Best Food in Can Tho - Lau Mam - Fermented Fish Hotpot

Best Food in Can Tho - Lau Mam - Fermented Fish Hotpot

When you have the chance to travel to Can Tho or Can Tho Floating Market, you definitely must try this unique dish as this is one of the top 10 special dishes only in Mekong Delta. Fermented fish, called "mam” is a meal that many people in the South have eaten many times.

There are many ways to cook Mam. It can be cooked, stir-fried with lemongrass, or eaten plain with noodles, raw vegetables, and meat that has been boiled, with the rough feel of the river valley. This recipe is very popular in the South because it tastes good and uses simple, appealing ingredients.

1. What You Should Know as a Food Lover

• Find them in Ninh Kieu District, Can Tho City.
• Best time: Dusk-Dawn
• Don’t miss: Lau Mam
• Local’s pick: Lau Mam Da Ly restaurant
• Tourist’s pick: Can Tho Lau Mam restaurant, 75 Lau Mam restaurant...

When you come from far away to Can Tho, you will be given a delicious hot pot of pickled fish as a gift from the countryside. This is how the people who live along the river want to share their feelings, thoughts, and more. This specialty has become a specialty of our land because of its rich taste, which always makes people want to try it.

2. Better to Know Lau Mam – Fermented Fish Hotpot

Some say that Lau Mam came from Chau Doc in the province of An Giang. However, the Khmer people first made the dish, which later changed into the fish hot pot we know today. Both the native Khmer and the original Southerners have been making this dish for a long time. A different version of this dish is the epic vegetable tray, which has dozens of different vegetables.

>>Read more: When Is the Best Time to Visit Vietnam's Mekong Delta?

3. Lau Mam – Fermented Fish Hotpot in Can Tho

When talking about a great fermented fish hot pot, the soup has to be brought up. An appealing hot pot with fermented fish always has the great taste of a hot pot with fresh ingredients and raw veggies. When cooking fermented fish with water, people often boil it with bone broth and coconut water to make it naturally sweet without adding MSG. That fish is cooked in a hot pot after it has been boiled to break up the meat and bones. For the soup to taste good, fermented fish hot pot must have a certain quality: it must be made with Linh fermented fish and choke fermented fish.

Add more perfume to cover up the smell of fermented fish. Often, bacon is stir-fried with garlic, lemongrass, and pepper until it smells good. Then, filtered broth is added to cook. Season to taste after cooking. To improve the taste of the fish, add some crushed lemongrass and spicy eggplant to make the meal sweeter. Along with a well-cooked soup, you need to add things like fish, squid, shrimp, and roasted pig to a fermented fish hot pot in order to make it look good. It will taste better because the fish is heavy, especially when served with the delicious fermented fish hotpot and cotton balls.

If the vegetables that go with the fermented fish are described, it gets extra points. Someone stated: "When I eat your fermented fish hotpot, I find the smell a bit unpleasant at first, but when I enjoy it, it has a very special and delicious taste, and moreover, this fermented fish hotpot makes me like it the most vegetables; it looks amazing."

Aside from the taste of the broth, what really strikes you about a hot pot of fermented fish is how beautifully the vegetables are laid out on the plate. The vegetables on the plate look like they belong in a river. Bitter melon, coriander, and morning flowers were mixed into water. Different places have different kinds of water lilies, sorrels, squash, eggplant, bananas, bitter veggies, dragon beans, mustard greens, and other vegetables.

>>Read more: Can Tho Rice Noodle Factory Official Guide

People think that Lau Mam is a dish that fully combines the ingredients from rivers, lakes, and fields, especially a lot of different kinds of raw vegetables. This gives it a beautiful color: the yellow of the pumpkin flower, the purple of the water lily and eggplant, the green of the vegetables and bitter vegetables, and so on.  With so many veggies and dishes that go well with them, it has given diners not only beauty but also food and a lot of nutrients.

The best way for Southerners to enjoy fermented fish is in a hot pot. The fragrant smell of the hot pot, the sweetness of the fish, shrimp, and squid, and the crisp taste of the raw vegetables all come together to make a classic Southern meal. This dish also shows how talented and creative Southerners are at cooking. 

The way the dish is decorated and the way people eat it are both shown by the way the colors work together to catch the eye. There are white, blue, purple, and yellow ingredients, and each one tastes and looks different. It's full of sweet, salty, and spicy tastes.

