Stir-fried vermicelli with turmeric – a delicious specialty and famous “cough treatment” of Hue
With ingredients including vermicelli, pork offal and especially, pureed turmeric, Hue people have created a
THUA THIEN – HUE – For many people, stir-fried turmeric vermicelli is not only a delicious dish but also a cure for childhood illnesses.
When I was a child, whenever I had a cough or a minor illness, my grandmother often gave me turmeric vermicelli. She said, in the past, there was no medicine, when coughing, she went to the market to buy a few pieces of tailor old heart, vermicelli, and some turmeric. At home, she pounded turmeric, marinated it with spices, fried it with vermicelli, chopped laksa leaves, and then let me eat it while the pan was on the stove. “Eat a few times and the cough goes away,” she said. Growing up away from home, going to school to work, I rarely had the opportunity to eat fried turmeric noodles.
Now, stir-fried turmeric vermicelli is not only a healing dish, but also a popular afternoon snack in Hue. From 13:00, the owner began to prepare the goods to welcome customers. In the morning is the time when they go to the market to choose the delicious heart for preliminary processing, pounding turmeric, washing laksa leaves, making chili sauce, and seasoning.
Although this dish does not have many ingredients, it must be selected carefully and it takes time to prepare. The seller said that the pork heart must be selected fresh, cleaned to remove the odor, then cut into pieces and marinated carefully. Turmeric must choose tubers of moderate age, grinded to have a dark orange color. To satisfy diners, the stir-fried pot includes many things including liver, young intestine, old intestine and boiled pork blood. All are marinated with fish sauce, salt, pepper, onion and turmeric to absorb and then stir-fried separately. In the other pan, they stir-fried vermicelli with spices and turmeric water, giving it a golden color. Fresh turmeric is crushed, add a little stir-fried seasoning and then put in a separate bowl.
When a customer orders a bowl of turmeric vermicelli, the owner picks up a vermicelli, scoops up the fried heart, scoops a spoon of turmeric and adds a pinch of laksa leaves. Guests leisurely mix the bowl of vermicelli and then eat and inhale. A beautiful little bowl full of the fat and chewy pork belly, the strong taste of turmeric, the aroma of laksa leaves, the softness of vermicelli and the spicy taste of chili and pepper…
Turmeric vermicelli has a very delicious part that not everyone likes, which is “burnt pot”. This is the part of vermicelli that is close to the bottom of the pot, fried for a long time, so it is a bit burnt. This dish is crispy and crunchy, both strange and delicious. But diners have to wait when the owner sells more than half of the pot to enjoy.
Sitting waiting for vermicelli, listening to the chatter of the customers, mixed with the scraping of the bottom of the pot and the vermicelli island of the owner, I unintentionally smiled, thinking: “Now I don’t cough, I still eat turmeric vermicelli, but it’s really delicious, Grandma.” .
Each bowl of turmeric vermicelli usually costs 10,000 – 20,000 VND. You can visit a number of turmeric noodle shops that are chosen by many people such as in front of Dong Ba market, An Cuu market, 10/154 Ba Trieu street, 19 Tran Quang Khai…Follow vnexpress
