Honey is considered the high of a hundred flowers – a food containing many nutrients, often used as medicine, as a nutritious food for the elderly, women after childbirth and malnourished children. According to scientists, regular honey – that is, bees raised is good, natural honey from U Minh Ha forest is better.
By Thomas Vietnam at vemekong.com | All Best Foods & Restaurants in Ca Mau
1. Better to Know as a Food Lover
Find them: Ca Mau city.
Best time: Dusk-Dawn
Don’t miss: U Minh Ha Forest’s Honey
Local’s pick: U Minh Forest’s Honey shop
Tourist’s pick: Supermarket in Ca Mau
Blog: https://vemekong.com/u-minh-ha-forest-honey/
Facts: Folk often call honey as Bach Hoa Cao or Bach Hoa Tinh. Particularly, the famous national medicine man of Vietnam, Hai Thuong Lan Ong Le Huu Trac, considers honey to be the essence of a hundred flowers.
2. Better to Know U Minh Ha Forest’s Honey
Since centuries ago, honey has been a “panacea” for women’s skin and hair. The person famous for the milk and honey bath method to maintain youth is the Egyptian’s Queen Cleopatra.
According to scientists, honey consists of about 70-80% sugar, the rest is water and minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, enzymes and some other acids. Each gram of honey contains about 320 calories, which means that for each spoon of honey, our body will be provided with 15-20 calories. A special feature is that the sugar in honey has a simple texture and is easier to digest than table sugar, so they help improve the digestive system for better health. Many medical experts also believe that honey cures diabetes, is good for the heart and helps the body relax.
In addition, honey also has a sedative effect, helps sleep well, cures sore throat, laryngitis, hoarseness, cough, treats minor burns, cures peptic ulcers, makes spring anise cure impotence, anti-fatigue, uplifting, antiseptic mouth, eyes bright, slimming, asthma treatment, anti-aging. Particularly in the field of cosmetology, due to its moisturizing and lubricating properties, honey is used a lot to make face masks, or is made into wax to prevent chapped lips and wrinkles in women, retain moisture and remove keratinized cells in the skin.
3. U Minh Ha Forest’s Honey in Ca Mau
U Minh Ha has been famous for wild animals and honey since ancient times. The entire U Minh Ha forest is a huge warehouse of raw materials for bees to make honey – that is Melaleuca flower. The honey in U Minh Ha forest is clear and yellow like orange juice. Condensed honey is poured into bottles without a funnel. Honey is not mixed, for a long time does not change color, does not metamorphose and does not stagnate sugar.
U Minh Ha forest covers an area of about 30,000 hectares and is estimated to have a honey production of many tons per year.
At the beginning of March and April of the lunar calendar, Melaleuca forests began to bloom sporadically. The melaleuca flower is small, covered on the top of the melaleuca tree like hair that has just turned silver. Each cluster, each cluster of pistils is soft, the fragrance is soft, discreetly spread in the space, enticing each swarm of bees to fly away to collect honey from the previous shacks for bees to make nests, which they call “eating bees”. Honey harvested from this season – that is, the dry season is considered the best and most valuable honey. A beehive a year can be harvested 6 times, each time from 3 to 4 liters of honey, there are some beehives that give 10 liters of honey each time. Skilled custodians earn 12% of the total family income each year.
The job of guarding bees in U Minh Ha forest is an art, from studying the behavior and habits of bees, gradually people draw experience and come to become proficient in collecting honey that outsiders find hard to imagine. The truss is a melaleuca branch longer than a meter, with a small branch at one end used as a node. After choosing a suitable place, the forest worker puts the slanted truss on the melaleuca tree, and must clear the surrounding branches and leaves so that when taking honey, there is no need to get entangled.
The most ideal time to guard the rafter is around mid-November of the lunar calendar, so that the late rains at the end of the season wash away the iron smell where the 2 ends are cut by the knife and the honeycomb branch has enough time to dry out like other dry branches. If any truss still smells like the iron of a freshly cut knife, the bee will never make a nest.
4. How to Make Drink from U Minh Forest’s Honey
Ingredients: 8 kumquats, 1 lemon, 1 dry tea, honey
Doing:
– Brew dry tea with a little water, filter out the residue.
– Squeeze the seeds, squeeze out the water, put in the mixed tea, put in the mixture a few kumquat shells for fragrance.
– Squeeze more lemon and add honey, adjust the dose according to taste.
– Serve hot or add ice.
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.
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
