24+ Lai Chau specialties you must try and buy as gifts

Every tourist season comes, people start looking for suitable, reputable tourist destinations with famous specialties of that region. When traveling to Lai Chau, you cannot miss Lai Chau specialties that you must try and buy as gifts for relatives and friends. Lai Chau culinary gifts are very diverse and unique. Furthermore, their price is very affordable. Please follow our dried agricultural products to learn about some Lai Chau specialties that you must try and buy as gifts below.

General introduction about Lai Chau specialties?

Lai Chau is a province located in the Northwest of the country, 450km southeast of Hanoi. This place is known for its majestic rivers, mountains and forests, and hosts many historical architectural works. And of course, there is no shortage of delicious dishes that attract tourists flocking here.

The dishes here are made entirely from the hands of the people of Lai Chau, the ingenuity and flexibility combined with special spices create a unique flavor, unique identity, unlike any other place. Have. Perhaps, those familiar flavors have attracted many tourists from the Central, Southern, and everywhere to remember this majestic land.

What are Lai Chau specialties? Top best dishes to try when coming to Lai Chau?

Lai Chau ant eggs

The first Lai Chau specialty dish you must enjoy when coming here is ant eggs. Ant eggs are the edible eggs and pupae of yellow ants. This dish is the cultural culinary beauty of the Thai ethnic people in Lai Chau.

Hearing the name, many people feel “shuddered” and do not dare to enjoy this dish. But when you eat it once, you will feel addicted. Ant eggs contain a large amount of protein, 47% protein, 30 types of amino acids and 31 trace elements and contain a lot of vitamins A, B, C, D, E,…

Ant eggs have a sour and fatty taste, often used in dishes such as: ant egg cake, ant egg soup with lolot leaves, stir-fried ant eggs with rice paper, ant egg rolls with lolot leaves, roasted ant eggs,…

Lai Chau purple sticky rice

Purple sticky rice is a famous culinary dish made by the skillful hands of Thai, Day,… ethnic women living in Lai Chau. It looks very normal, but the purple color from the sticky rice is the highlight that makes many tourists excited and curious to enjoy.

Purple sticky rice is made entirely by hand. To get soft, delicious sticky rice, people must use the most quintessential rice in Lai Chau. To make purple sticky rice, you must use fragrant sticky rice with large, firm grains, not sticky rice, wash it and soak it in water for about 6 – 8 hours.

Lai Chau purple sticky rice is easiest to find at markets held every Thursday and Sunday morning. Coming to the market, you will enjoy countless delicious and strange dishes. And of course, if you want to “eat the whole market” you have to prepare yourself for a really hungry stomach!

Goby buried in ashes (gio) Lai Chau

Ash-buried goby is a dish that attracts many first-time tourists coming here. This dish is famous among people in Vang Pheo village caught at Tung Lam stream.

To get a batch of ash-buried goby will take a lot of time and is very sophisticated in processing. Goby fish is made entirely by the skillful hands of Vang Pheo villagers. The fish is prepared cleanly. Marinate the fish with mountain spices such as: chili, lemongrass, ginger, pepper, mac khen, basil leaves and chopped cuttings. The dong leaves must be selected as large, large sized dong leaves, washed and drained.

Goby fish after being marinated with spices. They will be wrapped in dong banh te leaves and buried directly in the hot stove. About 30 minutes, turn over once, do this about 3 times and the fish will be cooked. It can be seen that through the process of pre-processing, selecting ingredients and performing very meticulously and laboriously, it is possible to produce a batch of delicious, quality fish.

What are Lai Chau specialties? Hoa Ban bitter bamboo shoot salad

Hoa Ban bitter bamboo shoot salad, hearing the name seems very strange. But surely everyone can guess the ingredients to make this dish. The selection of raw materials is very important, but that is only a small part. To have delicious food, it is necessary to use the extremely skillful hands of the Thai ethnic women here.

As a salad, ingredients will be needed such as: bitter bamboo shoots, stream fish, ban flowers, lemon, garlic, chili, basil, and coriander. With a variety of colorful ingredients, this salad is very stimulating for eaters. With a mild bitter taste from bamboo shoots, a strong aroma from stream fish mixed with a sweet and sour taste from the additives of the salad. It will definitely make many tourists come back here again and again.

