Top 30 Lao Cai specialties as famous gifts

Lao Cai is an attractive destination, in addition to interesting tourist attractions such as Sa Pa, Bac Ha, Y Ty, there are also dishes with attractive flavors of the mountains and forests, worthy of the name Lao Cai specialties. Travel do not forget to buy Lao Cai specialties as gifts!

Day cake – Lao Cai specialty as a gift

The specialty of Lao Cai is indispensable cake. The thick cake here is made from glutinous rice, so it is very flexible and fragrant when eaten. When soaked in water, glutinous rice is drained and boiled and then pounded. When the sticky rice is crushed, mold it into balls and roll it in dry glutinous rice flour to make a shirt. That’s it, the sticky rice cake specialty of Lao Cai has been produced. When you buy it, you can eat it right away or fry it and it can be stored for 1 week.

Chestnut cake

Sapa chestnut cake   at first glance, it will have the same shape as Pia cake but thicker. The plump round cake is impressed by the golden color of the crust, the characteristic aroma of roasted sesame.

The crust is soft, fragrant with milk, the most unforgettable feature that creates the highlight for the cake is the extremely fatty and fleshy pureed chestnut filling. Chestnut fans will definitely not be able to miss this cake.

Lam rice

Coming to Lao Cai, it is impossible to ignore the simple and popular specialty that is Lam rice. Lam rice, a specialty of Lao Cai, is cooked by the most delicious rice grains grown on majestic terraced fields in Sapa, Bat Xat, Bac Ha…

Lam rice is cooked from fragrant glutinous rice, put in a bamboo tube and then grilled on a charcoal stove. It has both the sweet and aromatic taste of upland glutinous rice and the aroma of bamboo tubes and burning coals. When the rice is grilled on the charcoal, the bamboo tube must be rotated evenly so that the rice is cooked evenly without burning or raw. After being baked, the rice is separated from the bamboo tube, which is both flexible, fragrant, and smooth like silk rolls, so it can still be fragrant for a whole week.

Lao Cai Salmon

Salmon is a difficult fish to keep and a premium and expensive food that can only live in clean water and cool climates. Therefore, it can be said that Sapa is an ideal place for this fish to grow, and has become one of the indispensable specialties here.

Sa Pa salmon meat is very firm, has a firm texture, has no fat, and is not eaten when eaten. This food is processed into many different dishes such as grilled, sashimi (Japanese-style fish salad), deep-fried, steamed, cooked with curry… But the most favorite dish of diners is still salmon hot pot and salmon salad.

Com – Green rice flakes

With most other dishes, you can come to Lao Cai whenever you want. But with Com, you can only enjoy them at the end of August to October every year. That was the time when the rice was just starting to grow, still smelling of milk, cut by relatives to make nuggets.

In Lao Cai, there are many areas with nuggets, but the most famous are still Bac Ha and Hop Thanh. These are delicious glutinous rice granaries in Lao Cai cultivated by the Tay and Giay ethnic groups. The traditional varieties of glutinous rice with round, fragrant seeds. Through the processing hands of the ladies, the sisters will give fragrant, green green nuggets.

Sapa peaches

Sapa peaches covered with a thin layer of marble-colored hair, mixed with blood-colored stains dotted with black dots. The taste is sour, acrid, sweet, and the aroma is unmistakable… If you want to bring peaches back as a  Sapa souvenir , remember to buy a basket to store peaches, not a plastic bag.

Sapa peaches are divided into two types: “loose seeds” and “sticky seeds”; Peach with a regular white pulp has a very sweet taste and little acidity, while the regular yellow-fleshed variety has a sour taste with a sweet taste.

Seng Cu Rice

This is a famous rice in Lao Cai for its flexibility and deliciousness. Seng Cu rice is grown mainly in Bat Xat and Muong Khuong districts. In particular, rice in Muong Khuong is still considered by the people to be more delicious. If you are wondering what to buy as a gift for your loved ones, Seng Cu rice is a great choice.

Forest chestnuts roasted with salt

Almond trees grow on high mountains, at the end of summer, in the chilly early autumn, the ethnic people go to the mountains to harvest. After peeling, the seeds are dried in the midday sun and then dried completely.

The Hmong or Thai ethnic people often roast them with spices to make the shells crispy, when eaten, they get the filling inside. This dish costs about 250k – 300k to buy at dried fruit stalls and in the North on Indochina Street, Sapa town.

Sapa pine nuts

Ha pine is a valuable gift to give as a gift, effective in medicine, especially in beauty. Coming to Sapa, it will not be difficult to find a shop selling pine nuts, especially when entering the night market. The average price is from 600k – 700k/kg of dried pine nuts, usually people will pack in boxes of 300g or more.

Black pork sausage

Sapa cross occipital salt – Sapa Lao Cai specialty

Diagonal occipital salt must have been very famous and known by many people, a typical spice that only comes to the Northwest. This type of salt is made from ingredients found in the forest such as mac Khen, cardamom, garlic, chili, ginger, pepper… The flavoring blends into chicken, pork, and then grilled, it’s super delicious.

Tam Hoa plum

It can be said that Tam Hoa plum is a specialty of Lao Cai. Delicious dishes that anyone coming to Lao Cai can hardly ignore. Tam Hoa plum is found in many regions of the country such as Moc Chau, Son La, Dien Bien, Lai Chau. But Tam Hoa plums in Bac Ha and Lao Cai regions are more juicy and of better quality.

Large plum, sweet crunchy taste, red pulp. Plum season starts at the end of May and ends at the end of June. After Tam Hoa plum season is the season of Hau plum and Ta Van plum, the fruits are also juicy, somewhat superior to Tam Hoa plums.

Sour bamboo shoots

Sour bamboo shoots is a mountainous dish of Lao Cai people. The method is quite simple but requires high meticulousness as well as the culinary secrets of the Northwestern people. Bamboo shoots after picking, peeled, chopped and incubated in jars, covered for about 1 month, can be eaten.

Sour bamboo shoots can be cooked with fish or all kinds of meat. When eaten, bamboo shoots have a cool, delicious taste, stimulating the feeling of eating a lot. If you wonder what to buy in Lao Cai, remember the specialty of sour bamboo shoots!

Menmen Bac Ha

Previously, the Mong people lived on men men, like the rice dishes of other ethnic groups. Therefore, it is not just a dish but a history, a culture, a symbol of this community’s miraculous adaptability to the difficult life and harsh nature.

Every step, from choosing corn, grinding to get the core, to how much water is prepared after each dish, so that the dish is fragrant and delicious, needs to be experienced and done very meticulously. period.

Y Ty mushroom

Bac Ha bird’s foot mushroom

This fungus only grows on mountains, in the yeast of old trees and has high humidity. Summer often rains, so after each rain, you can harvest a lot.

The crow’s foot mushroom has no stalk, a fan-shaped cap that looks very similar to the shell, a precious medicinal herb in folk medicine. This mushroom is delicious stir-fried or cooked in soup, and it is great to eat with rice. Ethnic people sell a lot in the market, only 3k for a bowl.

Bitter bamboo shoot spring rolls

This dish is prepared according to the traditional secret. The people take the bitter bamboo shoots, boil them, and then peel off the sheets of banh mi leaves, soft and tough like thin silk sheets. This ingredient is used as a common spring roll cake in a popular fried spring roll dish.

Man Than Wine

Man Than corn wine has long been favored and trusted by people in the region as well as neighboring districts. Come to Si Ma Cai, try a cup of Man Than corn wine with a bowl of Thang Co in the cold winter weather on the rocky highlands to have a new experience, a new and interesting feeling. about the love of the highlanders.