Pu Luong food guide
Dinner in Pù Luông is the stilt house: Cổ Lũng duck dipped in chẩm chéo, cơm lam from the bamboo tube, hill chicken off the coals, and jar wine by the fire. On Thursday and Sunday the valley comes down to Phố Đoàn market.
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You eat on the floor of a stilt house at Bản Đôn or Bản Hiêu, with the fire outside. Ask your host for Cổ Lũng duck and cơm lam, and stay for the jar wine if the valley is the trip. Mai Châu keeps its own table; these are the Thai and Muong plates of Pù Luông.
The house table runs to forest bamboo in three forms (fresh, bitter, and soured for fish soup), hill chicken and free-range pork, grilled stream fish, rock snails, purple sticky rice, pumpkin greens, and chayote tips. Thai cooks add buffalo or pork smoked over the kitchen fire, and salads of wild banana flower, male papaya flower, and forest greens.
On the two-day trek, the summit camp serves grilled chicken and steamed sticky rice, with corn and banana wine the Thai hosts distill themselves. At Thác Hiêu the Thai-Muong table adds sticky rice steamed with Kho Mường chicken, sắng leaf, and bamboo grubs.
Phố Đoàn is the roadside market, on Thursday and Sunday. Sellers from the old Cổ Lũng villages leave at 05:00, so go early; the Vietnam Airlines guide suggests 06:30–09:00 for photographs. Ask the price before you buy.
On the stilt-house table
The plates, drinks, and market foods of the valley’s Thai and Muong houses. Ask your host which are cooking tonight.
Co Lung duck Vịt Cổ Lũng
Cổ Lũng duck is the valley’s own breed, raised along the streams around Bản Hiêu, and its meat is fragrant, firm, and low in fat. Order it boiled, grilled, or roasted, and dip the boiled bird in chẩm chéo.
Grass duck Vịt cỏ
Grass duck, vịt cỏ, is one of the dishes Bản Đôn serves at the stilt-house meal, alongside hill chicken and forest bamboo shoot.
Forest bamboo shoot is a spring plate at Bản Đôn. Boiled, it starts bitter and leaves a sweet aftertaste.
Dried bamboo shoot Măng khô
Dried bamboo shoot is one of the forest goods Thai and Muong sellers bring down to Phố Đoàn market, sold beside honey and banana flower.
Măng đắng is a fresh forest shoot with a light bitterness, eaten with a dipping sauce or stir-fried with forest pork. It is also on the Thai-Muong table at Thác Hiêu.
Sour bamboo shoot Măng chua
Thai cooks in Pù Luông sour the forest bamboo shoot so it keeps all year, then cook it into a fish soup.
Hill chicken is a free-range bird with firm meat, grilled over charcoal with lá mắc mật leaves until the skin is crisp.
Grilled chicken at the camp Gà nướng
Grilled chicken is the supper at the summit camp on the two-day trek, eaten with steamed sticky rice and the hosts’ corn and banana wine.
Grilled stream fish Cá suối nướng
Small fish from the valley streams are marinated with forest leaves, mắc khén, chili, and lemongrass, then grilled until fragrant and crisp, with sweet flesh.
Bamboo sticky rice Cơm lam
Upland sticky rice cooked in a bamboo tube over a wood fire comes out soft and rich, smelling of the bamboo. Eat it from the tube with sesame salt, or beside the grilled dishes.
Purple sticky rice Xôi tím
Purple sticky rice is one of the dishes on the Bản Đôn stilt-house table.
Steamed sticky rice at the camp Xôi đồ
Steamed sticky rice comes with the grilled chicken at the summit-camp supper on the two-day trek.
Steamed sticky rice with Kho Muong chicken Xôi hấp gà Kho Mường
Sticky rice steamed with Kho Mường chicken is one of the Thai-Muong dishes served at Thác Hiêu, beside Cổ Lũng duck and bitter bamboo shoot.
Rock snail Ốc đá
Ốc đá, also called ốc suối or ốc núi, is a small snail from rock crevices and forest caves, chewy, fragrant, and very sweet. It is boiled, steamed with ginger or lemongrass, or stir-fried, and dipped in chẩm chéo.
Forest pig, lợn rừng, is one of the meats on the Bản Đôn stilt-house table.
Lợn cỏ is a free-range pig whose meat is fragrant and firm, grilled, steamed, or stir-fried.
Meat smoked over the fire Thịt gác bếp
Buffalo or pork belly is seasoned with mắc khén, chili, and ginger and smoked slowly over the kitchen fire until it is dry outside and still soft, sweet, and dark pink inside. Thai households make most of it at the start of the year, for Tết and for guests.
Pumpkin greens come with the Bản Đôn stilt-house meal, beside chayote tips.
Chayote tips Ngọn su su
Chayote tips are a green on the Bản Đôn table, and growers carry su su down to Phố Đoàn on market day.
Sang leaf Lá sắng
Sắng leaf is one of the Thai-Muong dishes served at Thác Hiêu, with Cổ Lũng duck and bamboo grubs.
Wild banana-flower salad Nộm hoa chuối rừng
A salad of wild banana flower on the Thai table in the valley. The flower itself is sold at Phố Đoàn market.
Male papaya-flower salad Nộm hoa đu đủ đực
A salad of male papaya flowers, one of the Thai dishes of the valley, served beside the banana-flower salad.
A salad of forest greens, the third Thai salad on the table beside banana flower and papaya flower.
A Thai soup of bitter leaves cooked with offal and blood.
Bamboo grub Sâu măng
Bamboo grubs are one of the Thai-Muong dishes served at Thác Hiêu, beside Cổ Lũng duck and sắng leaf.
Cham cheo Chẩm chéo
Chẩm chéo is the valley’s dipping sauce: toasted mắc khén pounded with fresh chili, ginger, salt, and herbs, with more mắc khén stirred in. It goes with boiled, roasted, and grilled meat, and above all with boiled Cổ Lũng duck.
Jar wine Rượu cần
Jar wine is the drink of the Bản Đôn evening, shared around the campfire with xòe dancing and khắp singing. Jars are also sold at Phố Đoàn market.
Corn wine Rượu ngô
Corn wine is distilled by the Thai hosts and poured at the summit-camp supper on the two-day trek.
Banana wine Rượu chuối
Banana wine, also distilled by the Thai hosts, is poured beside the corn wine at the summit camp.
Forest honey Mật ong
Forest honey is one of the goods Thai and Muong sellers bring to Phố Đoàn, with dried bamboo shoot and banana flower.
Pho Doan market
The meal is still the house. Phố Đoàn is the roadside market, on Thursday and Sunday.
Pho Doan market Chợ phiên Phố Đoàn
The valley’s roadside market, held on Thursday and Sunday in xã Pù Luông, the old Lũng Niêm commune. Thai and Muong sellers lay out cloth, jar wine, forest greens, ốc núi, hạt dổi, rau dớn, banana flower, dried bamboo shoot, and honey on the verge, and lowland traders bring clothes and tools.