Strange things 7 dishes

In March, going through the Southeast provinces, it is not difficult to see ripe cashew orchards along the road. My friend living in Binh Phuoc invited me: “At the weekend, I will treat you to 7 dishes of cashew”.

Your house is nestled in a cool cashew orchard in Loc Ninh district. As soon as I arrived, I immediately enjoyed a plate of raw cashews dipped in salt and pepper. Seeing me hesitate for fear of bitterness, she urged: “Eat it, this is the sweetest cashew tree in the garden”. I take a bite, it’s true, succulent, sweet.

Then you took me to the kitchen to see the dishes made from what I have to say, even though people in the East, I have seen them for the first time since my parents were born. Which is the thing that cooks sour soup, mixed with chicken salad, mixed with salt and pepper, fish stock, stir-fried with lemongrass and chili, salted cashew, cashew fish sauce…

While cashews cooked in sour soup have a very mild and pleasant taste, fried cashews with lemongrass and chili really turn on every cell of the tongue because of the sweet and sour taste of cashews, the spicy aroma of lemongrass. Processing is also very simple. Select ripe and sweet fruit, cut into yarn, squeeze out a little bit of water. Lemongrass, garlic, minced chili, stir-fry on high heat until fragrant, then add cashews and stir-fry a few times, season with spices, add a little soy sauce and you’re done.

Cashew chicken salad. Photo: LAM AN

Stir-fried like this, but with salted cashews after 1 season, it is more intense in the salty taste and the bad smell is easy to remember. When a friend tells me that fresh things can’t be eaten, they bring salt to eat all year round. The fresh water from the process of salting into a glass jar and drying in the sun will turn golden yellow, and the boiled vegetables will be very catchy.

The dish that squeezes the chicken salad is probably not strange to many people, the taste is also excellent, but perhaps the most unique is the thing that mixes salt and pepper. In addition to the cashew fruit, there are also young gourds, chopped with blanched fibers, fresh shrimp, roasted peanuts and especially marigold leaves. Your mother explained that cashews have a lot of water, so when making salads, they will not mix water like many other salads, but take advantage of the available sweet and sour taste and use salt and pepper to adjust the taste. Instead of mixing with laksa leaves, marigold leaves give this dish a passionate scent that is hard to be confused with. Only gourd will make the salad more crispy. Instead of eating it, the chili salt mixed with vermicelli is indescribable.

Two weekends at your house, isn’t it exaggerated, I can enjoy the 7 dishes that have come to life. When you leave, your mother will take care of you with a bag of fresh cashews to “eat when you go to the city if you want to do it”.