Ba Ria Vung Tau: Cultural craft villages
English - Ngày đăng : 16:19, 25/11/2022
Hoa Long wine
Strong and aromatic, Hoa Long wine is the best choice in all feasts for local people. Some claimed the wine is so strong that its drinkers have to try to finish his share and others should not have them to drink more.
To attract tourists, certain well-known features as specialties are normally associated to a land. For example, mountainous corn whisky and apple wine are associated to the northern highland where there are ethnic girls with deep, dark eyes; rice wine, to the Red River Valley; Bau Da, to Binh Dinh. In Vung Tau, Hoa Long wine is such a kind.
There is a craft village in Hoa Long, BR-VT, where they hold a secret of making a wine with passionate, distinctive taste. No one knows, there have been just rumors.
Talking to us, an artisan of a winery in Hoa Long said to make delicious jars of wine, first of all, the rice selected for brewing should have the bran layer intact, and be cooked in a terracotta pot. The cooked rice is left to be cool off and is mix with yeast, and put in a crock jar with cotton sack tied at the mouth of the jar. The incubation time is about three days and nights and the wine is mixed with water for distillation, the pot should be made from terra cotta as well...
In addition, it is water from wells in the area- the area of red basalt- that creates a distinctive taste of the wine and everything is hand-made.
Visitors coming to Hoa Long can see the progress of making a famous wine, enjoy the distinctive taste of it, and bring home some bottles as gifts- simple things with rich cultural values.
An Ngai rice paper
People in An Ngai commune (Long Dien district) also have not known when rice paper was made thought it is a typical and indispensable thing of their lives. Senior people said they have been making rice paper since their teenage days. And though it is not special, rice paper appears in many dishes on special occasions: in spring rolls, in rolls of pickles and boiled pork...
The main ingredient to make rice paper is soaked rice. It is ground into fine flour, its sour water is filtered out and the rest is skilfully mixed with water. Then the mixture is made to rice paper on low flame. Only those with great skills can make round and thin ones. And they also have to forecast the weather- to see whether it rains or is sunny- to make rice paper at night, and dry them outside the next morning- when the sun is up.
There have been over 150 households making rice paper in the craft village. And rice paper not only appears in meals of local people, but it follows tourists to many places in the country as gifts- simple ones but with traditional values.
In addition to being recognized as a traditional craft village by the local government, the village has also had support to develop the work. An Ngai rice paper is included in the project of developing economy.
Equipment and production abilities are invested to meet modern standards and food safety codes. The product will have opportunities to enter larger markets and soon be exported.
Long Kien rice vermicelli
Long Kien rice vermicelli come from the North. It followed immigrants from Hai Phong to the South.
The business was small at first, only a few households did the business. And it has developed then perhaps the combination of local rice and water gives out delicious vermicelli.
Local people has chosen Nang Sau and So Ri, which are grown and harvested in 6 months. Rice grains are greenish-white in color, small in size and longer than other types of rice and can be cooked quickly. They were combined with cool fresh water to make famous Long Kien vermicelli.
Visitors to the village can have a chance to enjoy clean vermicelli (without preservatives) served with grilled meat, spring rolls and herbal leaves; in addition, they can see the progress of making famous Long Kien vermicelli. They can be unforgettable moments.
Those traditional products have been passed down for a long time as a heritage to next generations.
In 2016, Hoa Long (Ba Ria City) was recognized as a traditional craft village by the People’s Committee of BR-VT province. This is also an affirmation of the commercial value of Hoa Long wine and the culture of a traditional craft village that needs to be invested in and developed.