6. Smoked sausage (Lạp xường hun khói)

Sausage in the highlands of Cao Bang is processed more elaborately in the delta. The inside is made of loin, pork shoulder or black pork butt. All are chopped and marinated with honey, sugar cane … and can not lack a little white wine, a little bit of ginger juice and a few dried cherries mashed together. Then stuffed into molds. The next stage is to dry under the sun for three days and then hung on the fire, the smoke and heat of the fire will sweeten the meat and make the sausage firmer.

7. Nằm khâu

Nằm khâu is a special dish in Cao Bang, especially in the wedding of Tay people in Cao Bang. The dish is made from lower belly part of pork meat and potatoes, giving unforgettable taste. Nằm khâu is the main dish in the wedding celebration, very close to people in the districts of Cao Bang.

The food must always be hot for tasting. Not many people are ready to eat at the first time they see as its messy look but once tried, just want to eat more.

8. Khảo cake

The cakes are probably a dry provision of the Tay and the Nung in Cao Bang. Khảo cakes are made on the occasion of Tet. The cake’s quality can last long without being rotten, so with the traditional Tet in the long spring days, families having Khảo cakes are which still having Tet in their house.

Making Khảo cakes requires skills. Anyone who has the tools can also “make” the dish, but making a really delicious khảo is making masterpieces. The skillful Khảo maker is also an artisan.

9. Coong Phù

 

Coong Phu is stuffed sticky rice balls with. “Coong Phu” is Tày language, but all ethnic groups call this dish that way, and it gradually becomes a general name. On winter solstice day, most of the houses make Coong Phu; if not, they also buy some bowls of those sticky rice balls to giving incense celebrating the day with their ancestors. The ingredient is mainly from flour rubbed from rice. After being rubbed, the flour is poured into the rice bags, tied and hang up on the house beam to let the water from flour flow down until drain to small bags, then tighten the bags until there is no water flowing down. The flour can be molded into a cake, or press with a few peanuts, beans, which can mix with gac-fruit to make gac cake.

Those balls later are boiled in water and taken out when they float on boiling water surface. These balls are eaten with sweet soup. The soup is made from Phuc Hoa molasses, added some more smashed ginger pieces.

Coming to Cao Bang in winter, you will be invited to have a bowl rice balls coong phu soup, sprinkling some more peanuts, you will have a bowl of delicious coong phu with the sweet smell of molasses, the pungent smell of ginger,  the aroma of rice and the warm of hot soup!

10. Stuffed pancake (Bánh cuốn)

Similar to the way stuffed pancake in the delta, but as a distinguished feature of Cao Bang people everything becomes more elaborate in a method, and ingredients of this dish are also carefully processed from very first steps. To get the right thin and tough cake layers, the cook has to choose the right kind of rice. Chicken or eggs are then chopped often used as the core of the rolls. You may eat the well-cooked rolls with sophisticatedly processed sauce with a reasonable amount of spices.