Hanoi in the red jellyfish season

My friends and I often say to each other: “In the summer, but we haven’t been to Hang Chieu, Thanh Ha, Duong Thanh, Le Van Huu, Hoe Nhai… or swooping down on street vendors selling jellyfish, it’s frustrating, missed, and craving!” .

Hanoi red jellyfish originated from Hai Phong

Red jellyfish originated from Hai Phong and then Hanoi people brought it to sell. Nearly 50 years ago, I was often led by my grandmother, mother or aunts to carry the red jellyfish of old lady at the intersection of Nguyen Thien Thuat – Hang Chieu. At the same time as the old lady’s jellyfish store, there were also old people under Phuc Tan beach carrying bowls of street food around Hanoi, old man Ngu sitting at 1 Le Van Huu, jellyfish shops in Thanh Ha lane, Dinh Ngang street near Cua Nam…

After 70 years of selling red jellyfish, the old lady is now 97 years old and passed it on to her two daughters, Mrs. Lap, Mrs. Minh and her daughter-in-law at 70 Hang Chieu. Mrs. Minh, the daughter of Mrs. Gai, said that jellyfish have a characteristic au red color because when the jellyfish are caught, people in Hai Phong’s seas clean them and then soak them in water with lentil leaves and parrots’ shells.

The reason that jellyfish are red is because they are soaked in water of tamarind leaves and parrots’ shells.

Jellyfish sellers have to go all the way down to Hai Phong to choose to buy jellyfish from Ben Binh and then take them on a train to take them back to Hanoi and sell them gradually. People store red jellyfish in plastic bags and put them in bamboo baskets, “lifting like raising eggs” because if the bag breaks, the soaking water will drain all the jellyfish. Jellyfish brought home must be kept in clay pots to be sold gradually or carried to street vendors.

Red jellyfish often served with copra, grilled tofu, marjoram, perilla is an afternoon gift of Hanoians.

A few decades ago, traveling was difficult, and red jellyfish were sold out only in the third lunar month. Now, the preservation and transportation are better, so from January 20, there are jellyfish for sale and lasts until the end of the 5th lunar month.

Red jellyfish is often served with copra, grilled tofu, marjoram, and perilla. Unlike Hai Phong people who dip red jellyfish with a dipping sauce made from natural wine, Hanoians dot it with shrimp paste, which must be delicious shrimp paste from the coastal area of ​​Hai Phong.

To have a delicious jellyfish, Mrs. Gai and her children must choose the best shrimp paste from Hang Be market to make a delicious bowl of dipping sauce with sugar, lemon, etc. Copra is bought from the middle of the Red River, the best grilled tofu is from Phuc Tan beach (now the family makes baked beans lost, so they buy baked beans from Hai Duong people). Oregano and perilla vegetables must also be selected fresh and delicious from the vegetable villages on the edge of Hanoi. According to Mrs. Lap, Mrs. Minh, the big jellyfish is cut into small pieces by thin bamboo stick, then sliced ​​with stainless steel knife, if cut with an iron knife, it will be fishy.

Eating jellyfish at the beginning of the hot summer is an indispensable afternoon gift for the Hanoians in the past and has also become delicious foods of young people and tourists every time they come to the capital.

Red jellyfish – a special delicacy of Hanoi cuisine