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Lam Lai Chau

Lam Noi is a famous specialty dish of the Thai people in Lai Chau. The name sounds very strange, but in fact we understand that this is grilled beef or grilled buffalo meat. The meat will be stored in bamboo tubes and grilled with charcoal. Therefore, when eating Lam Noi, you will clearly feel the flavor of the mountains and forests.

Lam smog is processed very meticulously. When eaten, Lam Noi has a sweet taste, is soft, sticks together and is rolled into small, bite-sized pieces. Eating bamboo shoots in winter and drinking corn wine is truly a perfect combination.

Lai Chau bitter leaf blood pudding

If you have the opportunity to come to Lai Chau in the cold weather of winter, you cannot miss the bitter leaf blood soup. This soup is very suitable in winter, it will help your body become warmer.

The soup is made from ingredients such as: bitter leaves, a bowl of pork blood pudding, pig lungs, seasoning powder, MSG, chili, and pepper. All of these ingredients will be chopped and heated into soup form. You can eat it with rice, salty dishes or sip a cup of soup to make your body warmer.

They are called bitter leaves, but they do not have a bitter taste that is difficult to eat like the bitter herbs of the South, or bitter like the taste of bitter melon fruit.

Lai Chau spinach salad

The next Lai Chau specialty that you must enjoy when coming here is the vegetable salad. Green salad is a famous dish of Thai people in Lai Chau in particular and people in the Northwest in general.

Malabar spinach is a vegetable that grows in streams, where humidity is high. To get a salad with Thai herbs, you have to pick the young, curly tops of the spinach, make banh te, then wash it and dry it in the sun until it becomes pale.

Although the salad has a very simple taste, it has its own unique flavor. Fatty taste from peanuts and spinach. Combined with that, there is a slight sour and spicy taste from chili and vinegar that makes diners fall in love with eating it again and again without getting bored.

What are Lai Chau specialties? Lai Chau fried cicadas

A “shivering” dish but a very famous specialty of Lai Chau is fried cicadas. Cicadas are a common insect in Lai Chau and the North of our country. This dish can only be enjoyed in the summer.

The ingredients to make fried cicadas are: cicadas, peanuts, mac Khen seeds, spices, salt and cooking oil. When cicadas are caught, Thai people will cut off their wings and gut them. Insert each peanut into the tick’s intestines. Marinate the ticks with spices for 30 minutes to infuse. After that, the cicadas will be fried until golden brown and then eaten.

When eating, you will clearly feel the crunchy taste from the golden fried cicadas, the greasy taste and a bit of nuttiness from the peanuts.

Pig intestines stuffed with Lai Chau sticky rice

Pig intestines stuffed with sticky rice, also known by another name, Tung cai leng. The sausages in Lai Chau are completely different from the sausages in the lowlands. Ingredients to make lowland sausage include: young tripe, peanuts, green onions, onions, laksa leaves, and pig’s blood. As for Lai Chau sausages, they are made from: sticky rice, young intestines, pig’s blood, and cardamom.

Pig intestines stuffed with Lai Chau sticky rice are often used during Tet. With the characteristics of cold air, this dish will not spoil for a long time. When cooked, this dish will have a greasy smell from pig blood, the characteristic aroma of cardamom spices and a bit of chewiness from pig intestines. This is really a popular drink during the cold weather.

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Hmong rice cake

Mong people’s day cake is a type of cake with an extremely profound and humane meaning. Mong people’s banh day is a cake that symbolizes the moon and sun, the origin of people and everything on this Earth.

Lai Chau day cake has an extremely different flavor compared to cakes in other places. With pure white color, greasy taste from pork fat, aroma from sticky rice. All combine together to create a thick cake with a very unique flavor.

Mong people’s banh day is made entirely by hand. This cake appears most commonly during the traditional Lunar New Year. If you have the opportunity to visit Lai Chau in Spring, you will also be able to immerse yourself in the fun atmosphere of the people here when they organize a banh day making contest between Mong families.

Lai Chau grilled folded carp (Pa Pinh Top)

Grilled folded carp, also known by another name, Pa Pinh Top. This grilled fish dish is very elaborate. Fish must choose fish that live in streams, because they often eat moss and animal carcasses. When slaughtered, the fish has absolutely no fishy smell.

