Uniqueness of Con Dao cuisine

A specialty of Con Dao is sold at a high price. Photo: B.Nguyen

The most special thing about Con Dao cuisine is the areca nut, a dish that has its origin and contains many memories of Con Dao prisoners. In addition, Con Dao is also famous for its delicious seafood that is "worth every penny".

"Medicinal" dishes of Con Dao prisoners

Con Dao Special Zone is famous for its land of the banyan tree, a tree that can withstand the harsh weather of the sea and islands. In Con Dao, there are dozens of ancient banyan trees honored as Vietnam Heritage Trees, a spiritual symbol of the people of Con Dao. These ancient "banyan trees" are historical witnesses to the pain and loss on the island that was once considered "hell on earth". At the same time, this land is also famous for its "unique" banyan seed specialty.

The banyan tree in Con Dao is exposed to harsh sunlight and storms, so the tree trunk is large, the bark is rougher and more sinewy than the banyan tree grown on the mainland, but it produces larger fruits than those in other areas. This tree species appears a lot in the stories and memories of prisoners in Con Dao. Accordingly, one of the insidious tricks of the prison guards to torture political prisoners is to not give them green vegetables for many months. The consequence is that many political prisoners suffer from digestive disorders, many digestive diseases, causing their health to gradually deteriorate. Therefore, every time they are allowed to work outside, the prisoners often pick banyan leaves or pick banyan fruits to eat instead of green vegetables. They also secretly pick banyan fruits, hide them on their bodies, hold them in their mouths, and bring them into the cell to share with their comrades. For prisoners in Con Dao, banyan leaves and fruits are food that helps them fight hunger and pain.

Ms. Lan Phuong, owner of Ngoc Phuong specialty store at Con Dao market, said that areca nut is a specialty that tourists to Con Dao often choose to buy as gifts, because this is a gift from nature, only available in Con Dao. From the story of prisoners eating areca nut instead of green vegetables, helping to cure diseases, Con Dao people believe that areca nut is a "medicinal" food that many people seek.

In response to the increasing demand for the specialty of the areca nut from tourists, the profession of purchasing and processing areca nut has emerged in Con Dao. Up to now, Con Dao has hundreds of establishments processing and trading areca nut. The source of raw materials for areca nut in Con Dao cannot meet the demand, so the areca nut processing and trading establishments have to collect from all the provinces in the East and West. During the peak season when many tourists come to Con Dao, Ngoc Phuong specialty store sells several hundred kilograms of areca nut per week.

The Panax notoginseng is a wild tree, it does not need to be planted or cared for, but it requires a lot of work to pick and cut the fruit to get the seeds. 60kg of dried Panax notoginseng fruit can only produce about 1kg of Panax notoginseng seeds, and a day's work usually only produces more than 1kg of Panax notoginseng seeds.

Picking and cutting the seeds of the areca nut is usually the work of the poor. They spend time picking them, drying them, cutting them to get the seeds and selling them to processing facilities. Areca nut seeds are small and have thin shells, so roasting them is an art because if the heat is too low, the seeds will be undercooked and will feel tough, if the heat is too high, they will easily burn, so the roaster must know how to control the heat, roast for a long time and must constantly stir evenly to produce a batch of seeds that is fragrant and delicious.

The specialty of Con Dao areca nut is: roasted salted areca nut, cantaloupe seed jam with many different flavors, depending on the type, the price ranges from 250,000 to 400,000 VND/kg. Areca nut in Con Dao is thinner, fatter, more fragrant and more “medicinal” so gourmet tourists are willing to pay one and a half or double the price to buy and enjoy.

Con Dao seafood is "worth every penny"

According to some seafood traders in Con Dao, because the seafood consumption in Con Dao is small, large, long-term fishing boats do not stop here to unload their products. Con Dao has a fishing village, in which many small boats catch and return during the day, so the seafood is guaranteed to be fresh and there are rare specialties that only Con Dao has.

Typically, red grouper is a very rare fish, usually living in coral reefs, so it is one of the "expensive" specialties of Con Dao. Another famous specialty of Con Dao is moon crab because on the crab's shell there are red dots like the moon. The crab's shell is beautiful, so the islanders also use the crab's shell to make decorative products. According to the locals, the meat of Con Dao moon crab will be the most delicious during the moonrise week, the meat is sweet, firm, rich in minerals; the nutritional content will also be higher than other crab species.

Traders at Con Dao market (Con Dao special zone, Ho Chi Minh City) package roasted and salted areca nuts to sell to customers.

In addition, Con Dao also has many "rare" specialties such as: shark salad, sand parrot fish (also known as wax parrot fish), sea worms - one of the rare seafood that used to be a dish for the king...

In addition, the reason tourists are willing to pay high prices to enjoy seafood in Con Dao is because of the freshness of the seafood. According to seafood traders in Con Dao, fresh squid sold on the island is the source of squid caught by boats, the squid released into the tank is still swimming around, so when processed, it is very crispy and has a rich sweet taste.

Con Dao is a spiritual land, so business people on the island believe that they must do business properly to survive and last long. Therefore, the price of seafood in Con Dao is often higher than in many other places, but the products are guaranteed to be fresh, delicious, and of the right quality.

When buying as gifts, tourists have many specialties to choose from. A typical example is the sweet, fragrant, fatty sea urchin sauce with the main ingredient being sea urchin meat. The sauce has a salty, sour taste, most notably a very characteristic strong aroma, suitable for eating with vermicelli, boiled meat, hot rice. Oyster sauce is also a famous specialty of the people here because it is made entirely by hand. In addition, there are also dried seafood such as: dried fish, dried squid, dried squid, dried mackerel... which are also delicious specialties chosen by many tourists.

Binh Nguyen

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/giai-tri/202507/doc-dao-cua-am-thuc-con-dao-85e1f58/