GIA LAI – In the mist on Tonle Sap, fishermen pick up fresh shrimp from their hooves and bring them home to make pancakes, a dish with an unforgettable flavor.

Bien Ho (T’nung Lake) is a famous tourist destination in Gia Lai, a place associated with the song “Pleiku eyes, the lake is full” has a large lake surface, is a source of clean water for Pleiku city. Fishermen’s life around the Bien Ho area relies on rich aquatic resources such as fish, shrimp, shrimp… Bien Ho shrimp pancakes also come from here, creating a feature for the cuisine of the mountain town.

The lake is vast with water, fanciful in the mist, bringing a beautiful and peaceful picture of labor.

Mr. Phan Nguyen, born in 1985, from Gia Lai, owner of YouTube channel Huong from the countryside, just uploaded a video of Bien Ho pancakes and received positive comments from many viewers.

When the summer rains pour down, Bien Ho receives many water sources, bringing with them zooplankton and humus, which is also an abundant source of food for fish, shrimp, and shrimp. Thanks to that, Bien Ho shrimp is delicious, firm, and fresh. Bien Ho fishermen use their hooves to catch shrimp and use bait made from worms (a type of worm) kneaded with sticky rice and bran.

“The process of catching shrimp in Bien Ho brought me a lot of experience and affection for the livelihood of fishermen. The night was dark, but the fishermen still worked hard. All night they did not sleep, struggling. with a catch of nets and hastily ate noodles until morning. Life is hard, but happy when one day there is a good harvest of fish and shrimp,” said Mr. Vuong Ngoc, a resident of Bien Ho.

Hot Bien Ho pancakes on cast iron pan

The shrimp is easy to process, can do many dishes such as roasted shrimp with lemon leaves, salad, shrimp cooked in gourd soup, jute vegetables, and tat (many mixed vegetables) but the best one is probably pancakes. After catching shrimp, people take advantage of “homegrown” products, pick lettuce, lettuce, cucumber, broccoli and perilla to eat with pancakes. Then they grind the flour, prepare the ingredients of chopped scallions, garlic, and chili peppers and put them in a hot pan and stir-fry with shrimp and minced meat to make the filling.

The last step is to pour the diluted powder, add a little turmeric color to the cast iron pan, in
turn add the shrimp, minced meat that has been fried before, and then add little bean
sprouts. Wait for about 2-3 minutes, the cake is cooked, use chopsticks to pick up the cake and turn the cake
back and forth and then take it out on a plate to enjoy with raw vegetables.

Some differences of traditional pancakes in the Central region with other regions
is that people often soak rice very soft and then grind it into a powder
with a stone mortar. Central pancakes are small in size, made in a cast
iron pan about 15 cm in size, while Southern pancakes are larger because they are made
in a large pan. Therefore, eating pancakes in the Central region must be 2-3 at a time. Follow vnexpress