If you go to Con Dao and encounter Vu Nang snails, you will have the opportunity to be greeted by hospitable fishermen who eat fried snails with rice in a meal with your family. And according to many tourists who have set foot in Con Dao, if you enjoy Con Dao cuisine but have not eaten dishes made from snails, it is considered that you have not experienced the rare interesting thing from the “delicious taste” of the sea

By Thomas Vietnam at vemekong.com | Official Con Dao Visitor Guide

1. Better to Know as a Food Lover

Find them: Con Dao.

Best time: Dusk-Dawn

Don’t miss: Vu Nang snail

Local’s pick: Vu Nang snail restaurant

Tourist’s pick: Restaurant in Con Dao

Blog: https://vemekong.com/vu-nang-snail-con-dao/

Facts: Vu Nang snail is one of the unique sea specialties in Con Dao with a variety of ways of processing and eating. This type of snail is exploited by Con Dao fishermen in the Hon Tai area, Hon Trac is located in the southeast of the island, so it always keeps its freshness when processing.

2. Better to Know Vu Nang Snail

Snail Vu Nang is a rare seafood specialty, with a deviated pyramid shape, a small knob on the top, a gray-black outer shell, and a sparkling mother-of-pearl inside. Normally, each breast snail is only as big as three adult fingers, but Con Dao’s breast snail has a baby almost as big as a hand. The larger the breast snail, the darker the pink shell. If sand is rubbed on the snail shell, the snail will glow a bright pink and shimmer with shimmer. This is one of the specialties of this southeastern island. Snails only live on rocky rapids in some places such as Con Dao sea, Cu Lao Cham sea (Quang Nam), Dai Lanh area at the foot of Co Ma pass in Khanh Hoa… However, according to researchers Biodiversity, Con Dao sea is especially suitable for the development of snails. In Con Dao, snails are available all year round, but only appear on full moon days.

Huynh Van Hung, an officer of Con Dao National Park, said that in Con Dao, the most abundant snails are found in Da Tham, Bai Bang and Hang Cau areas. Participating in eco-tourism activities in Con Dao, visitors cannot miss the opportunity to go to Ong Dung beach, one of the wide and beautiful beaches here, especially to enjoy the special dish of snails.

Mammal snails live clinging to the cliffs of the coastal cliffs, they open their shells to let the sea water in to bring microorganisms to make food for them. Therefore, snail catchers have to immerse themselves in the water, sometimes they have to use a lamp to shine into the rock crevices, deep rock holes in the cave to “catch” the snails.

Nguyen Van Ly, a professional snail catcher in Con Dao, said that if you want to catch snails, you can’t use your hands but have to take a hard knife with a sharp tip to separate their mouth from the place where they cling to the rock. Snail catching tools are just that, but if not skillful, they will also break the snail.

Normally, each breast snail is only as big as three adult fingers, but Con Dao’s breast snail seems a bit “slightly” better than Vu Nang Snail in other sea areas, the largest one here is also close to the size. hand. The larger the female breast snail, the darker pink the shell is compared to the smaller female snail. If sand is rubbed into the snail shell, the snail will have a bright pink color and glitter.

In the past, dishes made from snails could only be enjoyed by kings. Later, Vu Nang Snail became a daily dish of people going to the sea.

3. Vu Nang Snail in Con Dao 

Vu Nang Snail is all delicious when boiled, grilled or mixed with salads. Boiled breast snail is considered the most popular dish because it is easy to make. With this dish, after being washed, snails are placed in a pot with little or no water and then put on the stove to boil. According to gourmets, she doesn’t need any water to boil Snail Vu Nang because she already has a lot of water in it. While boiling, sometimes have to open the pot, use chopsticks to turn the snails to cook evenly, then remove to cool. After boiling, use the tip of a small knife to gently pry the snail meat out of the shell, wash the snail, and then water it with boiling water one more time. Vu Nang Snail meat changed from ivory white to yellow.

This dish just needs to be dipped with salt, pepper and lemon, crispy, sweet and delicious. The unique thing about boiled breast snail is that it is not too fatty like meat, not too tough like oysters, clams, and not as small as oysters. If you enjoy the newly sucked breast snails, you will feel the delicious taste, not mixed with any special dishes. Snail juice is also attractive because it is both salty and sweet.

Making a mixed snail dish is also very simple, snail meat is sliced ​​lengthwise after being boiled and then mixed with lemon and chili. Vu Nang Snail meat will then be crispy and fragrant. According to people who are “addicted” to seafood specialties, the best dish of Vu Nang Snail is still the cooked breast snail when it is grilled on a stick oven.

Snail salad has a rich flavor of thinly sliced ​​snail meat mixed with pork skin, chopped bacon, cucumber, laksa leaves, finely chopped basil, crushed roasted peanuts, fresh lemon, chili and fish sauce. This snail salad served with grilled rice paper, dipped with ginger fish sauce is sure to make people enjoy it hard to forget. It must also be said that the dishes made from snails are delicious thanks to the famous aroma of fish sauce in Con Dao.

4. How to Make Snail Vu Nang

Ingredients for Steamed Snail with Lemongrass

1 kg of snail Vu Nang (8-9 animals)

100 g of lemongrass (for fragrant steaming)

3 dangerous chili

powdered salt, seasoning, pepper, lemon

Steps to make Steamed Snails with Lemongrass

Step 1

Wash the snails clean, then put the snails in a pot with water to cover most of the snails

Step 2

Put 3 tablespoons of salt, 2 tablespoons of seasoning seeds in the same pot

Step 3

Lemongrass + crushed chili put into the pot of snails

Step 4

Proceed to put the snail pot on the stove, in the process of waiting for the snails to cook, I make salt to dip the snails, salt includes 3 tablespoons of salt + 2 tablespoons of pepper + 1 slice of lemon to squeeze in salt.

Step 5

Wait 10 minutes and we have a very attractive pot of snails.

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