Vietnamese cuisine: Pork cooks with sauces, eggs and coconut juice

Mekong River Delta is a well-off region in southwestern Vietnam. This area is well-endowed with natural resources such as good land for rice and tree crops, river system for irrigation and the tropical weather. Therefore Mekong Delta is famous for agricultural products such as: rice, vegetables or diversified fruits, especially coconut. Coconut is a kind of typical fruit of this area, Vietnamese people always think about Mekong Delta when they mention to coconut. Residents who live here create many delicious meals that cooked with coconut in this region, attract the attention of tourists by their own famous foods, one of them is “Pork cooks with sauces, eggs and coconut juice”.

Pork cooks with sauces, eggs and coconut juice is a kind of braised pork of Vietnamese people. This meal is considered as a particular point of the cuisine of Mekong Delta. The dish will help tourists to understand more about culinary cuisine, culture as well as people in Mekong Delta. The key points that make this meal different from other kinds of braised pork in the North or other regions in Vietnam are coconut juice and pickled eggs. The first point is sweet and fat flavor of coconut. The second point is a kind of eggs – a cultural food of ethnic Chinese people who live in Vietnam; they pickle eggs with salt and water for a half of month or twenty days, these eggs are so tasty and special because the egg white is quite salt and the egg yolk has a buttery taste. All of these points make the plate different from the braised pork of other regions in Vietnam.

The ingredients of this dish are easy to find and the recipe is simple as well. A chef needs the following ingredients to cook this meal for four people: 8 pickled eggs, 500gr meat, 400ml coconut juice, 200ml fresh water, spring onion bulb, garlic, Soya sauce, fish sauce, peppercorn, sugar and spices. Ethnic Chinese people who live in Vietnam will prepare the pickled eggs first. They pickle eggs with salt and water for about twenty days before cooking the meal. Then boil the eggs and take off the egg shell. The chefs choose the meat in stomach or thigh of pigs, clean it and slice into thick   square – shaped pieces. Spring onion bulb and garlic are peeled and chopped. Copra is sliced into long and thin pieces. The chefs will boil sugar until it melts into a black concentrated solution to make the meal more colorful and attractive. When all the ingredients are ready, the chefs will cook in turn. First of all, they dry chopped onion and garlic into this mixture with yellow color and fragrant smell, then put meat and spices into pot, pour Soya sauce and fish sauce into and then mix them all. When the meat is permeated by spices and sauces, put the picked – boiled eggs (which were taken off the egg shell) and peppercorn into the mixture of meat. The next step is to put the black concentrated solution (made from sugar) into the pot to make this meal more attractive, then pour coconut juice and fresh water into, stir and boil the mixture in the pot.

The last step, when the water in the pot is boiled, the chefs put copra into the pot, stir with meat and eggs, minimize fire (temperature) and wait for one hour to permeate spices, sauces and coconut juice into pork and eggs.

When enjoying this special meal with the ordinary rice of Vietnam, tourists will feel the sweet savory of coconut, the fat taste of pork and the salt flavor of pickled eggs. All of them are mixed together to make a special and strange taste for this dish. Pork cooked with sauces, eggs and coconut juice helps to introduce the culture, cuisine as well as people in Mekong Delta to guests from many countries in the world. People in Mekong Delta are diligent, hard-working and friendly. They live in a peaceful and prosperous land where many ethnic Chinese people settle. All of them live happily in Mekong Delta together to make a multicultural cachet and attract tourists to come to their beautiful place. Pork cooks with sauces, eggs and coconut juice is a great combination between culture and famous agricultural products in Mekong River Delta.

- Well off /wɛl ɒf/ (adj): Wealthy - Endow /ɪnˈdaʊ/ (v): Provide with a quality, ability, or asset - Irrgation /ɪrɪɡeɪtʃ(ə)n/ (n): Supply water to (land or crops) to help growth, typically by means of channels - Typical /ˈtɪpɪk(ə)l/ (adj): Having the distinctive qualities of a particular type of person or thing - Braise /breɪz/ (v): Fry (food) lightly and then stew it slowly in a closed container - Cuisine /kwɪˈziːn/ (n): A style or method of cooking, especially as characteristic of a particular country, region, orestablishment. - Pickled /ˈpɪk(ə)ld/ (adj): (Of food) preserved in vinegar or brine - Yolk /jəʊk/ (n): The yellow internal part of a bird’s egg, which is surrounded by the white, is rich in protein and fat, and nourishes the developing embryo. - Ingredient /ɪnˈɡriːdɪənt/ (n): Any of the foods or substances that are combined to make a particular dish. - Fragrant /ˈfreɪɡr(ə)nt/ (adj): Having a pleasant or sweet smell - Copra /ˈkɒprə/ (n): Dried coconut kernels, from which oil is obtained. - Permeate /ˈpəːmɪeɪt/ (v): Spread throughout (something); pervade - Egg shell /ɛɡ ʃɛl/ (n): The hard protective outer case of the egg. - Peppercorn /ˈpɛpəkɔːn/ (n): The dried berry of a climbing vine, used whole as a spice or ground to make pepper - The black concentrated solution: The liquid made from hot sugar. - Diligent /ˈdɪlɪdʒ(ə)nt/ (adj): Having or showing care and conscientiousness in one’s work or duties. - Prosperous /ˈprɒsp(ə)rəs/ (adj): Bringing wealth and success - Cachet /ˈkaʃeɪ/ (n): The state of being respected or admired; prestige