Rice snails are a street-selling dish, so when traveling on the dreamy streets of Hue, visitors can easily see snails of aunt and uncle presented in eye-catching red. Every year, around January to April of the lunar calendar is the rice snail season. The rice snails mainly live on the riverbed, each snail is like a shirt, below which is a piece of fat just like a grain of rice.
Ms. Phuc Tram - a native of Hue, said that rice snails are a rustic dish of the ancient capital and are loved by many people. The rice snails are only as big as the tip of the little finger and are sagging. When harvesting snails, sellers have to soak and wash the snails thoroughly. Then, steam them, then rinse them off of all the sand and oil.
In addition to the meticulous preparation, the spices for stir-fried snails also contribute to creating a unique flavor that attracts diners. Spices used to stir-fry snails include grated ginger; sliced lemongrass; chili, onions, pureed garlic; cashew oil helps to create color and add flavor to make it more spicy - salty - sweet. When stir-frying, wait until the snails are ready to remove the grinding from the shell.
When enjoying this dish, diners use a light sprig (ham) which is the resulting snail meat. The characteristic of spicy stir-fried snails is that they have a lot of ginger and chili, so when eaten, the filling in the mouth is a strong, spicy taste, fragrant with the smell of distilled ginger. The meat of the sweet, fatty, crispy rice snails is dipped in ginger and chili fish sauce and very flavorful.
Ms. Thanh Ai, owner of a snail restaurant on Tang Bat Ho Street (Hue City), said that the snails are delicious not only thanks to fresh snails, but also because of the delicate mixture of ginger, lemongrass, pureed chili, fresh red Dieu oil... mixed with the sweetness of sugar and saltiness of fish sauce.
In addition to rice snails, in the stalls of the aunt and uncle, the customers always wade around the sound of snail scoops in the cans, diners can enjoy many other types such as nail snails, snails... All are bright red with chili color with thick stir-fried water that everyone has an attractive bottle of praise for, at first glance, it feels like they feel some of the explosive spicy taste.
According to Ms. Phuc Tram, snails are sold in cans with two types: large and small rice snails. Depending on each item, there will be different prices. When visiting Hue, to enjoy this spicy, chewy snack, visitors can go to the rice snail shop at Dong Ba market, Xep market, An Cuu market...
