The taste of Northwest-Dien Bien Phu

When I talk about Dien Bien Phu city, I remember the most delicious lunch in Dan Toc restaurant (Ethnicity restaurant). Probably because I like to eat, so wherever I go, I am always in search of places with good food.

Because the address I found was unclear, we ran around for a while, almost giving up when we found ourselves standing hundreds of feet away from the expected location.

The restaurant was large and airy with a large stilt house accommodating about a hundred guests. I don’t know how it is every day but that afternoon, there were only 4 of us and a group of 5 who seemed to be paparazzi there. I saw they were carrying all kinds of tools for photographing.

It was so cool to sit in the stilt house! The owner of the restaurant introduced to me the special dishes of her restaurant: mixed nậm pịa, grilled beef, Centella & bamboo shoots salad, grilled leaf rolls, boiled mixed vegetables and purple sticky rice with crushed peanuts & sesame.

Various types of dipping sauce are chẳm chéo (salt with mixed leaves – a special type of dipping sauce of Thai ethnic people), pịa (another type of dipping sauce of Thai ethnic people, made with cows’ small intestine), chili garlic sauce, chili lemon salt. She also served chili sauce for the “plain people”.

“Nậm pịa” is a traditional dish of the Thai ethnic group, which is made from a thick paste in the small intestine of cows, including digestive juices and undigested food, adding seasonings and organs of herbivore include stomach, blood, intestine, heart, liver, lung, etc. to simmer until totally soften. Bitter taste, very difficult to eat.

In my hand was the Bauhinia variegate flower (hoa ban) that my husband secretly climbed on high branches to pick. March is the time when the Bauhinia variegate flowers bloom, and that time was just February, the flowers just partly bloomed. We had to stand and watch for a long time, covering with two hands to keep the sun from dazzling your eyes to see.

Bauhinia variegate flower has long been the symbol of the city. The tone of the people there when mentioning Bauhinia variegate flower or the victory of Dien Bien Phu carries the same pride.

The Bauhinia variegate tree steadily protected the soldiers in wartime. Legend has it that Bauhinia variegate flower was the reincarnation of a Thai ethnic girl when her love was unfinished.

We were a little sorry that we did not see Vo Nguyen Giap road covered in the pure white of the Bauhinia variegate flowers. But it’s okay, we’ll be back someday.

The road to visit the Headquarters of the Dien Bien Phu campaign was very peaceful. We parked the car outside the gate and walked quite deep to get there. Along the way, there were stilt houses of residents. A few ethnic minorities sat along the streets selling souvenirs to tourists, but they did not beg, well, they did not care about anyone, just freely gossiping, laughing, singing, and dancing. He said any Vietnamese should come here at least once. It was also one of the reasons we chose Dien Bien Phu and spent most of our time there visiting historical sites.

Luckily, on the way back, passing Muong Phang Victory Park, we met a lot of people gathering to perform music and play folk games: arm wrestling, tug of war, spinning wheel, throwing a cotton ball through the ring (ném còn), throwing and catching a cotton ball (ném pao), etc. The boys, girls, old people in Muong Phang had innocent and wild faces, so to me, they were especially attractive. I kept looking at them.

The day in Hoa Binh, I also bought a cotton ball (quả pao) as a souvenir, but before that, I had just read and imagined but had never seen ethnic people playing ném pao until the day I accidentally passed by Muong Phang Victory Park.

Ném pao is a traditional game of Mong people. The cotton ball (quả pao) is about the size of an orange, which fits in the palm of your hand, and is carefully sewn from linen. Two groups of men and women keep throwing the ball over and over again so that the ball wouldn’t fall on the ground.

I also heard a vendor from Lac village – Hoa Binh saying that Mong people also throw a cotton ball (quả pao) to their beloved to show affection. Sometimes, two people who love each other keep throwing back and forth all day without being bored. 

In the afternoon, at the Dien Bien market, there was full of the aroma of grilled fish. The fish seller was Thai ethnicity whose hands were grilling and mouth was offering “Grilled fish marinated with herbs of ethnic people. Buy it and eat it!” Of course, she only offered us, knowing that we were from other areas. Her fish stall was crowded with frequenters. Fish was cut in the back, marinated with nearly a dozen kinds of herbs, lemongrass, chili, and a typical spice of the Northwestern region – hạt mắc khén (Zanthoxylum rhetsa seeds), sandwiched between two bamboo sticks and grilled. You use your hands to tear the delicious fish meat, dip into chẳm chéo, and it will be so delicious! Or for someone who has not yet prepared the dinner, they can buy grilled fish and eat it with rice. Previously, I used to eat this dish at Ms. Dung’s house – the owner of Anh Dung guesthouse, Moc Chau, but Ms. Dung used to cook for tourists so she added seasonings to make the fish taste stronger. As for the fish we bought at the market, it was in the traditional style, the meat was naturally sweet, and we liked it much better.

You can read the article about the Moc Chau trip here in order not to miss our Northwest Spring Journey ^^