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The Ups and Downs of Thai lemon leaves

Friday, 10/10/2014 14:11

Thai lemon leaf comes from a family of wild lemon and increasingly grown in An Giang. It has a unique aroma and appeared in the 2014 Golden Spoon Contest three times. It impressed everyone every time it appeared in the contest.

Some farmers in That Son area explained that this kind of tree is grown mostly in the Ba Chuc area of Tri Ton district, An Giang province and therefore people named the tree after it. Khmer people usually boil the leaf in water then use the water to wash their hair or use it to make salad with grilled snake fish which is very good accompanying a drink.

Only its smell already brought a good feeling

Head chef Tuan Van Anh Ngo of the Van Thanh tourist area in Binh Thanh district, HCM City was sent to An Giang province to study new dishes 4 months ago. Thanks to that he learnt about this leaf and its amazing values. He told us that a plate of steamed chicken with a little bit of Thai lemon leaves on the top has the same smell as lemon in the North but is two or three times stronger. “The aroma alone made me want to try it.”

Based on experience and intuition of nearly 20 years in the profession, Chef Tuan guessed that the leaves and fruit of this special lemon could help many interesting dishes such as steamed, or grilled seafood, beef, buffalo and pork etc. It increases its aroma and taste. He ordered ingredients and shipped them to Saigon to try to make other new dishes.

The judges seemed very interesting in the menu with three courses made of Thai lemon leaves

Domestication

As he expected most of the diners preferred to order grilled red tilapia and steamed chicken with Thai lemon leaves, in the Van Thanh tourist area.

When using this strong level of leaf more often Chef Tuan and his team realized that they also had a weakness for too strong a smell. For example, if you put too much of this leaf into dried dishes, then it will smell to strong instead of the usual good aroma. It’s the same for soup dishes, it creates a bitter taste if too much is used.

There are 21 teams from large and small restaurants and hotels in HCMC area competing in the preliminary round of the 2014 Golden Spoon Contest at Cam Chuong restaurant, in Van Thanh Tourist area on October 7^th and 8^th 2014. Numbered among them is a group of Viet Kieu from France.

It took a lot of time for them to find a solution to this strong smell. The answer is to poach the leaves in warm water then soak them in cold water. The skin of the fruit is described as resembling the skin of frog, this needs to be boiled in water for 15 minutes before being used then it won’t be either too strong or bitter.

It was a pity for the young chefs from Nhi restaurant in O mon district, Can Tho City as they failed in the preliminary round of the Mekong Delta region of the 2014 Golden Spoon Contest in Kien Giang on June 4^th 2014. They didn’t know how to solve the issue of the strong smell and bitter taste resulting in their sour chicken soup being too bitter for the judges.

Hope this accident won’t happen to the Van Thanh team with a similar dish

The jelly with Thai lemon leaves look very eye-catching

Keep trying

Despite still the same theme of Home taste in days of reunification, there are many good chefs and famous food experts who still felt confused when asked to name the Saigon’s specialties. Someone answered quickly that they are all food coming from various provinces over the country and even from other countries. They are modified a little bit to be appropriate for the taste of local people.

Therefore the Van Thanh team chose Thai lemon leaf as their highlighted point on a menu of three courses: sauna lobster with Thai lemon leaves; chicken cooked with the leaves and fruit of the Thai lemon tree ; and Thai lemon leaf jelly. All of them have their own features and all of them demonstrate the creativity and skill of the chefs.

For example, with the chicken hotpot, besides having the good smell of lemon oil also has a sweet and sour taste (with the broth made of chicken bones). Chicken meat was rolled on the white, ceramic plate manufactured by Ly’s Horeca Products of Minh Long I Com. Ltd.

Kiến chicken is one of the poultry breeds that give good meat in the central region, such as Quang Nam and Phu Yen. These chickens prefer to eat insects such as termites and ants. They prefer to roost in the trees and usually scavenge for food in groups. The average weight is about 1.3 to 1.6 kg at 6 to 8 months.

Chicken steamed with Thai lemon leaves

Many kinds of fresh and young vegetables are a gift from the South and support the dish, such as: fresh yellow Sesbania sesban flowers; the white flowers of chives; and red nymphaea flowers. They were rolled beautifully with green onion poached in warm water. There were also fresh rice noodle rolls, a bowl of fish sauce with a few slices of green chili added. It looks very delicious.

The appetizer called “Cuốn trẹt Tây Sơn” from this team is also very interesting. It is a dish made of rice paper which is rolled and deep fried before being crumbled. It can be either crispy or soft. The flavor is a mixture sour, spicy, acrid and a gentle bitterness which, which all comes from the chopped broccoli, star fruit and sliced raw banana. It is served with a bowl of sauce, on top of which there is a little chopped green mango.

On October 6^th, 2014 Chef Tuan’s team tried to make this menu for the third time. Their manager commented that the sauce served with the dish of sauna lobster still lacked of the aroma of Thai lemon leaves. Winning or losing, his team tried the best they could to cook the dish using the best Thai lemon leaves.

The top lemon or grapefruit trees, besides having such a good aroma also aids digestion and tastes good, according to Chinese medicine.

However if you used the Vietnamese name of “lá chúc” Chef David Thai would not understand, but if you said Thai lemon leaves then he will, immediately comment, “This leaf has very good aromal.” It is a pity because they are actually the same leaf.

Of course the authors of the Vietnam cuisine map won’t miss this important spice in the Golden Spoon Contest.

Followed by Tan Toi
The gioi tiep thi