The fish is slaughtered, washed, and marinated with Northwest spices. After that, the fish will be folded, skewered on a sharp bamboo stick and grilled on a charcoal stove. When eaten, grilled fish will be a bit dry, but the aroma from grilled fish mixed with spices is very stimulating. Grilled fish is often eaten with sticky rice with dipping sauce and drinking corn wine.

What are Lai Chau specialties? Sin Ho black chung cake – Lai Chau

Sin Ho black banh chung is a typical type of banh chung of Lai Chau people. The cake is made from sticky rice dyed with black charcoal powder from the Ta Chiem tree. The cake will then be wrapped with wild rattan leaves, creating a unique flavor and color that no other type of banh chung has.

Lai Chau stone moss

Lai Chau stone moss is a famous specialty dish of the Thai people. Stone moss is an extremely clean vegetable. They are harvested from large streams, at the foot of waterfalls where there is fast-flowing water, or there are large rocks for this vegetable to cling to and grow. Stone moss is harvested from early autumn until the third lunar month every year.

Stone moss can be processed into many delicious dishes such as: stone moss salad, grilled stone moss,… Eating stone moss helps your body cool down, cool the liver, detoxify, help circulate blood, and maintain health. stable blood pressure.

Lai Chau humiliation

The last Lai Chau specialty dish that you should definitely try is Khau Duc. Khau huoc is a famous dish of the Nung people living in Lai Chau. The dish is made entirely from pork belly. For Lai Chau people, to have an attractive dish, the ingredients they use are very diverse. After that, the meat is steamed until soft for 1 hour. This dish is best eaten when hot.

What are the specialties of Lai Chau as gifts?

Lai Chau dried buffalo meat

Besides the famous specialties, the Lai Chau specialty gifts you definitely cannot miss are kitchen-dried buffalo meat. This dish is made entirely from fresh buffalo meat, marinated with Northwest spices. After that, each piece of meat is hung up and smoked with kitchen smoke.

Kitchen buffalo meat has a delicious, rich, spicy, and sweet flavor that is very attractive. This is truly a favorite drink of men and young children. In addition to buffalo meat, pork meat is also very popular here.

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Lai Chau armpit pig

This is a typical pig breed of the northern mountainous provinces of Vietnam. Armpit pigs are small, only about 10 – 20kg, and black in color. This breed of pig is often raised completely naturally by people here, so their meat is very delicious and delicious.

Armpit pigs are often sold by people at the weekday markets. Everyone carried a pig under their arm to sell at the market. Perhaps, because of the image of farmers carrying pigs under their arms to sell like a festival, they gave it the name “Armpit-Headed Pigs”.

What are Lai Chau specialties? Sung Phai corn wine

A Lai Chau specialty bought as a gift that will make many men smile and praise, not to be missed is Sung Phai corn wine. The wine is made from 100% fragrant sticky corn kernels. Mixed in with it are sweet and fleshy millet grains, brewed with natural leaf yeast of the Mong people.

Sung Phai corn wine has a light yellow color, is clear, not cloudy and has no residue. The aroma of wine is passionate, the taste is sweet, very smooth and does not cause headaches. The wine has an alcohol concentration of 35 – 40 degrees Celsius. Sung Phai corn wine is produced according to the traditional process of the Mong people. From selecting corn varieties, fermenting wine, brewing wine and making wine, everything is done meticulously and carefully.

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H’Mong apricot wine

H’Mong apricot wine is a specialty wine of the H’Mong people in the Northwest mountains of Vietnam. The wine is soaked 100% from ripe wild apricots. Soaked and incubated with forest leaf yeast for a very long time.

H’Mong apricot wine has an orange-yellow color, a passionate aroma of wild apricots, a harmonious sweet and sour taste, and is very mellow when drinking. H’Mong wild apricot wine has an alcohol concentration of 30 – 35 degrees Celsius.

See more: 5+ things soaked in alcohol in the Northwest, people with beards will get drunk when they drink it

Seng Rice in Cu Lai Chau

Seng Cu rice is a typical type of rice, popular in Than Uyen, Lai Chau, Vietnam. Rice is characterized by round, uniformly large rice grains, ivory white color, not shiny. When cooking rice, the rice is very fragrant, sweet, and has a delicious taste.

