The field Rat dish is a delicious dish, but not everyone is brave enough to enjoy it. Many people are curious and scared when tasting the taste of this dish. However, when traveling to Long Xuyen, try once to experience the Grilled Rice-field Rat with Salt and Chili, you will definitely feel the full wonderful taste that this unique dish brings.

By Thomas Vietnam at vemekong.com | All Best Foods & Restaurants in Chau Doc

1. Better to Know as a Food Lover

Find them: Long Xuyen City

Best time: Dusk-Dawn

Don’t miss: Grilled Rice-field Rat with Salt and Chili

Local’s pick: Restaurant in Long Xuyen

Tourist’s pick: Bay Bong restaurant…

Blog: https://vemekong.com/grilled-rice-field-rat-with-salt-and-chili-chau-doc-food/

Facts: Grilled rat meat is golden-brown color, slightly fatty with a layer of fat close to the skin, fragrant, which has made a feature of the culinary culture of the Southwest region.

2. Better to Know Grilled Rice-field Rat with Salt and Chili

Field rats often live in rice fields and fields, appearing all year round in some southwestern provinces such as Tien Giang, Long An, Dong Thap, An Giang, Can Tho… When the rice fields begin to harvest, this is the time when people here go to the fields to hunt for mice because at this time rats often appear (because they only eat rice, so the mouse meat is clean, fatty, firm and sweet), then bring it back to be processed into many unique dishes.

There are many ways to catch mice. If the rice is ripe but not cut, people will use seine nets, set traps in cages, then use ropes with cans to hang (to make noise), then drag the rats to collect them. However, currently, the most common way to hunt mice is to use hunting dogs to sniff out the burrows where rats live. In addition, people also dig burrows, traps, skewers from the rice field or just smoke into the cave and the rats will race to run out…

3. Grilled Rice-field Rat with Salt and Chili in An Giang

Rats are cleaned by peeling the skin, cutting off the head and 4 legs, cleaning the internal organs, removing the lymph nodes, washing with salt until clean, draining, marinating spices including salt, chili, seasoning seeds, a little lemongrass and minced garlic, less sugar (depending on taste), then leave it for about 30 minutes. From the meat of the field mouse, people in the West can process it into many different dishes, but the fastest way is to bake straw with golden, fragrant skin. It takes a little more time for the rats to be roasted, sautéed, fried with lemongrass and chili, coconut water, roti… every dish is fatty and delicious. In particular, the grilled rat with salt and pepper is a popular and indispensable dish on the drinking table and is loved by many people.

In recent years, people’s demand for rats is increasing. Therefore, the field mouse dish is now not only a rustic dish but also a specialty in restaurants and eateries everywhere. Connoisseurs also think that this is a favorite dish and is always present on the drinking tables. After the rat meat is absorbed into the spices, bring it to the charcoal grill for about 20-30 minutes until the meat is golden brown evenly. After roasting, the mouse can be chopped or left whole as you like. It has no strange smell but is fragrant, sweet, tough like chicken and especially has very little fat. When eating, tear each piece of hot grilled rat meat, and it can be dipped with chili salt and lemon to add more flavor to the dish. People can use grilled mouse meat to make a drink or a side dish with rice.

4. How to Make Grilled Rice-field Rat with Salt and Chili

Ingredients:

– Garlic: 1 bulb

– Rats: 1 kg

– Fresh chili: 2

– Purple onion: 3 pieces

– Seasoning: salt, pepper, sugar, monosodium glutamate (main noodles), white wine, fresh chili

How to make Grilled Rice-field Rat with Salt and Chili, a specialty of the Southwest region

When we have prepared all the ingredients, we prepare the grilled rat with salt and pepper as follows:

– Preliminarily clean mice (skinned, head and 4 legs removed, internal organs cleaned, lymph nodes removed). The familiar preliminary processing stage of Western households, or buying pre-prepared mice because few people dare to do it, I just have to bring the meat back.

– Marinate grilled rats with salt and pepper with a mixture of spices including: 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 chopped dangerous chili peppers, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 MSG. Allow the rat to soak up the seasoning for about 30 minutes.

– Peel the onion and garlic, mince the mouse to make it available.

– After the mouse meat is absorbed evenly, you bring it up to grill on charcoal for about 20 to 25 minutes, until the mouse meat is cooked and the color of cockroach wings is okay.

– The grilled rat meat can be cut into small pieces or left whole to make it as beautiful as you like.

– When eating barn meat grilled with salt and chili, you serve it with laksa leaves or cucumbers.

Put the mouse on a plate and bring it to the family to enjoy with hot rice or as a drink and invite neighbors or friends over to play, this dish is delicious with banana rice wine or rice wine. Hope you enjoy your meal.

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