pumpkin chicken - a dish that is both strange and nutritious, combining the sweetness of chicken and the butteriness of pumpkin.
The richness in processing methods helps diners to fully enjoy the flavor of local chicken in just one tray.
The special feature of the dish is not only in the flavor but also in the way of enjoying it. The chicken tray is often placed in the middle of the table, everyone gathers together to tear the meat, dip it in salt or chem cheo - a typical spice of the Northwest. It is this simplicity and closeness that creates a unique culinary experience.
Indispensable when eating a chicken tray is bamboo rice - a familiar dish of the highland people. Rice is cooked from upland sticky rice, put in bamboo tubes and grilled over charcoal. When cooked, the rice grains are chewy and fragrant, with a faint smell of bamboo and rattan, the aroma of magenta leaves, bringing a natural sweetness, eating with chicken meat makes the flavor even more round.
The combination of bamboo rice and wild chicken creates a harmonious overall, both rustic and unforgettable.
In Sa Pa, tourists can easily find restaurants serving wild chicken and bamboo rice such as A Phu Restaurant, Tuk Tuk restaurant, Muong Lay Quan...
These are all famous addresses with Northwest specialties, chosen by many tourists when visiting.
In the chilly weather of Sa Pa, sitting next to a hot chicken tray, enjoying each fragrant piece of meat with sticky and buttery bamboo rice, feeling the spreading scent of the mountains and forests - that is an experience that many people remember forever.
And it is these simple but rich dishes that contribute to creating a very unique attraction of Sa Pa in the hearts of tourists.
