Ripe bananas are a typical tropical fruit, which can be eaten in the form of enjoying the aroma, delicious taste, sweetness or providing immediate energy instead of rice, thus, it has become a familiar fruit.
Green bananas are processed in the sink more, such as being used to cook with snails, eel, tofu; or sliced like a vegetable eaten with spring rolls. Banana sticks are used to steep with catfish, frog, eel, and pork bones, which are delicious dishes from the countryside.
The thinly sliced banana stems become a white and beautiful vegetable like a lotus, and are also an indispensable side dish in fish sticky rice, crab sticky rice, mussel sticky rice, Quang noodles. Although banana leaves do not become a dish, there is no leaf that is as good as wrapping the pig.
Banana flowers are an important ingredient to make salad dressing, salad dressing, from simple to elaborate and elaborate salad dressings. The simplest dish is banana flower salad, which only includes thinly sliced banana flowers, mixed with roasted peanuts, spices, vinegar, and herbs such as Korea, basil.
Before the August Revolution in 1945 took place, the Vietnamese people in the North suffered from hunger in the year of the Snake.
Reading in the works about hunger in 1945 by the writers Nam Cao, Nguyen Hong, and Kim Lan, we all see the presence of banana salad as the main dish to deceive the stomach and conquer hunger. On the background of that gloomy mountain painting, there is only banana salad that helps people hold the steam.
Therefore, banana flower salad can be considered a viable dish of the people of the industrial park before the Revolution ordered the destruction of rice warehouses to save people from hunger, and towards taking power back to the people and the moment of giving birth to the independence and freedom of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
In Vietnamese cuisine in general and Hanoi in particular, salad is a snack, flavored, served with very simple ingredients but is extremely delicious because of its reduced spices. However, the salad can absorb all the sour, spicy, salty, sweet flavors to spread them on the tip of the tongue.
The foam and crispy structure of thinly sliced banana flowers absorbs all the flavors of the salad dressing, and can then stand alone to become a special banana salad or combine with shredded chicken, thinly sliced boiled pork ear, pork silk, boiled pork belly... to become delicious salad on banana flower beds.
However, banana salad still makes the best impression, because this is the main ingredient, creating 80% of the value of the salad. Especially with banana flower salad, made from western banana flowers or banana pear flowers, the more delicious it is.
The banana flowers as big as calves are picked down, chopped with a thin knife and then soaked in salt water to remove plastic and reduce the sandiness, then chopped with garlic vinegar, fish sauce, fried peanuts and covered with household garden plants such as goldsmith, basil, mint, coriander...
The taste of the whole world is not known to be suitable for banana salad. It enhances the light, rich, crispy taste of the banana flower slices that have been carefully absorbed by the sour taste of vinegar and the salty taste of fish sauce. With the addition of the aroma of the roasted yellow peanuts, the rustic, simple salad suddenly transforms into a colorful, beautiful and flavorful dish.
Banana flower salad is mainly brown like the color of garden soil. On the background of rustic brown, familiar are the red color of chili, the yellow color of roasted peanuts, then the green color of the border, the dark green of mint, the fatty green of coriander leaves, the sharpness of Lang crab body... Just like that, like a painting of the countryside.
The banana flowers are soaked in sweet and sour salad dressing, when chewed, they become crispy, chewy, and have a light sandy taste but give off a gentle aroma. Banana flower salad has a very delicate balance between the ingredients of negative - positive, hot - cool, sour - spicy.
Each ingredient is seasoned by sensation, not by formula. Because just a little difference in taste will cause the whole dish to lose its inherent harmony. Each ingredient is an indispensable piece to become a part of the perfect rural painting.
Therefore, banana flower salad is often eaten at the beginning of the meal as a appetizer, creating excitement for dishes rich in protein and fat later. Or on hot summer days, a bowl of banana salad can also release heat in the body, providing cooling function and is very good for health.
salad dressing is the soul of banana salad. This drink is made with fish sauce, fresh lemon, red chili, a little sugar and crushed garlic. The mixture must be balanced to be sour, spicy, and sweet enough without overwhelming the natural flavor of each ingredient.
When eating banana salad, few people leave left the salad dressing, because that is the quintessence of salad. Many salad shops are more popular than others just because of the secret to making salad dressing, because the flavor of this liquid will make diners miss the restaurant and the products deeply.
Without showing off fussy, nor needing rare ingredients, banana flower salad is made from rustic ingredients. This is a dish full of philosophy: Harmony, sophistication and depth. Each piece of salad is a connection between taste and emotions during the welding process in 1945 and the peaceful scene after the August Revolution, very complete and simple.
It is even happier when the simple banana flower salad of Hanoians has been participated in national bird's nest many times, to introduce a delicious and beautiful dish that has been associated with the lives of the people. For example, at the bird's nest at the APEC Conference 2017, Hanoi chefs chose banana flower salad to open for a visual feast with rich flavors.
Love Hanoian banana salad instead!
