Porridge heart or pig heart sounds rustic, easy to understand, but the name of the lagoon sounds very strange and curious. Certainly, breaking the same sect with the wonton, the Sixth Sixth, the Chi, the ribs, the chapter ... in the treasure of Vietnamese cuisine, just being imported from China followed by the Vietnamese Vietnamese people.
Lagoon is a typical dish of Tieu people in Ho Chi Minh City, originating from the Chaozhou region (Guangdong, China). The ingredients for cooking are mainly the organs of the cow, the pigs are marinated with typical spices and stew for hours until cooked. It is quite similar to the stew, but there are many distinctive features.
The Saigon people often eat in the afternoon, so, from 15:00 pm on the shops and semi -breaking cars began to welcome guests. People eat like a driver, with a tiny cup of brewing, containing pieces of cow's heart that has been chopped, glowing an eye -catching orange color and a crispy cleft ball.
It can be seen that the rice is a dish of the popular working class. Because the organs of animals are considered "not good for health because containing many things can lead to strong heart disease, gout or fatty blood.
In the world, almost people remove the organs from the kitchen, maybe only take the intestine to make the sausage shell or the liver as pate ... However, for the poor, although the organs are not a piece of meat, but it is also a valuable piece because of being rich in nutrition, so it does not waste at all.
Because of the difficult circumstances, it is necessary to think of a way to turn the internal organs into delicious, attractive and "addictive" dishes. For example, the "extremely attractive" pork heart with ten dishes enough, stir -fried, raw, cooked in the North, or the dish that the people cook in Saigon.
Therefore, dishes such as congee heart, pig heart, initial breakdown are to serve the class of workers, not the scene of "picky fish, choosing soup". A place of breaking is only 20 - 30 thousand dong, just warm enough in the afternoon, and the shops often nestled in a small alley, not showing off in big streets.
In such an alley on Tong Dan Street in Tu District, Ho Chi Minh City, I fell into a love of a hundred meters. In a cramped space such as goat's intestines, 4-5 rows of brocade and open sale at the time of the first rains of the season, creating an abnormal fanciful scene.
In the fence, the coldness quickly rises, making people crave to break the taste by the hot taste of the tropical spices emanating from the brilliant orange or deep orange -colored pieces, and the warm smoke like clouds.
When the brewing capacity is carried out, including a cup of brewing, a cup of broth to dot the eyelashes, and a lash ball, all are small as toys, but make people feel so touched and "emit sound", making us unable to stop breathing and chewing.
Even though it all looked very simple, but the leaning has gone through a long journey to become a special dish of Saigon people. It can be said that the brewing is one of the typical dishes for the liberal, open, easy -to -tolerate and good spirit of the Southern culture.
From the source of the roots, the rice is a form of cooking, using five flavors, cooking wine, cooking oil to marinate the ingredients for hours to absorb, then use the slow cooking method to cook for hours, sometimes take the whole day to become.
It is a form of cuisine, which can transform a mediocre ingredient into a great dish. This method is very universal in the top cuisine in both the East and the West.
The records of the culinary art of Trieu Chau region (Guangdong, China), telling us to know how to break the chicken, rabbit meat, beef, square pork and then marinate and cook slowly until the finished product. But breaking the rice in Saigon, rarely using meat, maybe just the flesh of pigs including nose, ears, tongue and mainly still cow and pig organs.
This is because of the habit of eating pig organs and the custom of worshiping the heads of the Southern people. Because in the early period of the southern land, buffaloes and cows are still the "speculation" of agriculture, so people often kill pigs to sacrifice and eat meat rather than use buffaloes and cows.
Therefore, there has been a change in processing materials, changing from meats to organs of pigs and pig meat. Only when buffaloes and cows are considered as common foods, people cooked with cow's organs because more, cheaper than pig and poultry.
A flavor only in the Southern cuisine has also appeared in the dish of brewing is coconut milk, creating a fat, greasy aroma. In this way, we have seen the journey to combine a method of cooking people with indigenous ingredients to create a very special Saigon rice dish.
But the spirit of the dish is not lost, still to serve people to work a delicious dish with the price of black coffee on the sidewalk. While sitting and enjoying the cup of small alley, I witnessed many people who had just worked to work, wet and glided because of the first rain of the season, still rushing into the shop to buy bags to break for dinner for dinner.
The owner patiently picked up each piece of chopsticks, which stomach, and the heart of the guests, and then scissors to cut. The pull of the lipstick lipstick is very happy, like a crisp laughter of Saigon people: "Deo dike, whoever breaks down Saigon dike".
