In my hometown, Phu Yen province, one of the typical dish in the Tet holiday is pork soaked in fish sauce. Lay a piece of rice paper on your hand, put some vegetables and some pieces of meat over, then roll it and the dish is ready to enjoy, we do not need to use any kind of sauce. Just having a bite and then you would feel all quintessential taste, which is so hard for you to forget.
When being young, we all eagerly looked forward to the Tet holiday so that we could have a change to eat special food, to wear beautiful new clothes, to be given lucky money, and so on. I myself was not an exception, of course. However, with me, the most interesting thing of Tet was the jar of pork soaked in fish sauce made by my mother, also the typical dish of my hometown, Phu Yen.
In the old days, when my family was still very poor, we did not have meat to eat regularly. So, every time we have a meal with meat, I did not use the rice with meat but just with some kinds of vegetable and left all the meat for the last.
In my childish feeling, that was the best way to enjoy all the tasty flavor of the meat. Therefore, I always awaited for Tet since only in that occasion did my mother make the pork soaked in fish sauce.
My mother used to make pork soaked in fish sauce about two weeks before Tet. The meat used to make the dish is the lean and fat meat mixed and the meat of the head. After my mother had carefully chosen the pork, she cleaned it and shaved all the hair. Then, she boiled the pork and when it was cooked, she took it out and soaked it in cold water so that the meat would be white.
The next step was making the sauce. This is such a critical step since it decides whether the meat would be delicious or not. My mother used the best kind of fish sauce and cooked it with white sugar at the rate of 1:1. She kept the fire small and cooked until the sugar totally dissolved, then let it cool out.
After that, she put the meat in a glass jar and poured the mixture of fish sauce and sugar into so that the meat would be submerged. Then, she used the bamboo tree to press meat. Waiting for 5 to 7 days and the dish would be ready to use. However, as my mother’s experience, it is best to use the meat after two weeks.
We can eat the meat right after we took it out of the jar, but if you want to make it more delicious, you can also fry the meat with a little oil. Then, the meat is sliced into thin pieces, and looks very tasty with the ruddy lean and the limpid fat, also very soft and greasy.
I could even say that no one can resist such a dish like that. Yet, it would be best to used the meat with Phu Yen’s rice paper. It is different from Tay Ninh rice paper since you have to soak the rice paper in the water before rolling. Put it on your hand, and then add some pieces of meat as well as some vegetable, make a roll, have a bite, and you would never forget the taste of this special dish.
Afterwards, my family is not so poor any longer, and we regularly have fish or meat for every main meal. Still, my mother keeps making the pork soaked in fish sauce. Even now, being far from home, I still feel so eager just like in the old days when the Tet comes. Then, I will have a chance to come back with my family to enjoy the dish and to have the peaceful feeling every time I am near my mother.
