Located on the way to pagoda Huong Pagoda, Van Dinh town pulls the heart of tourists by the aroma of … roasted grass duck. Van Dinh grass duck is a Hanoi traditional food and one of the delicacies of the Northern Delta.
The special kind of duck
Van Dinh grass duck is a kind of duck that is released on the rice field of Ung Hoa district, Hanoi. In the rainy season, a whole field is flooded by water, hundreds of ducks swim and race against time to grow fast before the field become dry. Not to be fattened with bran or the weight gain food but that earn a living by themselves from the remnant grain, from the fat and nutritious worms and crickets, breathe the clean air in the immense field, the largest duck also is only about 1.2-1.3 kg. Living in nature, growing up by nature, the special taste of grass duck fields in Ung Hoa is extremely delicious and aromatic.
The taste difficult to deny
Van Dinh grass duck has thin meat string, soft and sweet bones. The gourmets just look at the piece of meat which was cut out to guess whether this is the right grass duck Van Dinh or not. Step into the restaurant, visitors on Hanoi street food tours can be “dizzy” by the menu full of dishes from grass duck: grass duck cooked with congee, boiled duck, duck blood pudding, grass duck cooked with dracontomelon, duck covered with soil, grass duck hot pot, etc. It may take a whole week to enjoy all these dishes.
Delicious duck blood pudding
Small grass duck blood pudding is mixed very skillfully, there is no bad smell but only slightly fragrant. Blood pudding is cut into the small pieces with a little fish sauce mixed with water, drop a few drops of blood. Boiled duck viscera and boiled duck meat are diced, roasted peanuts, duck cartilage, and duck neck will be finely chopped. All are put on the deep plate. The blood will be poured into duck broth, gently mixed and then poured the dish with duck viscera.
The most important stage is the mixing of blood pudding, not too slow nor too fast. By this time the duck blood pudding is gradually frozen, if sellers are not skillful, blood pudding will be frozen before being put into a dish.
Famous grilled duck
Eating Van Dinh grass duck, you should not forget tasting the grilled duck. Grilled duck attracts people firstly in the fragrant smell and then the golden shiny yellow on each clean piece of meat. Ducks are folded one by one on the grill, rotated on the red charcoal stove. Plates of grilled duck are brought out for guests still have the aromatic smoke of the charcoal stove. The duck skin is slightly yellow, the meat inside is pink brown attractive. Crispy skin is so delicious with the sweet-savory taste which is difficult to describe, the soft sweet meat.
But all that deliciousness will reduce by half if the duck meat is not dipped into a small bowl of sweet yellow sauce. Enjoying the Van Dinh grass duck, visitors on Hanoi food tours can bite a piece of gold duck rattles and also chew the whole crispy sweet bones to feel the sweet from inside. And when taste Van Dinh grass duck you cannot lack a glass of sticky rice liquor.
In cold weather, you have a duck hotpot. A hotpot of duck cooked with bamboo shoots adds the interesting taste to the story of diners.
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