Bat Trang: When village dishes become heritage

Culinary experts and artisans judge the traditional Bat Trang cooking competition.

Although more and more dishes are being recognized as National Intangible Cultural Heritage, in terms of sophistication and delicacy, it is difficult to compare with Bat Trang dishes. That is also a unique feature that makes Bat Trang increasingly attractive to tourists .

Coming to Bat Trang (Bat Trang commune, Hanoi ) at any time of the year, but most often, during the wedding season, the end of the year or early spring, people can easily see the scene of women selling goods while peeling dried bamboo shoots into tiny strands, only the size of two or three toothpicks. Perhaps no other place peels bamboo shoots like that.

Delicate village feast... like royal cuisine

Dried bamboo shoots are the number one dish in Bat Trang. When serving a meal, there must be a bowl of shredded bamboo shoots to “make it a feast”. To be able to shred bamboo shoots like that, not all bamboo shoots can be used. Usually, it must be bamboo shoots from Tuyen Quang.

People will cut off both the young and old parts, taking only the middle. After processing, they will use a sharp knife with a pointed tip to shred the bamboo shoots into small pieces, then continue to boil them several times.

Bat Trang people cook bamboo shoot soup with dried squid. The best squid is selected from Thanh Hoa. And it has to be female squid to be delicious. The time from catching, drying to using is no more than a month. The squid is grilled until fragrant, pounded until soft and then shredded.

People stir-fry squid and bamboo shoots separately when preparing, then stir-fry them together to blend the flavors. If it is squid and bamboo shoot soup, it must have broth. The most popular broth in Bat Trang is chicken broth or shrimp broth. Grilled and stir-fried squid no longer has a fishy smell, and the bamboo shoots "remove" it again.

These three things combine to create a bowl of squid bamboo shoot soup, which is perhaps unique to Bat Trang. Another seemingly common dish is spring rolls. But in Bat Trang, it is also a very… “complicated” dish.

Pigeons are still a specialty dish, but Bat Trang people have a different way of preparing them. Pigeons are cleaned, minced, and stir-fried with fried onions until firm. Next, the cook mixes the pigeon meat with the spring roll mixture, seasonings, wraps it in rice paper, and then fries it. Spring rolls prepared properly are already a specialty of Hanoi. Pigeon spring rolls are certainly even more delicious.

That is why since ancient times, folklore has said: "Live as a man of Bat Trang/Death as the tutelary god of Kieu Ky". Kieu Ky is the land of the gold-plated craft village, the worship objects are always shining with gold. And be a man of Bat Trang, because the women here are both capable in business and good cooks.

Bat Trang ceramic experience space at Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam.

For example, Mrs. Ha Thi Vinh, a famous businesswoman in Bat Trang, is a very good cook. Mrs. Ha Thi Vinh shared: “I am the 15th generation, my children are the 16th generation in this ancient village of Bat Trang. The unique dishes of Bat Trang are passed down from generation to generation. Ever since I was a child, I have been inspired by my grandparents and parents when I helped with the cooking in the family, especially when the family and the village organized parties.”

Children helping their parents cook, and gradually “absorbed” over the years, is a routine in almost every family in Bat Trang. In Mrs. Vinh’s family, her older sister, Mrs. Ha Thi Linh, now 85 years old, is a living “heritage” of “Bat village” cuisine.

Bat Trang not only has a few good cooks, but almost every family has connoisseurs who are connoisseurs of fine cuisine.

Sisters Linh and Vinh belong to the “old” generation. The next generation has many “skilled” people in the profession such as Mrs. Nguyen Thi Minh Hung, Pham Thi Thu, Nguyen Thi Ly, Phung Thi He… They are all people who work with their hands and talk all day about cuisine.

Representing the “new generation” in the village is culinary artist Pham Thi Thu Hoai. They do not have to study far away but learn from their relatives, through the feasts in the village and outside the neighborhood. Perhaps, many people will ask why a village can have such sophisticated and elaborate dishes? The stories with the elders in the village help people decode the uniqueness of Bat Trang.

Bat Trang is a pottery village. The trade process helps Bat Trang interact with the culinary quintessence of the regions. Bat Trang is a village of scholars. The “literary” quality not only creates the depth of pottery.

Bat Trang people became mandarins in the royal court, and then brought the quintessence of royal cuisine back to their villages. Many places are lands of mandarins, but not all of them have formed culinary traditions.

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Lam is the daughter-in-law of Bat Trang. She is a girl from the old town, and has been trained in handicrafts since childhood. However, when she comes here, there are dishes that she still has to learn. Mrs. Lam is the owner of the over-100-year-old villa, where Bat Trang's ancient dishes are served.

