(VOVworld) – Visitors to the northern city of Mong Cai are inspired by its beautiful natural landscape, Tra Co beach, the Ka Long bridge, and Mong Cai border market. A trip to Mong Cai is more enjoyable if you spend some time sampling local food.

Before our trip to Mong Cai, we were told that we must try the local food especially the herb-stewed duck and seafood porridge. This advice got us excited about visiting the border city. Arriving in Mong Cai after 5 hours on a bus, we were welcomed by friendly people and a very delicious dinner of local specialties. 

Our waitress, Hanh introduced each dish: "This is stewed duck prepared by our Chinese cook. The duck is cooked with soybean sauce, mushrooms, herbs and a few other ingredients. This food is very healthy”.

Hanh told us that, along with seafood, duck is a specialty in Mong Cai. All the duck dishes are prepared with Chinese seasonings by Chinese cooks. Hanh says there are several ways to cook duck.“We get 400-gram ducks raised in Mong Cai to cook. There are 8 duck dishes: stewed, steamed, fried, salt-fried, earth-pot stewed, herb-stewed, duck porridge and duck eaten with sticky rice”, said Hanh.

Hoang Van Thu, Vice President of Mong Cai city’s People Council says that duck dishes are very healthy. There are many duck farms in Mong Cai. In addition to the duck, mackerel fish cooked with eggplants is very tasty. Ms Hanh says: "This is the mackerel fish cooked with eggplants, red and green chilis, and mushroom. This is a Chinese dish, but Vietnamese cooks add herbs to it to make it more delicious. We first fry the mackerel and then add eggplants, betel leaves, and grape leaves".

Hanh says that mackerel cooked with eggplants is unique to Mong Cai and that preparing the ingredients is very important. "We must select big, fresh mackerel with a round body, eggplants should be approximately 30 cm long. It is at this size that eggplants are most delicious", said Hanh.

Seafood porridge is also a must for visitors to Mong Cai. Nguyen Viet Duc of the Huu Nghi Travel Company in Mong Cai says he has been to a lot of places, but the seafood porridge in Mong Cai is very special. "Seafood porridge in Mong Cai is cooked with seafood and various types of meat such as pig intestines, livers, hearts and many types of herbs". said Duc.

Duc says it takes tourists a month to sample all the many types of local food. Mong Cai has become a culinary venue because it is a border city with rapid economic development, so people from all over the country have moved here bringing with them many different types of food.

Lan Anh