Spring roll - one of ten best dishes in the world

The spectrum of Vietnamese dishes is surprisingly refined and diverse for such a small country. Mother nature gives Vietnam many beautiful landscapes, but local people make their own identity. Vietnam cuisine is one of very beautiful  culture that very attractive to tourist. Each part of the country has their own kind of foods.

Nem ran (spring roll) – one of very popular dishes in Vietnam – was voted By CNN as one of ten best dishes of the world.  But it is not very hard to make spring roll, and the ingredients is also very easy to find in any super market.

Ingredients for 12 spring rolls:

-          Minced pork: 300 gr

-          Dried vermicelli: 30 gr

-          Earwood mushrooms: 30 gr

-          Shiitake mushrooms: 30 gr

-          Jicama: 200 gr

-          Onion: 100 gr

-          Carrot: 100 gr

-          Chicken eggs: 2

-          Spring onion and shallots

-          Rice paper

-          Fish sause: 3 teaspoons

-          Chicken stock powder:  teaspoon

-          Pepper: half teaspoon

Making dipping sauce:

-          5 spoon of water

-          1 spoon of fish sause

-          1 and half of vinegar

-          Half of lime juice

-          1 spoon of sugar

-          3 cloves of garlic and chilies

-          100 gr grated or thinly shredded green papaya and carrot

       Minced the garlic and chillies. Stir in the water, sugar fish sause, vinegar, lime juice. Mix well. Garnish with the grated or thinly shredded green papaya and carrot.

Recepe

1.       Soak the dried vermicelli, earwood mushrooms, shitake mushrooms in warm water for 10 to 20 minutes and dry, then finly chop.

2.       Also finely chop the onions, carrots, jimaca, shallots, spring onions.

3.       Put all the prepared ingredients into large mixing bowl.

4.       Add fish sause, chicken stock powder, pepper and chicken eggs, them mix well.

5.       Spoon a tablespoon of the prepared ingredients onto a sheet of rice paper, then rolling.

How to cook:

1.       Pour some cooking oil into frying pan, bring to boil, add the spring roll, turn down flame.

2.       Fry the spring rolls until their color turn light brown for the first time.

3.       For the second time, fry the spring rolls until golden brown and crispy on all sides. Remove and drain on paper towels.

Serve hot with herbs and dipping sauce and thin rice noodle (Bún).

Spring roll is suitable for all people. It is not very fat because spring roll is eaten with Noodle and herbs. The dipping sauce is the combination of salt from fish sauce, sour from vinegar, sweet from sugar, hot from chili. All of them make a unique taste for an delicious Spring roll.

Ngo Quyen - the King from ancient village Duong Lam

Ngo Quyen is a king and also a national hero of Vietnam. He led Vietnamese people to fight Chinese army and claimed back the peace of country after one thousand years of domination.

Ngo Quyen was born in 897 – When Vietnam was dominated by Chinese -  in Duong Lam village,  Bavi district, Hanoi. Legend has it that, when he was born, he had three moles in the back, the augur said that he would be a king in the future, so that his father named him Quyen mean power. He was taught strictly from his father, therefore from he was a child he was very intelligent, had a large lice, and diligent in practicing martial.

In 920, Ngo Quyen followed Duong Dinh Nghe – a national hero - and helped him to fight Chinese army. They seized Dai La (now is Hanoi) in 931. But in 937, Duong Dinh Nghe was assassinated By Kieu Cong Tien. Ngo Quyen became leader. He called upon people to kill Kieu Cong Tien and fight Chinese army.

The fight in Bach Dang river:

After killing Kieu Cong Tien, Ngo Quyen was concentrated all the generals to prepare for the fight to Chinese army. He was very intelligent to use the power of nature. Ngo Quyen predicted Chinese army would come to Vietnam from Bach Dang river – the main waterway. He chose this river to be the battlefield for this war. This area has a very complex terrain. The water level of tide changes very fast.  He steered all people to cut down the big trees and make the  pickets that the top were covered by iron to put in riverbed. When the tide rises up, all the pickets were hided, He let a group of soldier move out to fight Chinese army and wile them to come in the having pickets area. When the tide ebbed, the pickets exposed and brook through the warships of Chinese. But they could not come out of the battlefield. In a very short time, all the Chinese army was defeated. In 938, the war finished, Vietnamese people regained their independence after a thousand years of domination.