>>Read more: Can Tho Foods & Restaurants You Cannot Ignore

4. How to Make Lau Mam – Fermented Fish Hotpot

Ingredient

• 100g choke Mam
• 100g Linh fermented fish
• 300g basa fish
• 300g shrimp
• 300g squid
• 300g roast pork
• 300g pork belly
• 500 grams of fresh vermicelli
• 200g pineapples
• Buffalo horns, purple onions, garlic bulbs, and 3 lemongrass plants 500ml coconut water and 1.5 liters of filtered water
• 1 teaspoon seasoning
• 2 tablespoons with rock sugar
• 3 tablespoons cooking oil Water spinach, squash, bitter vegetables, water lily, water hyacinth, spinach, and eggplant

Cooking steps

Process materials:

• Vegetables bought and cleaned: shaved spinach, water lily, coriander, and cut water hyacinth to taste.
• Cut the eggplant in half and then cut into slices 1-2 cm thick.
• Bacon is only washed with salt to remove the fishy smell, then sliced ​​thinly.
• Peel the shrimp or leave the shell on as you like.
• Cut the squid into pieces about 2–3 cm long.
• Basa fish is cleaned and cut into slices.
• Lemongrass smashed, minced the root, lemongrass leaves cut into pieces.
• Minced onion and garlic.
• Pineapple cut into slices.
• Horny chili peppers, sliced ​​diagonally or trimmed with flowers, are used to season and decorate the hot pot

Pre-boiled seafood

1 liter of water on the stove in the north. Add three purple onions to the water as it warms up to make the fish smell better. Bring to a boil and then add the shrimp, squid, and basa fish one at a time. Leave the water that is boiling alone.

Making a hot pot with fermented fish

Put 500ml of cold water, 500ml of coconut water, 100g of Linh fermented fish, and 100g of Choking fermented fish in a pot. Bring the mixture to a boil. After giving it a good stir to break up the fermented fish, use a racket to get rid of the fish bones. In the step before, you put the fermented fish in the pot of boiling water to make a seasoning.

Add 3 cups of cooking oil to a pan and add the garlic, lemongrass, and onion. Heat the oil until it smells good. Add a teaspoon of pepper to the pork belly and stir-fry it until the meat is firm.

Half-fill the pot with water that has been seasoned. Before you add the pineapple and lemongrass, wait for the water to boil. Add two tablespoons of rock sugar and mix. Take the pineapple out of the pot after it softens, then add the chopped eggplant. Wait two minutes, then turn off the heat.

After adding the seasoning to the water, put it into the hot pot and add the raw vegetables, squid, fish, shrimp, roasted pork, and fresh noodles.

Some notes for you

For a tasty fermented fish hot pot, you need ingredients that are fresh and clean. The meat, fish, squid, and shrimp are cooked just right. So, be careful not to boil the parts during the pre-processing. As long as the veggies are crispy and tasty, they can be eaten anywhere. Take off the eye part of the pineapple when you buy it so that your tongue doesn't get burned when you eat it.

>>Read more: Rent a Boat, Bike & Local Guide at Can Tho Floating Market by Yourself

5. Some Pro Tips for You

Here are some ways to calm your mind (and stomach) when you're handling food in a new situation.

Make sure the food is still hot from being cooked. When you eat hot street food, it's always safer and more fun to watch the food being made right in front of you.

Expect long lines and crowded booths. When street food sellers are busy, it means that their food is popular, and because they sell so much, the food is rarely left out for hours at a time, which is when bacteria can grow. Long lines can be annoying after a day of exploring, but it's not worth the risk of stealing ready-made meals from the empty store next door.

Take a bite when the locals do. When to eat is the last and most important thing to think about. You probably already eat at odd times when you're traveling, but it's important to try to get used to the meal times where you're living. Some people in the US eat pho for lunch, but Vietnamese people eat it for breakfast. This makes sure that the food you eat is freshly made and helps you find the best and busiest places.

>>Read more: Ho Chi Minh City To Mekong Delta Tour

You need to drink water before you eat the salad. Most people don't think about all the other ways water is used in food service because they are too busy not drinking water or skipping ice in their drinks. Most of the time, fruits and veggies are washed with tap water instead of the filtered water that people drink, or they are not washed at all. Fruits and veggies that are already peeled are good options if you really want some vegetables.

Believe in your gut. Walk away if you don't understand what's being served or how it's being made. You are not an expert just because you eat street food from all over the world. The rules can be hard to follow sometimes, and each place and country is different. If something doesn't look, smell, or feel right, don't eat it! Believe in your gut. There's a good chance that someone close is making something more delicious.

Those are the information you need to know about the best food in Can Tho - Lau Mam - Fermented Fish Hotpot. We think you can make this on your own or you can travel to Can Tho and enjoy how the locals here make it.