Fragrant and greasy in every grain of rice, Ben Tre coconut rice has long been a famous specialty associated with the “coconut land” of Ben Tre.
By Thomas Vietnam at vemekong.com | All Best Foods & Restaurants in Ben Tre
1. Better to Know as a Food Lover
Find them: Ben Tre city.
Best time: Dusk-Dawn
Don’t miss: Coconut rice
Local’s pick: Restaurant in Hung Vuong Park
Tourist’s pick: Restaurant in Ben Tre
Blog: https://vemekong.com/coconut-rice-ben-tre/
Facts: It is called coconut rice because the coconut is used as a pot to cook rice. Coconut rice is known as one of the “Miss” dishes of Southeast Asian countries. In which, the way to cook coconut rice is also simple but modified with many different ways of processing. This is definitely one of those dishes that never gets boring.
2. Better to Know Coconut Rice
Ben Tre is a province located in the northeast of the Mekong Delta, right at the end of the Mekong River, where it is adjacent to the sea. Ben Tre’s topography is quite flat, with fields and gardens interspersed with many sand dunes. As a coastal province, Ben Tre has many strips of mangroves in the estuaries. Divided by the Co Chien and Ham Luong rivers, Ben Tre has a system of small rivers and canals that are quite intertwined, creating great advantages in the development of waterway transport, irrigation and agriculture.
Ben Tre’s strength is also the garden economy. However, unlike other southwestern provinces, which often grow a variety of tropical fruit trees, Ben Tre is famous for a key fruit tree that is coconut. Ben Tre is the province with the most coconut in the country. Coming to Ben Tre, visitors will see immense coconut groves stretching from Chau Thanh, Cho Lach to Mo Cay, Giong Trom… Westerners have a saying “When you see a coconut, you remember Ben Tre – When you see a beautiful rice flower, you will miss Mekong Delta” is exactly that.
In the “coconut land” of Ben Tre, not only coconut is a specialty, but the dishes made from coconut ingredients are also a specialty that makes anyone traveling to Ben Tre also be attractive. Typically, coconut candy, coconut jam, coconut cake, coconut wine, coconut tofu … but the most special of which is Ben Tre coconut rice.
3. Coconut Rice in Ben Tre
Coconut rice is a unique dish of the “coconut land” of Ben Tre. Although coconut rice has a rustic, idyllic, rural character, in order to have a delicious coconut rice dish, the stages from choosing ingredients to processing require a certain meticulousness and sophistication. The main ingredients of coconut rice are coconut and rice. Coconut to cook coconut rice must use Siamese coconut, the new rice has a sweet taste. As for rice, people often use Hau Giang white rice, the grains are large, round, and white. By enjoying coconut rice, visitors will feel the sweet and fatty taste. Because in the process of water distillation, the rice grains have been fully soaked in fresh coconut water and especially the greasy layer of coconut rice wrapped around. And the fried shrimp is crispy, salty, but in the rich salty taste, there is also the sweetness and fat of coconut water. Each grain of white rice mixed with shrimp meat brings an indescribable taste, making it impossible for anyone to taste it for the first time.
4. How to Make Coconut Rice
Ingredients to be prepared
180ml coconut water
400g plain rice
500ml chicken broth
30g butter
1 tablespoon thinly sliced coconut
150g chopped onion
1 clove of garlic
How to cook Ben Tre coconut rice
Steps to take
Step 1: You measure the rice just enough and then pick it up. Then put the rice in the pot and wash the rice a little more to make it more delicious when washing the rice a lot.
Step 2: Add some butter in the pot, then put it on the stove to melt the butter, then add some garlic and saute. Do not forget to put the pre-washed rice in the pot and stir for about 2 minutes so that the butter and rice are mixed together.
Step 3: Add coconut water, chicken broth and a little cold water to the inside of the rice pot. Don’t forget to close the lid so that the rice is cooked more thoroughly until the water inside the pot is drained.
Step 4: You adjust the low heat for about 12 minutes until the rice is cooked evenly. Use chopsticks to stir again until the rice is spread. Scoop the rice onto a plate, then add a side dish to enjoy while it’s still hot.
Completing the delicious and attractive Ben Tre cooked coconut rice dish. Cooking time is only 40-50 minutes.
5. Pro tips:
Here are our tips for easing your mind (and stomach) around food-handling environments that you may not be used to.
Make sure the food is freshly cooked. If you’re eating hot street food, it’s always safest (not to mention more delicious) to eat food you can see being cooked to order.
Look for lines and busy stalls. Busy street food stalls are an indicator of popularity, and their high turnover rate means the food is never sitting out for hours and developing dreaded bacteria. Yes, long lines can be discouraging when you’re hungry after a full day of exploring, but it’s not worth the risk of grabbing precooked food from the empty spot next door.
Eat when the locals are eating. The last and most important element here is when to eat. You’re likely already on a weird eating schedule while you’re traveling, but it’s important to try and adjust to the eating times of where you are. A bowl of pho might be lunch for Americans, but it’s breakfast for the Vietnamese. This ensures that you’re eating freshly cooked food and that you can find the best and most popular places to eat.
