Mountain flavors served in flatlands

The Tay Bac (Northwest) Region is famous for its splendid sceneries such as Sa Pa, Mai Chau Plateau and Dien Bien historical land and the magnificent mountains, rivers and lakes in Son La and Hoa Binh provinces. The region is also known for its mountain style cuisine.
Lying on a small alley near Tan Son Nhat Airport, Lung Cu Restaurant is a great place to enjoy specialties of Tay Bac. Diners will be amazed by the menu featuring many types of wild dishes which are hard to find in other restaurants.
Best of all is the H’Mong chicken grilled in an earthen pot with citronella and ginger. The chicken is accompanied by xoi nep nuong (steamed glutinous rice), a kind of traditional sticky rice of the Tay Bac people. The rice is sticky but does not stick in the hands so local people often make it into rice balls with sesame and salt.
For Kinh people, frogs can be made into many types of dishes and for ethnic people in Lang Son Province, frogs simmered with bamboo sprouts is a famous dish.
Western people often throw away tripe. However, the Tay Bac Region is famous for a dish made of horse tripe.
Lung Cu Restaurant is also renowned for many kinds of vegetables which can cure some diseases, such as a wild fiber melon called bo khai.
Wild dishes should be enjoyed with sau chit, a type of rice wine made with worms living in chit trees on limestone mountain walls. The wine is recommended as being nutritious.
Meanwhile, tao meo, a wild apple of Son La, Sa Pa and Lai Chau, is made into a kind of unique fruit juice.
The restaurant is attractive with its bamboo furnishings and decorations. The walls are adorned with buffalo horns and wooden panpipes are scattered around the rooms. On the second floor, diners can enjoy a meal in a replica stilt house of the Tay Bac Region.
Lung Cu Restaurant is at 7C Song Da Street in HCMC’s Tan Binh District, tel: 3547 1446.