Sea Snail with Coconut Milk – Eat Best Food in Ben Tre
Ben Tre is known as the coconut land of the Southwest region, it is also because of this feature that the dishes here have the flavor of coconut. Among the dishes that are combined with coconut, there is one dish that is very attractive to diners from far away, which is fried snails with coconut milk. If anyone has once visited the land of Ben Tre, they will forever remember the taste of Sea snails with coconut milk - a unique Ben Tre specialty.
By Thomas Vietnam at vemekong.com | All Best Foods & Restaurants in Ben Tre
1. Better to Know as a Food Lover
Find them: Ben Tre city.
Best time: Dusk-Dawn
Don’t miss: Sea Snail with Coconut Milk
Local’s pick: Sea Snail with Coconut Milk Restaurant
Tourist’s pick: Restaurant in Ben Tre
Blog: /sea-snail-with-coconut-milk-ben-tre/
Facts: Regardless of which snail species you choose, it is combined with the sweet taste of Ben Tre coconut to give it a rich and delicious taste. It can be said that fried snails with coconut milk is a specialty dish that visitors cannot miss if they have the opportunity to travel to the land of coconuts.
2. Better to Know Sea Snail with Coconut Milk
Snails used to stir-fry coconut can be Tao snails, Len snails, Mut snails… but the most popular ones are still Tao snails. The Len snail is dark brown mixed with white veins, about the size of an index finger or thumb, 3 to 4 centimeters long, with a pointed tail. Len snail shells are usually hard with many small veins rotating around. Famous as the origin of coconut, Ben Tre coconut is sweet and delicious combined with the rice field snails to help the dish not cause boredom.
Usually, purchased snails will be soaked with water to wash rice and chili, cut off the tail, boil briefly in boiling water and salt, and take out to drain. Squeeze the grated coconut to get the juice into a bowl. When done, add crushed lemongrass and chili to the pan, then add the snails and stir-fry. Stir-fry the snails until they are almost cooked, then start adding coconut milk, seasoning with salt, sugar,... to taste. Let the heat simmer so that the snails can absorb the spices, then continue to add laksa leaves and chili to the island. Cooked snails scooped out onto a plate, served hot, are the best. Stir-fried snails with coconut milk taste just fat, sweet, fragrant, sour, rich, forming an unmistakable flavor. For those who have experienced traveling to Ben Tre, it will be difficult to forget the taste of snails stir-fried with coconut milk when having the opportunity to try it.
3. Sea Snail with Coconut Milk in Ben Tre
There is also a type of snail with coconut milk for a rich, juicy taste, which is the Tao (apple) snail. On rainy days, water floats all over the fields. This is also the time when snails appear quite a lot in fields, along rivers... People often catch apple snails and bring them to soak in water to wash rice, this way both allows snails to quickly release mud, sebum and helps snails keep getting nutrients by sucking from water to wash rice. In order to make a delicious dish of snails with coconut milk, the marinating stage is extremely important, ensuring that all spices such as chili, lemongrass, garlic, salt, sugar, and fish sauce are available to create the typical flavor of the dish. eat.
For the villagers of Ben Tre, just "hands free" to wade close to the river, there is a basket of field snails, garden coconuts almost every home has, two ingredients to make a dish of sauteed apple snails with fragrant coconut milk. To make this dish, people often choose old coconuts.
The coconut is halved, the water is kept separate, the coconut meat is scraped with cockles or beer bottle caps, then pounded in a mortar. After pounding, mix the coconut rice and water together to get the coconut milk. Take the milky white coconut milk and pour it into the previously marinated snail pot. Wait for the coconut milk to penetrate each snail evenly, then close the lid and put it on a charcoal or electric stove. Cook until the juice is absorbed into the meat and only a few can penetrate the meat, then you can turn off the stove.
Sauteed apple snails with coconut milk is a delicious dish that tourists should try when they have the opportunity to travel to the West of Ben Tre. Snails are scooped out onto a plate, emitting smoke with the strong aroma of lemongrass, chili, coconut milk…. Making diners crave just wanting to try it right away. Enjoy fried snails with coconut milk indispensable laksa leaves and a cup of ginger fish sauce. According to the experience of "gourmets", both snails and coconuts have cooling properties, so it is necessary to have a cup of ginger sauce and laksa leaves to balance the yin and yang in the stomach (where nutrients are supplied to the stomach whole body), good for health.
4. How to Make Sea Snail with Coconut Milk
The ingredients to make Sea snails with coconut are very familiar and easy to find as follows:
Rice snail: 1kg, Lemongrass: 4 stalks, chili, Coconut milk or grated coconut (2 ounces), Seasoning: Cooking oil, salt, seasoning powder.
Change your taste with how to make delicious fried rice snails with lemongrass and chili
Prepare the ingredients
Rice snails live in the river bottom, clinging to a lot of mud, so it is necessary to clean the snails thoroughly before processing. Soak rice snails in one of the following ways:
Soak with water to wash rice Soak with clean water + chili Soak with clean water and 1 metal object such as spoon, ladle Soak in metal pot
Soak for about 2 hours for the snails to release dirt and slime. During the soaking time, if the water is too dirty, change the water and then continue to soak. Then rinse with water several times to clean completely and then pour into the basket to drain.
If using grated coconut, squeeze out the juice, when squeezed, do not add water. If a jar of coconut milk is available, there is no need to add grated coconut.
Lemongrass: Cut off the stem, cut the remaining slices, smash and then cut into pieces about 5cm.
Chilli: washed, cut into strips.
How to make delicious coconut fried rice snails
Put the pan on the stove to heat, then add a little oil to fry lemongrass slices.
Next, add snails, lemongrass, coconut milk and boiling water to the island.
Add seasoning, seasoning, salt and stir over medium heat for about 5 to 7 minutes.
Add a little chili to make it spicy (optional, if you can't eat spicy, don't add it)
Taste again, adjust, then turn off the heat.
Enjoy food
Mix the dipping sauce with garlic chili, garlic ginger or any kind of dipping sauce you like. Dip fried rice snails with coconut in fish sauce and feel the sweetness from coconut milk, the slightly spicy taste of fish sauce, the crunchy, greasy chewy root pieces.
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.
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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…
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Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Tra Vinh: Macapuno Coconut, Bun Nuoc Leo Tra Vinh’s Noodle Soup, Tra Cuon’s Sticky Rice Cake…
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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