If you can’t drink the water, then you can’t eat the salad. Most people get so hung up on not drinking the water or skipping ice in drinks that they don’t think about all of the other ways in which water is used in food service. Fruits and vegetables tend to be washed with tap water in most places, rather than the filtered water that locals drink—or sometimes it’s not washed at all. If you’re really craving some produce, try fruits you can peel or cooked veggies.
Trust your gut. If you’re unsure about the food or the way that it’s being prepared, then keep moving. Eating street food all over the world doesn’t make you an expert. Every stall and every country are different, and sometimes the rules can be harder to follow. When something doesn’t look, smell, or feel right, don’t eat it! Trust your judgment. Chances are that there’s another spot close by that’s making something more delicious.
Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Can Tho: Co Ut’s Cong cake, Ut Dzach Fine Rice Vermicelli, Thanh Van Grilled Pork Sausage, Crab Noodle Soup At Floating Market, Scorched Rice with Caramelized Fish Sauce, 7-Toi’s Duck Meat Pancake, Banh Mi Thuy, Banana Blossom Salad, Fried Spring Rolls, Fresh Spring Rolls, Fetal duck egg (balut), Honeycomb Cake, Mini Sticky Rice Cake, Cassava Silkworm Cake, Grilled Banana Wrapped in Sticky Rice, Khmer-style Bun Goi Da Soup, Egg Coffee, Con Son Grilled Snakehead Fish, Bun Mam – Fermented Fish Noodle Soup, Lau Mam – Fermented Fish Hotpot, Grilled Snails with Pepper, Magenta Sticky Rice Cake, Duck cooked with Fermented Tofu, Rice Noodle Pizza, Vegetarian Noodle Soup, Snails Stuffed With Pork…
Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Chau Doc: Chau Doc Fish Noodle Soup, Sugar Palm Fruit, Basa Fish Hot Pot, Mam (Fermented fish), Phu Huong Beef Noodle Soup, Broken Rice with Pork Chop, Long Xuyen Broken Rice, Nui Cam Pancake, O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves, Stir-fried Shrimp with Sesbania Flower, Sweet & Sour Soup with Siamese Mud Carp Soup & Sesbania Flower, Caramelized & Braised Catfish, Grilled Rice-field Rat with Salt and Chili…
Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Soc Trang: Pia Cake, Cong Cake (Banh Cong), Bun Nuoc Leo Soc Trang’s Noodle Soup, Soc Trang’s Bun Goi Da Soup, Duck Noodle Soup with black Pepper, Curry Noodle Soup, Grilled Beef on Tile, Khmer-style Tube Cake, Khmer-style Mung Bean Cake (Banh In), Dried Radish (Xa Bau), Stir-Fried Noodles with Seafood (Mi Sua), Soc Trang’s Green Rice Flakes…
Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Ben Tre: Phu Le Rice Wine, Ben Tre’s Coconut Candy, Flat Banana, Coconut Rice, Snail Pancake, Sea Snail with Coconut Milk, Coconut Worm, Young Coconut Salad with Shrimp & Pork, Son Doc Puff Rice Paper…
Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Cai Be: Puffed Rice Cake…
Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Vinh Long: Elephant Ear Fish (fried giant gourami)…
Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in My Tho: Fried Sticky Rice, Snakehead Fish Rice Porridge, Hu Tieu My Tho (Noodle Soup), Coconut Banana Cake…
Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Tra Vinh: Macapuno Coconut, Bun Nuoc Leo Tra Vinh’s Noodle Soup, Tra Cuon’s Sticky Rice Cake…
Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Sadec: Sa Dec Noodle Soup, Sadec Crab Hotpot, Lai Vung Spring Rolls, Sa Giang Shrimp Puff Pastry, Lai Vung Tangerine…
Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Bac Lieu: Spicy Beef Noodle Soup, Bac Lieu’s Three-striped Crab, White Radish Pies, Bac Lieu Thick Noodles & Creamy Coconut Milk, Bon Bon Pickles…
Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Ca Mau: Banh tam ga cay (Silkworm rice cake with curried chicken), Grilled Vop clams with salt and pepper, Grilled Mudskipper Fish, Stone Crab Roast With Salt, Young Bee Salad, Nam Can’s Crab, U Minh Forest’s Honey, U Minh’s Fermented Fish Hotpot…
Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Hau Giang: Cau Duc Pineapple, Cai Tac’s Pork Organs Porridge, Hau Giang’s Bronze Featherback Fish Cake…
Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Ha Tien: Herring Fish Salad, Spider crab cake soup, Ken Noodle soup, Xoi Xiem (Siamese sticky rice), Steamed Noodle soup, Ha Tien Oyster porridge…
Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Rach Gia: Stir Noodle Soup, Kien Giang Fish Noodle Soup…
Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Con Dao: Bang nut jam, Vu Nang Snail, Roasted Pork Bread (Banh Mi), Coconut Ice Cream…
Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Phu Quoc: Phu Quoc Sim Wine, Phu Quoc Pepper, Phu Quoc fish sauce…
Hopefully, the above tips will help you to come up with a great plan for your adventure in Mekong River Delta, Vietnam. Have a safe trip!
“Sleep less, travel more, respect more” – Thomas Vietnam – Local travel expert.
Thank you