This rice variety is grown on the Than Uyen plateau fields, with a cool climate, fertile soil and alluvium. Seng Cu rice is a purebred rice variety, has good resistance to pests and gives huge yields.

What are Lai Chau specialties? Binh Lu Dong Vermicelli

Binh Lu Dong vermicelli is a type of vermicelli made from seaweed starch. This type of vermicelli is grown in Binh Lu commune, Tam Duong district, Lai Chau province, Vietnam.

Characteristics of Binh Lu arrowroot vermicelli fibers are small, chewy, soft, milky white in color, not sour, not sticky. Highlights the characteristic aroma of arrowroot. Binh Lu dong vermicelli is produced entirely by hand. Like this region, not everyone can do it.

Binh Lu Dong vermicelli prices range from 100,000 VND – 150,000 VND.kg.

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Red Ginseng Honey Tea (Red Ginseng Tea)

Red Ginseng Honey Tea is a type of herbal tea produced in Lai Chau province, Vietnam. This tea is made from naturally occurring herbs such as:

• Red ginseng
• Son Mat
• Licorice
• Jasmine,…

Red Ginseng Honey Tea has a yellow-brown color, gentle aroma, mild astringent taste, and sweet aftertaste. Tea has the effect of clearing heat, cooling the liver, detoxifying, enhancing health, supporting the treatment of high blood pressure, diabetes,…

What are Lai Chau specialties? Lai Chau dried macadamia nuts

Lai Chau dried macadamia nuts are a nutritious specialty nut of Lai Chau province. Lai Chau macadamia nuts are of very high quality, delicious and very nutritious.

Lai Chau macadamia nuts are round, small, and light brown in color. This type of nut has a fatty, delicious taste and contains a lot of nutritional value for people to eat. Macadamia nuts can be used to eat directly, make cakes, etc. Currently, the Vietnamese market is selling Japanese macadamia nuts imported from the US, the quality is not inferior to Lai Chau macadamia nuts.

Lai Chau macadamia nuts have prices ranging from 300,000 VND – 400,000 VND/kg.

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Lai Chau forest honey

Wild honey can be found anywhere in the Northwest high mountains. This honey is 100% harvested from nature. Wild bees suck nectar entirely from wild flowers such as ban flowers, apricot flowers, plum flowers,…

Wild honey has a dark yellow color, a passionate aroma from wild flowers, and a sweet, mellow taste. Lai Chau honey has a high viscosity, no sugar. Lai Chau honey contains a lot of nutritional value, vitamins, minerals,…

Northwest forest honey is widely sold in the Northwest provinces. Prices range from 500,000 VND – 700,000 VND/liter.

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Great Anise Lai Chau

Star anise is a specialty spice of Lai Chau province. Lai Chau star anise is considered a high quality, delicious product, loved by many Vietnamese and international tourists.

Anise is the fruit of the star anise plant. This variety is grown mainly in high mountainous areas of Lai Chau province, with cool climate, fertile soil and alluvium. Anise plants have good resistance to pests and diseases and have high yields.

Star anise has a spicy, sweet, aromatic taste and contains a lot of essential oils. The effects of anise include stimulating the digestive system, treating coughs, sore throats,…

Things to note when choosing Lai Chau specialties to buy as gifts?

To be able to give yourself quality Lai Chau gifts to give to your loved ones, you must definitely grasp some important notes below:

• Some foods don’t last long. If left for too long, they will lose their delicious flavor and you need to use them immediately. If you bring it on the plane, you must definitely comply with the airlines’ luggage packing regulations. Absolutely do not buy fresh products like underarm pigs and bring them with you on a plane or car.
• You should choose to buy specialties at reputable addresses with clear origins. Avoid buying floating products of unknown origin to ensure user safety.
• Choose products that are suitable for the recipient. For example, for the elderly and middle-aged people, you should choose products such as: Sung Phai corn wine, H’Mong apricot wine, honey,… If the target audience is children, you can give dried buffalo meat as a gift. kitchen rack, macadamia nuts,…
• When buying at the market, you should also bargain to get the best price.

Hopefully, these suggestions about Nghe An specialties you must try and buy as gifts from Dried Agricultural Products will help you keep beautiful memories in Lai Chau. Coming to Lai Chau, don’t miss the interesting things in the majestic Northwest land!