Soothe summer nostalgia

I don’t know when xu xoa first appeared, but it’s a familiar, cooling dish from the summers of my childhood. Back then, not many houses in my village had fans, so on summer afternoons like this, there was nothing better than eating a glass of xu xoa. The cool, elegant taste of the sea in each spoonful of xu xoa has followed me until now.

"Xu xoa" has many names, sometimes "xoa xoa", sometimes "xu xa", and no matter what name it is called, it is a snack that many coastal families know how to cook. The main ingredient to cook xu xoa is a type of seaweed that often grows on rocky reefs around Cu Lao Cham Island (an island commune of Hoi An). The best quality seaweed to cook xu xoa is the type of seaweed that is old, has long, strong stems, little black seaweed, little sand. Nutritionally, seaweed has a cooling, heat-clearing, detoxifying, laxative effect...

Raw seaweed, cooked into xu xoa

Xu xoa dish made from seaweed is a great choice to help cool down after being in the sun or working hard and sweating a lot, besides it also has the effect of eliminating dampness and wind. But each time you cook xu xoa, you have to choose a really free day, because xu xoa cooked from seaweed is not like packaged premixed agar powder. To clean xu xoa strands before cooking takes a whole day, very elaborate.

After harvesting, the seaweed is rinsed with seawater to remove dust, and at the same time, remove rocks, sand, and coral stuck in the seaweed. Then, bring it home and rinse it with fresh water, and start picking out more sand. Continue cleaning with water like this many times, until the seaweed is white, then dry it in the sun and make it into cakes for later use. The seaweed harvest season only starts from the first days of summer until the end of the 8th lunar month. Therefore, xu xoa sellers often have to store seaweed during the season to cook all year round.

Before cooking xu xoa, seaweed is soaked in more water.

4 hours, wash and collect clean one last time then put into the pot to cook with the right amount of water. The seaweed starts to boil, add lemon juice, after about 40 minutes the seaweed will dissolve, continue the process of filtering xu xoa water. The seaweed is put into a cloth bag, then use a clean bamboo stick to press tightly to let the xu xoa water flow out. After a few hours, the xu xoa water will solidify and have a dark green color. The solidified xu xoa can be cut into blocks and put in a basin to eat gradually. Only when using, cut into small, bite-sized pieces.

The key to the deliciousness of xu xoa is the sugar syrup. My mother chose the right kind of sugar cane molasses, and the syrup had the right consistency, sweet but not burnt. When cooking, she added a few drops of lemon and a few slices of ginger, which further enhanced the flavor. Every time I saw my mother’s skillful hands spreading the sugar syrup in zigzag patterns on the small pieces of xu xoa lying neatly in the cup, I wanted to sip it right away.

This afternoon, the south wind unintentionally brought the summer heat, suddenly my heart fluttered when my mother bent down in the kitchen and started to cook the familiar xu xoa dish. Enjoying a glass of xu xoa with the cool taste of the sea, each piece melted in my mouth, mixed with the sweet aroma of the sugar water my mother cooked, suddenly the heat of the mid-summer day disappeared...

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