She explained this: “The people of Bat Trang have been burning pottery kilns and trading on the wharf and boats since ancient times, and the economy has developed. That is the solid foundation for the pottery village to maintain the sophistication and elegance in food and drink. When people have the opportunity to enjoy it regularly, they become more sophisticated in food and drink.”

The three elements of pottery village, mandarin village, and culinary village support each other, creating a unique feature. To put it another way, drinking scented tea is an elegant hobby, not every family can afford it, but in Bat Trang, it is quite popular. Bat Trang prefers tea scented with wolf buds. Wolf buds have a gentle fragrance. Wolf buds contain the scent of tea, you have to be calm and relaxed to feel it clearly.

Or for boiled chicken, Bat Trang people choose young hens, although they are very wasteful of meat and not preferred by other places when cooking for feasts. But young hens give sweeter, softer meat than all other types of chicken.

Platform for commercial and cultural development

While other villages have only one or two specialties, the culinary heritage of Bat Trang has a long list. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has just included Bat Trang Cooking Knowledge in the list of National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The highlights include eight dishes, both main dishes and desserts. Highlights include: bamboo shoot and squid soup, stir-fried kohlrabi and squid, meatball soup, fresh fish soup, pigeon spring rolls, sticky rice and sweet soup...

But even many other Bat Trang dishes that have not been included in this list are worthy of heritage status.

As a person directly involved in building the dossier to propose the registration of Bat Trang Cooking Knowledge as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage, Deputy Head of the Heritage Management Department (Department of Culture and Sports) Bui Thi Huong Thuy said: “The preciousness of Bat Trang cuisine is not only in the food, but also in the community spirit in preserving and promoting the value of heritage from generation to generation. For example, when the village holds a festival, a “cooking group” will be formed. Everyone participates in cooking with a special mindset: Making the best dishes to offer to the village’s patron saint, to offer to the ancestors to express gratitude to those who have contributed to opening the village. Everyone works with joy, sharing, and pride in their homeland. These customs have been passed down from ancient times, and keeping them in modern life today is very precious.”

In recent years, Bat Trang has a new name: Tourist Village. Actually, at first, not everyone was interested in tourism, because the pottery industry has helped people become rich and powerful. But gradually, people are more aware. Services are increasingly developed. Cuisine from village dishes has now become one of the most attractive features of Bat Trang, besides pottery, relics and heritage.

Earlier this year, for the first time, the Bat Trang Traditional Cuisine Competition was held to honor the beauty of cuisine. The strengths of Bat Trang heritage are being exploited by Hanoi city and local authorities, aiming at a further goal: Making Bat Trang become the first commercial and cultural development area of Hanoi.

The bustling, brilliant atmosphere of Bat Trang village festival in 2025.

According to the project developed by the People's Committee of Bat Trang commune, the Bat Trang commercial and cultural development area is deployed on an area of about 300 hectares. Of which, the central area is about 50 hectares wide, which is the ancient village of Bat Trang, where many ancient houses, family temples, unique architectural works are concentrated, and is also home to three intangible cultural heritages: Pottery, village festivals and cuisine. The surrounding area is expanded to two other long-standing pottery villages, Giang Cao and Kim Lan.

Cultural heritage will be linked with commerce, services and tourism, forming community spaces, organizing festivals, exhibitions, experiencing pottery and culinary experiences.

It is expected that the total investment capital will be about 455,578 billion VND, mobilized from the state budget, socialization and reinvested profits. Bat Trang people are also ready for this model, because the operation of the model emphasizes community when the management board will include the following parties: Representatives of the People's Committee of the commune, the Fatherland Front, local enterprises and local organizations and individuals. At that time, Bat Trang cuisine will once again be honored, promoted and exploited more effectively in the cultural industry.

Nowadays, Bat Trang cuisine has become so famous that many other places “offer” dishes made in the Bat Trang style. They may be delicious. But the truth is that only when you come to the ancient village, walk in the winding red-brown alleys, listen to old stories, memories associated with each dish, be guided on how to enjoy the previous dish, then the next; then enjoy the culinary dishes that have been passed down for hundreds of years, can you clearly feel the deliciousness of the heritage cuisine, not only in the taste. It is the combination of flavor and feeling of the cultural space, the heritage space of this thousand-year-old ancient village.

JIANGNAM

Source: https://nhandan.vn/bat-trang-khi-mam-co-lang-tro-thanh-di-san-post909426.html