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Discover the uniqueness of Hanoi crab soup, a refreshing blend of flavors and memorable traditional culinary essence.
Dec 25, 2024 · 6 min read
Among the many dishes from all over the world gathered in Hanoi, people can eat to change their taste, but crab soup is still loved by many people for a long time. Let's learn about this memorable dish with iGuide!
Hanoi's crab soup has a particularly sophisticated style and a very unique refreshing taste. Crab soup is very tasty in any season of the year, but only in hot summer like this can we see that we can be bored with "the whole world" but just need a bowl of crab soup to eat several bowls of rice, have the strength to "fight" the terrible heat. Crab soup with vermicelli, crab soup with jute and squash, crab soup with morning glory flowers... are not only delicious, nutritious dishes that go well with rice on summer days but also evoke nostalgia for the countryside.
In the summer, under the scorching sun, the fields are fertile and green, the crabs come out of their burrows and come ashore. It is the biggest and only harvest of field crabs of the year. The meaty, roe-rich crabs are especially favored by Hanoi housewives.
Crab soup is a sophisticated, elaborate, meticulous dish, each step requires skill and experience. From peeling off the apron to peeling off the shell, pounding the body with a little salt to prevent splashing, to scooping out the crab fat with a flat bamboo stick. Filtering the crab also requires a... masterful skill of housewives. Add enough water, stir around so that the crab residue settles to the bottom and the meat floats to the top; Tilt the pot so that the crab meat juice overflows into another pot; Then squeeze the residue to drain the meat juice; Then add more water, stir and filter again, because if you miss any sweetness, you feel guilty towards the countryside.
When it comes to cooking the crab soup so that the crab fat solidifies into a solid block and covers the entire pot without any cracks or chips, it also takes a lot of effort and dedication from the cook. Too little heat is not good, and too much heat will break the crab fat block. The secret is to stir the chopsticks in a circle in one direction and at a moderate speed. You have to stir close to the bottom of the pot so that the crab meat does not stick to the bottom and has time to float to the surface and then stick together. While stirring, you have to season the crab fat to make it sweet and rich. Once the crab fat floats, you have to turn the heat down to a very low level.
When cooking sour soup, Hanoi women will stir-fry a pan of tomatoes and then gently open a small gap near the edge of the pot to put each piece into the pot of water. That is to cherish the integrity of the crab fat surface. Finely chopped onions are sauteed over medium heat until golden brown, then the bowl of crab fat is added. When the pan of scallion oil sizzles and smells fragrant, stir well and lower the heat.
Hanoi women are very skillful, the secret to coloring crab vermicelli soup with spring onions is also the result of many years of cooking. The green half is chopped and sprinkled on the bowl. The white half is cut into finger-sized pieces and then fried in a pan with boiling pork fat. When both pork fat and spring onions are golden, add crab fat. All of this creates a unique aroma that cannot be confused with crab vermicelli soup in other places.
As for how to make the vinegar sour, it also requires a skillful person to be able to handle it quickly. The crab soup must have the aroma of vinegar. If there is grilled arrowroot, it will be delicious. Just a tiny one, otherwise there will be no more room for the vinegar. Add a rock sugar cube, cut into three pieces and put a piece into the crab soup. It has a very light sweetness to balance the sourness and the pungent taste of the crab.
Hanoi crab soup also depends on each person's taste. Some people say that shrimp paste is indispensable, but only a little. The time to add shrimp paste must also be chosen. If you put it in a pot of boiling crab soup, it will be too strong and unpleasant. And when the soup is brought to the table and cooled down, adding shrimp paste will make it fishy. So, experienced chefs are the ones who scoop the crab paste into the bowl, sprinkle the onions on top, and when the bowl is full, add shrimp paste only.
Crab soup is really delicious when served with raw vegetables. The slightly astringent taste of corn lettuce, Vietnamese lettuce cut into long strips. Vietnamese coriander is also chopped into small pieces. Vietnamese coriander is cut into three parts. Vietnamese dill is picked into segments. That is already delicious enough. But if there are a few split water spinach stalks, a few banana flower strands, and banana stems soaked in lime water to make them really white, it will be even more delicious. A few white bean sprouts will add more interest.
If you are cooking crab soup with jute and luffa, crab soup with passionflower flowers... then when the crab fat forms a lump and floats on the water surface, the chef will skillfully scoop it out into a bowl. The crab fat is stir-fried with fried onions until golden and fragrant, then put it into the soup. When the soup boils, add washed and chopped jute, peeled and sliced luffa or passionflower flowers that have been picked and washed.
When it is cooked to the right degree, the industrious woman quickly puts it in a bowl and adds the whole crab paste to the tray. Crab soup eaten with pressed salted eggplant or quick salt is truly a perfect combination, making the rice "flow into the mouth and go straight to the stomach".
Nowadays, with the development of the market economy in Hanoi, the process of preparing crabs is more convenient for housewives. Fresh crab sellers can prepare the crabs by peeling off the shell, pounding or grinding the crabs, filtering the crab juice, and removing the crab fat. Or supermarkets sell frozen ground crabs for busy housewives to take home and cook for their husbands and children on summer afternoons.
Witnessing Hanoians prepare and enjoy crab soup, we truly admire the meticulous and skillful work. Each bowl of soup is like a colorful work of art, with a particularly delicious, rich yet refreshing flavor. A rustic, popular dish that has the status of a specialty, accompanying the nostalgia of those who are far away or surprising and captivating people from other places to this land. Thank you for choosing iGuide.ai to explore this unique culinary corner!
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