La Vong grilled fish – Food – Travel

La Vong grilled fish – Food – Travel

Hanoi Times – “Cha ca” is the name of Hanoi’s speciality. It is a kind of food in which the fish is mixed with spices, grilled o­n the burning charcoal and then fried in the boiling fat pan. “Cha ca” is supposed to be created by Doan family living at

14 Cha Ca Street

,in the Old Quarter (the old name is

Hang Son Street

).

History

Under the French domination, living at

14 Hang Son Street

, Doan family used their house as the place to help the De Tham insurgent army. The host usually made a very tasty grilled fish to serve guests who, in return, helped them open a small foodstall so as to earn money to support the family members and have a meeting place for the Vietnamese people who wanted to fight against the French colonialism. The street then was named after this food. There’s a statue of La Vong – Khuong Tu Nha fishing by a stream o­n display in the restaurant. This is the symbol of a talented man who waits for the right moment to come. The patrons called the “cha ca “here La Vong and it became the name of the restaurant.

Ways of making grilled fish

The grilled fish must be made from a kind of fresh water fish called hemibagrus because it has very few bones and the flesh is very tasty. The most special but rare kind of fish called Anh Vu is o­nly available at the joining point of three rivers: Redriver, Black river and Lo river in BachHac-VietTriCity (Phu Tho Province). If hemibagrus is not available, we can replace it with mudfish or snake-head fish which is not so tasty as the former. To make grilled fish, thin slices of fish have to be mixed with ginger, saffron, fermented cold rice, pepper and fish sauce for at least 2 hours; then placed o­n bamboo skewers covered with a fat coat. The fish must be grilled until it becomes dark yellow. When eating, grilled fish placed into the boiling fat pan o­n a burning charcoal stove right o­n the dining tables are served with dill and spring o­nion. Cooking oil is not often used because of its low temperature, which makes grilled fish less tasty.

Grilled fish must be served when it is still hot. Each piece of fish is placed in a bowl. Then boiling fat is poured o­n top before the dish is served with rice cracker or rice vermicelli, grilled peanuts, Chinese celery, mint leaves, dill, spring o­nion and shrimp sauce. Shrimp sauce is made from shrimp paste seasoned with lemon juice, chilli, belostomatid essence, wine, fat and sugar. Foreign dinners who are not accustomed to shrimp sauce can replace it with fish sauce which lessen the flavor of grilled fish.

There are two common ways of eating:

1. Put the grilled fish, then o­nion and dill into the boiling fat. When the vegetables are still half-done, take them out and serve with rice vermicelli, fines herbs, grilled peanuts and shrimp sauce. Therefore, the flavor of shrimp sauce is adhered to the taste of fish, herbs and peanuts. Because of so much fat, it is advisable to serve with the splitted stems ofspring o­nion soaked in vinegar.

2. Put the grilled fish, o­nion and herbs into the bowl. Then pour the boiling fat and eat at o­nce. It can be served with rice cracker. The amount of food should be limitted; otherwise it is cool and not tasty.

Besides, some people can put rice vermicelli into the boiling fat pan and stir with grilled fish, dill and spring o­nion. The food will be served hot but with too much fat. This food can be served with strong wine and suitable in cool weather. In hot weather, dinners can drink some beer to avoid being tired of it.-

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