(Vietnam Package Tours) “Chả Cá Lã Vọng” is the name of a shop that is famous for selling a specialty in Hanoi: Cha Ca Grilled Fish . This is a marinated fish dish, grilled on charcoal and fried in the fat pan; Doan family at No 14 Cha Ca Street (Formerly Hang Son Street) in the Old Quarter kept the business secret and named it as above.

In French colonial times, at No 14 Hang Son Street, Doan Family lived. They often took their home as a place supporting De Tham's insurgent army. They often made the delicious Cha Ca Grilled Fish dish for guests. Long time gradually into acquaintances, the guests helped their family opened a restaurant that specializes in selling that food. This house is not only a place to gather, but also is a stall to keep family alive. Over time, two words "Cha Ca" called a street name. In this restaurant always showed a La Vong man - Khuong Tu Nha sit kneeing fishing - a symbol of the talented people but wait for opportunities. So the closed customers called Cha Ca La Vong. Today, it becomes name of the restaurant and also of the Cha Ca Grilled Fish. Recipes of this dish only handed down for the people of Doan Family.

Cha Ca Grilled Fish often made by fresh hemibagrus. This is the fish type with a little bone, sweet  and fragrant meat. The most special and extremely rare is this dish made from Anh Vu fish that lives in Bach Hac River, Bach Tri district, Phu Tho province. If not have hemibagrus fish, we can use steering catfish, snake-head. But the catfish are more friable meat and snakehead has more bone, so if we use them, the dish is not delicious as using fresh hemibagrus. The meat of the fish was sliced from the filter - style sides, sliced thin, marinated with galangal water, turmeric, pepper, fish sauce in a particularly secretary way at least two hours, then sandwiched into pairs of bamboo. People need to fan the fire, flip through both hands so that two sides are browned alike. Preparing food, people bring the clamping rolls baked into the dog fat pan - this is heirloom recipes of this dish. People do not often use cooking oil because the lower temperatures and less aromatic.

Cha Ca Grilled Fish must be eaten hot. When enjoying it, we need pick up pieces into bowl; sprinkle the boiling fat water above, served with toasted bread or noodles, roasted peanuts, coriander, Lang basil, dill, fresh chopped small onion dotted with shrimp sauce. Shrimp sauce must be prepared by fresh lemon juice, added peppers, beaten up and added with a little belostomatid essence oil, added a few drops of white wine, a little fat and sugar water. Some foreigners cannot eat shrimp sauce, so we replaced by fish sauce. But fish sauce made the fried dish taste less delicious.

There is two common ways to eat: put baked fish into a fat pan, put onion and dill into. When vegetables undercooked, taking it out and serve with rice noodles, herbs, roasted peanuts and prepared shrimp sauce, put a little noodles into a bowl, put vegetables and some fried fish pieces on top, mix and eat. When eating, the shrimp sauce smell mingled with the sweet taste of fish, vegetables and fleshy smell of roasted peanuts. Because this dish has much fat, so when eating, it must be accompanied with a small stalk chopped onions soaked in vinegar fresh dilution.

Put fried fish, onion and vegetable into a bowl, sprinkle the boiling fat water and eat immediately, may served with toasted bread. With this eating way, making enough fish to eat, if not, the fish is cold and loss of appetite.

Other way, some people may give noodles into the pan and stir well with fried fish, dill,onion  then put them into an empty bowl and eat. Eating this way is very tasty but slightly greasy hot.

The video following will be a cut from Helen's Cooking Recipes - A Vietnamese American. Her work is not precisely 100% local but easy for you to cook Cha Ca Grilled Fish yourself.

This dish can be eaten with wine and suited with the cold weather. With hot weather, the guests usually drink beer.

This dish is relatively much grease so not good for people with cardiovascular problems.

We hope that this article will be useful for you to know about the most famous Vietnamese dish: Vietnamese Cha Ca Grilled Fish. It is the best to combine its taste to your hotel in Hanoi or a Hanoi Food Tour.

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