Create more seafood dishes to attract tourists

Quang Tri has a coastline of more than 70 km with famous landmarks, beautiful landscapes and rich cuisine . However, many people share the opinion that restaurants at the beaches have not taken advantage of the region's strengths to create rich and unique dishes to serve tourists.

Grilled oysters are very popular at restaurants in Cua Viet Service - Tourism Area - Photo: TU LINH

Ms. Nguyen Thi Ha, a tourist in Hanoi , and her family stayed at Cua Viet Tourist Service Area for 3 days. That was enough time for her family to experience the beaches and culinary services from the coast of Trung Giang commune, Gio Hai to Cua Viet.

According to Ms. Ha, the seafood in the places she visited was fresh, prepared in a rustic way and had a strong taste of the sea. This was the reason why her family returned to this place many times. In addition to enjoying it on the spot, her family also bought it to bring back to Hanoi as gifts.

However, what makes Ms. Ha worried is that the services here are not rich, besides steamed, boiled, porridge, grilled dishes... there are no other dishes. Therefore, if you only enjoy it once, it is okay, but repeating it over and over again will make tourists feel bored. Not only Ms. Ha but also people in the province every time they come to the coastal tourist service areas in the area also have the same feeling that the specialties are prepared without any variation to make them more attractive to tourists.

A recent survey of Quang Tri coastal cuisine shows that there are four specialties that are repeated every day: boiled squid, boiled crab, steamed fish/porridge and grilled shrimp. The dishes are prepared simply, without fuss, and are imbued with the local culinary culture.

This is a plus point in the coastal culinary culture of Quang Tri, but the minus point pointed out by tour operators is: lack of creativity in the preparation and presentation of dishes. And they also suggested that if restaurants could prepare many other dishes from seafood, it would not only increase revenue but also attract tourists to come back.

With a rich source of seafood, if you take the time to learn how to prepare it, businesses on the beach will have a more diverse menu. First of all, we need to mention crab salad with figs. Figs are quite abundant in the localities in the province.

In nutritional cuisine, figs are used as a fruit to make crab salad. The sweet taste of figs, along with the salty taste of fresh and firm crab meat will help the salad become a dish that stimulates the taste buds and is good for the digestive system. Crab salad with figs will be even more delicious when eaten with rice paper.

Next is nem lui made from sea shrimp. Nem lui looks similar to spring rolls at first glance, but the preparation of these two dishes has many different steps. Nem has a filling of minced shrimp and meat, wrapped in rice paper and grilled over a small charcoal fire, when enjoyed, it is wrapped with raw vegetables, star fruit, and mango. The dipping sauce is made from ingredients such as sesame and peanuts, when eaten it has a sour, spicy and rich taste. The preparation of nem lui is not complicated, but hopefully it will become a delicious roll, loved by many people.

Along with crab salad, grilled shrimp spring rolls, the seafood menu also includes fish cakes, especially mackerel cakes. Mackerel cakes have a salty and sweet taste, are both chewy and naturally delicious.

Especially with steamed and chilled fish cakes, tourists also buy them as gifts for relatives. Restaurants can also add hot pot to the menu to serve customers. Seafood hot pot is also a favorite dish of most tourists to the sea.

The ingredients to prepare this dish include fish, squid, shrimp... which are readily available in the Quang Tri sea area. Seafood hotpot is eaten with water spinach, thinly sliced star fruit, chopped cucumber, banana blossom. When eating, you can dip it in Quang Tri sea fish sauce to make the flavor richer.

If the menu of the beach businesses has many delicious seafood dishes, it will certainly attract more tourists to relax and experience. To meet the needs of tourists to enjoy seafood cuisine, businesses need to equip themselves with the necessary skills, from welcoming tourists to scientific and methodical food preparation, not defaulting to the same menu from season to season.

In addition, tour operators also suggest that in addition to ensuring taste, fresh ingredients, reasonable prices and food hygiene and safety, coastal restaurants need to know how to present dishes more beautifully.

Tu Linh

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