The flood season is approaching, and everywhere is chillingly cold. But why is the smell of congee clams so fragrant in the monsoon wind?
FROM CLAM TO CLAM ANIMAL...
There is something with a strange name like a clam. A clam is also a clam, to create a compound word "nghe ngao". However, "nghe ngao" is no longer a bivalve mollusk that lives in estuaries and seas from the South to the North, but has become a very... silly verb.
People hum songs, people hum poetry, which means they just hum songs, read something to relieve boredom, without any purpose, without any seriousness. Just hum, like on a rainy day, lying on a hammock watching the water rise and flood the streets and hum a few love songs.
Clams and clams are like that, but there is also clams and crabs. Although crabs are completely different from clams, when these two words are combined together, they become adjectives that describe the feeling and mood of being bored. When people are bored, they feel very bored and sad, and are no longer “nourishing yin, nourishing yang, nourishing the bed, nourishing the mat” like clam meat and crab meat.
Therefore, "nghe ngao" or "nghe nguoi" is very real, very popular, completely foreign to academic language. They have been associated with rustic life since ancient times like clams, clams. Sometimes when seeing clams, clams open their mouths to offer themselves, our people created the word "nghe ngao". And from then on, whenever we are sad, we open our mouths and hum to relieve our sadness.
The famous folk play Ngheu, So, Oc, Hen originated in Quang Nam and was only popular here. It was not until 1959 that the General Secretary of the Vietnam Stage Artists Association, Hoang Chau Ky, officially staged the play with that name so that it would be famous everywhere.
Aquatic animals that “live in the muddy bottom” of rivers, lakes, and ponds such as Clams, Snails, and Mussels are also the poor people in feudal society, such as the fortuneteller Ngheu, the thief Oc, and the mussel lady. Even the Clam Boss has become a typical folklore character, becoming a noun referring to a person.
The hum is inherently like that, originating from an animal, a food, a dish that is very familiar not only to the people of Quang but also to the whole of Vietnam. Available, cheap, delicious, that is clam with clam, and then it becomes a long-winded hum of a few words from the countryside.
The clams of Quang Nam are strangely compatible with the soil of the Thu Bon River estuary. In famous clam growing areas such as Long Hai, Ca Mau, Nam Dinh, and Thai Binh, they prefer to grow and live in tidal flats on shallow seas, where the river estuary flows into the sea, which has a bottom structure of sand mixed with mud.
However, in the Hoi An area, clams are especially developed at the mouth of the Thu Bon River flowing into the sea. The soil structure of the Thu Bon River bottom has a high ratio of sand and fine mud, rich in plankton, moss, and algae, so clams have a clean habitat, abundant food sources, and therefore the meat is fatty and clean.
The rainy season in Quang Nam is also the time when clams grow the most strongly. Organic substances in the river mouth are abundant, so clam mines are formed under the Thu Bon river mouth or in the Cua Dai sea area, as well as the clam digging profession and dishes cooked from clams.
That is also a favor of the Thu Bon River for the “arguing Quang Nam people”, because no place can argue with the plump, milky white, sweet, fragrant clams of Quang Nam. How can you argue with the clams that only need to be “a little hot” to open their mouths wide, exposing all their deliciousness?
Clams are the livelihood of the local people, especially the poor. Going down to the river or digging for fun is enough to eat clams, selling clams for a living. It is no coincidence that Ngheu became a fortune teller, telling the guy Oc how to make a living by stealing from the Clam Boss and then selling them to Thi Hen in an old play.
...THINK THE BOWL OF CLAM PORRIDGE
These days, it is quite interesting to visit Hoi An. Instead of swimming at An Bang beach or watching Hoi An lanterns, you go see the floods. Water from the Thu Bon and Hoai rivers (a branch of the Thu Bon river) overflows the banks with the rain and floods upstream, turning Hoi An into a “Vietnamese version of Venice”, with bustling boats traveling on the streets.
On flood days, Hoi An has a special charm, making local leaders cherish the idea of turning danger into opportunity, turning floods into a “Tourism Festival”. It will no longer be about experiencing the scorching sun or the “wet before rain” weather, but about wading in water, bathing in the rain, enjoying the cold air and eating congee clams.
It is truly a waste not to eat clam congee on the days when “the city suddenly becomes a winding river”. Because clams at this time are extremely fragrant, fatty, and sweet. After playing in the water, being able to slurp a bowl of hot, fragrant, and spicy clam congee is truly a joy.
The best clam congee in Hoi An is probably the congee shops in An Bang coastal village. This is a popular congee dish that everyone can eat. Once you eat it, you will only praise it, not criticize it, only love it, not get bored. Because the way to cook congee here is very simple, but thanks to that, it shows off all the deliciousness of this local clam.
The clams are scooped up or bought fresh, soaked in clean water for one or two hours to release all the sand, then boiled. Just looking at the batch of boiled clams, you can tell they are unusually delicious because as soon as the water starts to boil, the clams' mouths are wide open, almost a hundred of them open their mouths, just peeling gently will cause the meat to slip out of the shell.
The clam meat is cleaned of the black intestines, then washed clean, then marinated with fish sauce, salt, minced ginger, black pepper, onion, then quickly stir-fried with hot oil until the meat is firm and fragrant, then remove from the pan. The clam broth is filtered and cooked with sticky rice, when cooked it blooms like flowers.
When the rice is soft and slightly viscous but not too thick and mushy, add the clam meat and cook until it boils gently. The ingredients are well blended together. When the saltiness is just right, remove from heat. Scoop the porridge into a bowl, sprinkle with green onions, fried onions and a little ground pepper and it's perfect.
This is pure clam congee, both fragrant with rice and clam, just chew lightly on the clam surface to feel the sweet and soft taste of premium clam meat. The clam meat is a bit crispy but not tough, full of umami flavor of seafood, but still very light, you can taste it as you eat. When eating, remember to bite into a few fragrant green chili peppers to feel the pleasure of a hot and spicy dish on a cold day.
Locals also cook extended clam congee with a few other ingredients. In addition to clam meat and rice, there are also green beans, pork ribs or even pig's feet. However, this type of congee provides more nutrients than pure clam congee but dilutes the unique deliciousness of the clam. This is also an unavoidable variation in cuisine.
For those who are addicted to An Bang clam congee, they just need a bowl of congee full of clams and clams, really hot, really spicy, really fragrant, really soft. That bowl of congee only costs 15-20 thousand VND, not "40 dozen" which is very strange to the spirit of clam congee.
Eating that bowl of congee in the middle of a hot summer afternoon is great, eating it after a good swim in the sea is even better, and eating it when Hoi An is shivering in the cold wind is truly great. After eating that bowl of congee, you can relax, lie in a hammock watching the rain and hum a few lines of bai choi or a tuong.
