Typical dishes of indigenous people at Culinary Culture Week being held in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai from November 2 to 6. — VNA/VNS Photo Hoài Nam

CENTRAL HIGHLANDS — Nearly 30 stalls at this year’s Culinary Culture Week are introducing the most typical and unique dishes from different regions to visitors.

Culinary Culture Week takes place at the Museum of the Central Highlands in Gia Lai Province from November 2 to 6.

Lê Thanh Tuấn, deputy director of the museum, said the event aims to promote the rich and diversified culinary culture and cultural values ​​of local ethnic minorities.

The event is expected to bring the most authentic and interesting experiences of the local culinary culture, helping to promote the unique cultural values ​​of local ethnic minorities to both domestic and international visitors.

It also aims to create a good impression to attract more tourists, contributing to building Gia Lai into a safe, friendly and hospitable tourism destination.

It offers a great experience to visitors with a wide range of local typical dishes such as grilled chicken, cơm lam (steamed sticky rice in bamboo pipes), cà đắng (bitter eggplant), bánh bèo (steamed rice cake), and bánh lọc gói lá chuối (rice dumplings wrapped in banana leaves).

Lý Nhật Chiêu, who is visiting the mountain town of Pleiku in the province for the first time in 23 years, said the local dishes have significantly improved and are much richer than before.

“The culinary culture has changed, but the taste, spices and the identity of the dishes of the Central Highlands people remain the same,” he said.

Among the dishes he enjoys, the most interesting ones are perhaps grilled chicken and cơm lam, he said.

Nay Phương, owner of the Culinary Specialty H’Jut in Pleiku, said this is the third time her establishment has participated in this event.

“My establishment brings all the typical products made in the traditional way of the Jrai ethnic group,” she said.

The products are bò một nắng (beef dried in the sun), heo sọc dưa một nắng (bui bronh pork dried in the sun), muối cỏ thơm (salt mixed with fried groach), muối kiến (salt mixed with fried ants), khổ qua rừng (forest bitter melon), măng khô (dried bamboo shoots) and nấm lim xanh (local lingzhi mushrooms or Ganoderma lucidum).

Visitors can also enjoy special music, art, and light and sound shows at the food court’s stage.

The special highlight of the event is the 2022 Cultural Heritage Festival that will be held from November 5 to 6.

During the two-day festival, visitors will be immersed in an attractive traditional cultural space with folk art performances, folk games, and reenactments of pavilions that were popular in Vietnamese society during the 1975-86 post-war period. — VNS