Travel to Vietnam and enjoy Tom Long in Mekong River Delta

Tom long is a favourite food of the Mekong’s delicacy, a kind of small crayfish the size of a thumb, and is expensive for its size but worth every dong.

Tom long (Vietnamese: Tôm lóng) is a favourite food of the Mekong’s delicacy, a kind of small crayfish the size of a thumb, and is expensive for its size but worth every dong.

Mekong River Delta is famous for water culture, have many dissever kinds of fishs, crafts, shrims as well as other special product. This is one of the most attractive destinations in Vietnam travel.

Tom long lives in canals and waterways or along the banks of Tien and Hau rivers. The local farmers usually put bung, a tool to catch this shrimp, in the area with strong flows of water. The crayfish can even be raised in paddy-fields or small ponds.

To cook “tom long nau bong so dua” (Tôm lóng nấu bông so đũa), you need a half kilo of fresh catches. First, you need to wash them, cut their feelers and leave the shrimps in a basket until they dry.

The next step is to cook a pot of water, wait until it boils and add some salt. Then you need to mince some lemon grass, red pepper and merge it all into hot water.

After that, you put some sugar, monosodium glutamate, fish sauce, tomatoes, pineapple, and tamarind into the pot. The dish will be even tastier if you add some con me.

A half kilo of flowers of so dua should be prepared for the next step. When the water boils, you have to put tom long into the pot first.

When the shrimps turn red, put so dua flowers into the pot and turn off the cooker. What you have to do now is to add some flavor with mu om vegetables.

Enjoy the dish with hot cooked rice or bun (soft noodles), and dipping one shrimp into delicious fish sauce or a combination of salt and red pepper surely makes for a beautiful taste. The season to taste tom long is from January until the rainy season arrives.

You can find many tom long dishes in several restaurants in Mekong Delta provinces, including tom luoc nuoc dua (shrimps boiled with coconut milk), tom chien bot (shrimps fried with flour), tom tron goi ngo sen (shrimps mixed with lotus rootstock) etc. However, the most simple and attractive one is still tom long nau bong so dua.

This is such a special delicious food that tourists in Vietnam travel to Mekong River Delta should not miss.