Using pickets is an unique feature of this war, it is also a creation in military art that the initiator is Ngo Quyen. In 1288, under Tran Dynasty, Tran Hung Dao reused this tactic to defeat Yuan army (Mongol), and also succeed in protecting the peace of the country.

In 939 Ngo Quyen became the King and established Ngo dynasty. The capital of Ngo dynasty is Co Loa (out skirt of Hanoi). Unfortunately, He passed away very early in 944 when he was 47 years old, after 6 years ruled the country. After that the country weakened quickly and became chaos.

Ngo Quyen even just had 6 years of ruling, but He has a very important role for the country's history. He was the person who finished  one thousand  year of domination from Chinese and opened a new era: era of developing and protecting the country. To show the respect to Ngo Quyen, Vietnamese people was built many temples to worship him. The most famous is Ngo Quyen tomb in his Home Town, Duong Lam, Ba Vi, Hanoi.

Moon Garden Homestay – a truly authentic Vietnam

Moon Garden Homestay is a small resort located in outskirt of Hanoi – Ky Son Village, Xuan Son commune, Son Tay district. It takes about 2 hour moving by shuttle bus from center of Hanoi to this peaceful area. Visiting Moon Garden homestay, tourist will have chance to discover the daily life of local people– a deeply touch to Vietnam traditional culture.

Moon Garden homestay accommodation:

As a small village, Moon Garden homestay has the traditional ancient houses,  house on stilt, and a small cathedral.  There are four ancient houses there: Mango house,  Pomelo house  Frangipani house in  traditional style with 3 parts of living room and two bedrooms, and a smaller house with only one bedroom is Guava house. Why the houses are calling ancient house? Because tourist can find the traditional architecture feature here. The roof  tile is Vietnam's traditional tile called shoe peak tile or dragon scale tile. The doors and almost the furniture are made from wood. The houses are decorated by distiches, all the furniture from tables, ottomans to beds are decorated by carving traditional pattern: lotus, peach blossom, phoenix and dragon. The windows have the circle shape symbolize for conception about Yin and Yang. Especially, the Frangipani house has the Buddha altar. In front of the house is a large yard where children can play traditional games. The yard has areca and betel trees that involve to a folktale in Vietnam. Moon Garden homestay also has a large garden with many kind of fruits and flowers as pomelo, mango, logan and many frangipani.

Moon Garden homestay has only one house on stilt. House on stilt is traditional architecture style of ethic groups in Vietnam. This kind of house help them to avoid beast, snake and insect. The house on stilt in Moon Garden also has the unique feature of traditional house on stilt. The roof of the house has four side with steep slope.  The house was made by wood with many pillars to hold up the main part. The House on stilt is decorated by many traditional pattern of ethic groups as brocade, wooden lotus in the crockery vase or ruou can (wine drunk out of a jar through pipes).

A specialty of Moon Garden homestay is it has a traditional cathedral inside the campus area. Thai Binh province is very famous for Christianity. People here was built many small cathedrals, because of the increase of follower, they want to destroy the old ones and build the new ones. The cathedral in Moon Garden was bought from this area. After buying the church, it was dismantled into different parts and moved to Moon Garden to reassemble. Therefore, this cathedral stills keep the traditional feature of the original one.

Moon garden Homestay Activities:

Coming to Moon Garden homestay, tourist will have chance to enjoy many activities that give them a deeply touch to authentic Vietnam. After a long way coming to Moon Garden, tourist will be welcomed by a cup of green tea to refresh them own. Cooking class is a very interesting activity. Tourist will be taught to cook traditional food of Vietnam as spring roll or leaf wrapped beef roll. After learning they will be conferred a certificate of learning cooking class in Moon Garden homestay.

biking is an important part of the tour to Moon Garden homestay. Tourist will ride bike through the village, pass through the small path to see the green field, visit the temple and pagoda. They also can visit the local kinder garden. Tourist even have chance to working on the farm as a true farmer: grass cutting, harvesting, picking cucumber, fishing and so on.

After some activities, tourist will be relaxed with hand spa and steam bath with fragrant herbs like lemon grass, pomelo leaves, holy basil leaves. In the morning, they will have chance to join Yijinjing – a traditional exercise, and in the late afternoon is Buddha worship ceremony.

If staying longer, Tourist will have chance to visit Thuy Thuy An village – a center of habitation for handicapped children and Ba Vi National park with rich of diverse tropical and subtropical species of flora and fauna.

Moon Garden homestay is not only a peaceful and les-touristic destination, it also a ideal destination for tourist who want to discover the traditional architecture and culture of Vietnam.