The gifts of autumn
Lao Cai fully converges what tourists are always looking for: beautiful natural scenery; cool and fresh climate; unique indigenous culture and unique cuisine. Coming to Lao Cai in autumn, there are many specialties for you to enjoy and buy as gifts.1. Nuggets
Around the end of August, the beginning of September, when the glutinous rice flowers begin to bend, the rice seeds begin to grow, but there is still colostrum and seed oil is the beginning of the nuggets season. Nugget is made from glutinous rice that has not yet ripened and has just arrived. At this time, the rice still smells of milk and the people cut it home and roast it on a cast iron pan, then pound it by hand and sieve to separate the rice husks to get nuggets. The Nuggets now have the most distinctive aroma and delicious taste. Nuggets after pounding are prepared into many dishes such as rice nuggets, pressed nuggets, spring roll. Among them, rice nuggets are the most popular because they only need to pound the rice husks. Delicious rice nuggets are to use your hand to hold the link into a block, when you let go of your hand, it will spontaneously unfold. When fall comes to Lao Cai, don't miss the opportunity to enjoy nuggets.
Big, green nuggets with sweet and supple taste that can't be compared anywhere else
Nuggets are delicious everywhere, but Bac Ha, Ta Van, and Hop Thanh are the most delicious. Nuggets in these places are made from the traditional varieties of glutinous rice, processed by the mothers' hands, to give birth to wonderful, fragrant, green nuggets of rice. Nuggets season in Lao Cai lasts only a few fairs before entering the October harvest. This is not only a cultural beauty that needs to be preserved and promoted, but also contributes to helping people improve their lives from the local specialties.
2. Roasted Khau Rice (Gao Khau Hang) Bac Ha
Roasted khau is a rather strange dish for many people, but it is a special dish from Bac Ha, Lao Cai. This is also a rare specialty that is hard to find. The roasted pistol is made of young glutinous rice, but a little older than nuggets. Glutinous rice when it is ⅔ ripe, then cut it, and then at night, the food is ripe and the bottom has a slight smell of sunlight. The rice milled from this is delicious. On these autumn days, visitors to Bac Ha can enjoy this special dish. Anyone who eats roasted rice for once will always remember its taste, the cool aroma, and the sweetness of young rice blending together to captivate many diners.
Roasted Khau rice is a kind of sticky rice with a sweet taste and aroma similar to the smell of nuggets. This is a very suitable specialty for you to buy as a gift. Remember to vitit Lao Cai around September to October to enjoy this dish.
3. Bao Ha seedless persimmon
In the middle of lunar August, the ripe Bao Ha seedless persimmon is harvested and sold in the garden or brought back to soak and then brought to the market.
Every autumn, the people of Bao Ha (Bao Yen district) are busy harvesting large, round, glossy seedless persimmons of ripe old age to soak in time to be transferred to the car according to customer orders, bringing local specialties to everywhere. For a long time, seedless persimmon has been famous as a delicious fruit, a specialty of the land of Bao Ha, where anyone goes, wherever they go, tourists from far away buy it as gifts for relatives and friends. Since 2017, Bao Ha seedless persimmon has had packaging and labels, so they are popular with the market, there are peak days, Bao Ha people can consume 15-20 tons of fruit. Bao Ha seedless persimmons usually ripen on the right festival of Bao Ha Temple until the annual Mid-Autumn Festival; This is a product that many tourists from all over the world who come to visit Bao Ha Temple choose to buy and bring back as gifts. At the beginning of the season, the selling price of persimmons in the garden is 20,000 VND/kg; in the middle of the crop is about 12,000 - 15,000 VND/kg.
4. Muc pomelo
Muc pomelo has been granted a certificate of trademark registration by the National Office of Intellectual Property in March 2017
Muc pomelo is a famous specialty pomelo of Thai Nien commune (Bao Thang district, Lao Cai province). Muc village - Thai Nien commune is known as the cradle of the specialty of Muc pomelo. Specialty grapefruit has a thin, succulent and sweet skin. The people of Muc village have worked hard to take care of this precious pomelo variety for many years. Each pomelo tree in the season is full of fruit, the fruit is from 0.7 - 1.5kg succulent, the pulp is thin, the sweet taste is cool and suitable for refreshments and vitamin C supplements. Due to the special characteristics of soil and water source in Muc village, Muc pomelo has a sweet but still very refreshing taste. Muc pomelo is harvested from lunar August to lunar December every year, so if you come to Lao Cai, don't forget to buy this specialty as a gift. Moc pomelo is a 3-star OCOP certified product of Lao Cai province. Price: from 20,000 to 40,000 VND/fruit.
5. Bat Xat Huong thom Moon Cake
Huong Thom moon cakes are very familiar to Lao Cai people
Those in Lao Cai are probably no strangers to Huong Thom mooncakes (Bat Xat). Officially present in Lao Cai since 2009, Huong Thom mooncake (Bat Xat) is the brand name of Mr. Thom and his sister Huong. This is an address specializing in providing traditional moon cakes and is trusted and chosen by many people in the province. Mooncakes here are produced on-site with natural ingredients without using preservatives and have been granted a certificate of food safety and hygiene. The traditional mooncake of Huong Thom has a foothold in the market partly because of its affordable price, with 25,000 VND/piece at the factory. Lao Cai consumers can easily buy Huong Thom traditional mooncakes at most grocery stores and supermarkets in Lao Cai province.