Strange Smoked Soil in Vinh Phuc Province

Located right behind Lap Thach town in Vinh Phuc province, there is a place called “soil-eating village”. Actually, eating soil has been like a conventionality, which lasts generations to generations and it become an addicted specialty.

Rare and odd dish in Viet Nam. Photo: Vietnamnet

No one can tell those mysterious folks began since when. According to the oldest locals, they saw their grandparents eating soil when they were kids.

Curious tourists are eager to see that odd dish but rarely dare to try a bite. However, locals in Lap Thach village said that once we had one, we would get addicted to the rich buttery flavor of soil and typical aroma of smoked rose myrtle leaves.

Locals here do not eat vacant land from their garden but a special type only found in Lap Thach called “tile soil”. Tile soil used to be collected on surrounded mountains but now it has been draining off. People have to dig 3 – 7 meters down to the ground to find edible chalky seams. The one under the ground has to carve and hew those seams by hammer to take slumps of tile soil and passes them to the one on the ground.

There are 2 types of tile soil, chalky as a mochi and pale green. Pale green soil is harder yet greasier while chalky one is more tender and easier to chew. Slumps of tile soil are impure so people need to work on them, cleaning and slicing into bite size pieces.

Tile soil pieces are smoked with fresh rose myrtle leaves to create its typical flavor.

Tile soil can be eaten raw but to become the addicted specialty, it must go through careful and delicate process. People usually burn fresh rose myrtle leaves in charcoals then dry pieces of tile soil in that aura. Pieces of soil will be totally covered in wild sweet smoke and become so tasty and flavorful. The dish gets ready when soil starts to turn golden. It should taste like a ration pack but it’s not too dried.

Years ago, people in neighbor towns or even neighbor provinces used to buy smoked tile soil as special gifts from Lap Thach. 2 or 3 decades ago, this dish were popularly sold in daily markets and Lap Thach used to supply its specialty to Tam Duong, Vinh Tuong, Lam Thao in Vinh Phuc province, Phu Ninh (Phu Tho province), and even further to Ha Giang and Tuyen Quang provinces.

Nowadays, young generations rarely keep the old conventionality; only several elderlies in village have this odd yet indispensable habit – eating soil, such as Mr. Khong Van Loa and his wife Khong Thi Bien. Both are over 80 years old.

Soil is supposed to have good effects to human health. Photo: Vietnamnet.

The elderlies in Lap Thach village said that local had been eating soil because of their traditional routine and better health. Moreover, tile soil used to be their conventional manner; hosts of a house had started the meeting by serving their visitors pieces of tile soil.

Scientists have thought that the reason of eating soil (tile soil) is to supply mineral and trace elements when the body needed. We can see this symptom at pregnant women.

There are other mentioned scientific reasons, such as to ease hunger during desperate time, to detoxify, or to release stress.

By Thu Pham