American tourist was shocked to see earthworm on hot pan, after eating it made a surprising comment

Grilled shrimp rolls on banana leaves are delicious. You can dip them in fish sauce for extra flavor.

Many foreign tourists to Hanoi are not only impressed by dishes imbued with traditional Vietnamese culture, but are also attracted by dishes that are considered "strange, strange, and not everyone dares to try".

With more than 11 million subscribers, Sonny Side's YouTube channel (real name William Sonbuchner, 39 years old, American) is one of the few culinary channels with a very large viewership on this platform.

Sonny Side spent a lot of time in Vietnam with his team and has more than 100 videos reviewing Vietnamese cuisine.

He has tried almost all the most familiar and famous dishes, such as vermicelli with fried tofu, vermicelli with grilled pork, pho, balut, snails, coffee...

Rươi is one of the special dishes that has only become popular in recent years, although it has been raised and sold for a long time in low-lying provinces and cities such as the Northern Delta and North Central Coast.

Even for Vietnamese people, not everyone dares to try this dish or has the opportunity to taste it. However, the male YouTuber has had the chance to taste the dish twice with slightly different ways of preparation.

Following a Vietnamese girl to the countryside specializing in raising earthworms, he witnessed with his own eyes the earthworm fields divided into square plots.

Sonny Side, according to locals, is only harvested from September to November of the lunar calendar. At other times of the year, people usually only eat frozen worms.

Crab can be processed into many dishes such as crab cakes, braised crab cakes, stir-fried crab cakes, crab soup, salt-fried crab cakes, crab sauce, etc. However, crab cakes are still the most popular and easiest to eat. Although they are crab cakes, each locality will have a different way of cooking them.

The family the crew visited instructed them to make grilled crab cakes.

The worms are scooped up from the lagoon with a net, then washed, drained, and mixed with minced pork, eggs, and some herbs and spices.

According to the way people here do it, they put the pan on the stove, then line the pan with banana leaves and betel leaves. Wait for the leaves to heat up, then pour the mixed worm mixture into the hot pan. This way the worm cake is almost grilled over fire, no cooking oil is needed.

After about 20 minutes, the cook flips the shrimp paste and grills for another 10 minutes so that both sides are cooked evenly.

Looking at the charred piece of fried worm cake, the YouTuber commented: "I feel like an archaeologist because the worm looks like a fossil in the cake."

After tasting it, he grimaced slightly and commented that he could clearly feel the worms in his mouth but the overall taste was quite good. “It was like eating bread with a lot of instant noodles inside, a little crispy on the outside, soft on the inside,” he said.

In another experience, the YouTuber tasted fried crab cakes at a small restaurant on Hang Bo Street (Hanoi). The restaurant is simple, located on the sidewalk, on one side is a styrofoam box containing live crabs, still wriggling, on the other side is a hot stove to prepare the dish on the spot.

This time, the cook added the fresh blood worms at the end instead of mixing them with the minced meat and eggs.

Using the same method, the saleswoman mixed eggs, minced pork, and some vegetables and spices into a plastic basin. Then, she ladled the patties into a hot pan with plenty of cooking oil. After a few seconds, she took a handful of fresh blood worms and placed them on the patties.

The male YouTuber was amazed at the sight of the worms still wriggling on the hot pan, gradually cooking.

Once cooked, the patties are placed on paper towels to absorb excess oil. The aroma of the herbs, meat, and eggs blends together to make anyone want to try it.

Sidewalk crab cake shop on Hang Bo street (Hanoi)

Fried shrimp rolls are fried in oil and not lined with banana leaves, so they are softer than grilled rolls. “Honestly, the rolls are very fresh, salty, and fragrant,” commented Sonny Side.

This time the ingredients blended together so well that he didn't feel any worms in his mouth like last time.

This experience of the male YouTuber attracted up to 17 million views.

Fried worm cake is considered a snack for people in the old town.

Some people commented that although they are Vietnamese, they have never tried the dish. Others said that they really love the male YouTuber because they always see him respecting local cuisine and culture, even though it is somewhat “shocking” to himself and many others.

Sonny Side once commented that Vietnamese people have very high culinary standards, even for street food. Vietnam is also a place where he can enjoy great dishes that are hard to find elsewhere.

Besides the bloodworm dish, he has tried fish sauce, shrimp paste, balut, hot pot dishes...

VN (according to Vietnamnet)

Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/khach-my-sung-sot-thay-con-ruoi-tren-chao-nong-an-xong-nhan-xet-bat-ngo-399241.html