Unique start-up from old specialties
Kitchen snails have long been a familiar dish of the people of the West, often prepared by hanging snails on the stove, letting the smoke from the stove and the heat gradually dry the snails. Although it creates a unique flavor, this method sometimes causes snails to be covered in smoke, making it picky about who eats them and difficult to preserve.
Understanding this, in 2022, Ms. Dang The Quynh Anh (34 years old, Can Tho City) started to pioneer the application of the "no smoke" kitchen snail model, helping to retain the characteristic flavor but cleaner and more accessible, instead of the traditional kitchen snail method.
The key to making the difference in Ms. Quynh Anh's model is to create a separate space for the snails to "play". She took advantage of more than 10m2 of her terrace to build a "bedroom" especially for snails. In particular, the snails are neatly placed in each stacked plastic tray to optimize the area.
After successfully going through the "bedrest" process, the snails were moved to cool, airy iron shelves to continue energy metabolism. About 2-3 months later, the snails met the standards for export.
To ensure product quality, Ms. Quynh Anh is very meticulous in choosing ingredients. She did not hesitate to travel hundreds of kilometers to upstream provinces such as An Giang and Dong Thap to personally choose to buy healthy, fertile snails.
Weak snails or newborn snails will lose a lot of weight when gone to bed, so choosing healthy snails is extremely important, Ms. Quynh Anh explained about the criteria for choosing ingredients.
Instead of storing them in the kitchen, carefully selected fresh snails will be moved into a special space, designed to accurately simulate their natural "winter sleeping" environment.
Revealing the secret to creating the quality characteristic of her product, Ms. Quynh Anh said that the "winter-time" process not only helps the snail meat to be clean, remove dirt but also makes the snail skin thinner, the white and round snail meat, creating the quality characteristic of the product.
During this process, snails are still alive but do not function or eat, helping to maintain their long-lasting freshness. The dry, well-ventilated temperature conditions are maintained continuously for 2-3 months, accurately simulating the practice of snails sleeping in winter in nature when the weather is dry.
Conquering a demanding market
In 2023, Ms. Quynh Anh officially opened a kitchen sink production facility, investing in eye-catching packaging designs such as bamboo baskets and paper boxes, creating a professional look for the product.
Currently, Ms. Quynh Anh sells about 3-4 tons of kitchen snails to the market each year, for about 220,000 VND/kg.
Thanks to its unique production method and outstanding quality, "smokeless" kitchen snails have quickly conquered the market. The product is not only popular at restaurants, eateries and tourist areas in Can Tho and neighboring provinces, but is also professionally packaged and ready for export. Many establishments have taken this product further, to demanding markets such as the US and Australia via hand-carried vehicles.
Ms. Quynh Anh's journey is a testament to her creativity and continuous efforts, bringing traditional Vietnamese products far on the world culinary map.
