Thanh Hà

My friend recently gave me a kilo of green large-round eggplants that she carried from her native village of the central province of Nghệ An where locals consider the vegetable one of summer's specialties.

My husband, whose native village is in Nghệ An’s Quỳnh Đôi Village, sometimes asks me to buy him the green large-round eggplant, locally known as cà bát, but I have never saw it in Hà Nội market. So it was a surprise when my friend presented the plants to me and he was very excited.

“All my family members, particularly my parents, were interested in the dish so much," explained my husband. "I still remember each time we returned to our village, my aunt often treated us to several specialties such as fresh boiled squid dipped in her home-made shrimp paste and salted green large-round eggplant pieces dipped in a bowl of that shrimp paste mixed with a little sugar and fresh chilli that she picked from her own garden.

Salted large-round eggplant is one of beloved specialties. — Photo dienmayxanh.com

“The original salted green cà bát from Nghệ An is quite different from that of other regions. I would never forget the special flavour of the fruit, which is soft in the centre, but firm to the touch, fragrant and lightly sweet tasting dipped in home-made tasty great shrimp paste,” he said.

The fresh cà bát pieces mixed with hot chilli, sweet from a little sugar and then adding the shrimp paste created an especially appetising dish for us, he said.

He showed me how it should be prepared: first cutting the eggplant into pieces, then soaking it in boiled water for ten minutes (to release its wild bitterness) before getting it out to arrange it on a plate.

Braised large-round eggplant with pork belly, tofu and banana. — Photo bachhoaxanh.com

He also told me that his aunt’s recipe did not use squeezed lemon juice into the shrimp paste, locally known as mắm tôm, because it would reduce its special aromatic flavour.

He was very happy and excited to enjoy the dish, even though our shrimp paste was not the home-made sauce he had eaten before at his aunt’s home.

“It is more enjoyable when eating the dish with rice and soup made with boiled morning glory. Thanks to this dish I can cope with the severe summer heat and still have a good appetite,” he said.

He related a story that in the past almost all local households, particularly poor ones, had a big jar to make salted cà bát. They arranged slices into the jar, layered with salt and then repeated until the vessel was full. The jar was covered with a bamboo blister and cà bát slices were compressed with a big stone for at least one month so that they could enjoy the vegetable all year round.

Many dinners say large-round eggplants fried with purple perilla leaves and minced garlic is something special. — Photo backhoaxanh.com

An alternative to Nghệ An cooks, housewives in Hà Nội often make salted white cà bát, also cooked into many amazing dishes such as fried cà bát with garlic and purple perilla, braised cà bát with banana, pork belly and tofu or boiled cà bát dipped in a mix sauce of Phú Quốc fish sauce (the premier brand of Việt Nam’s famed fish sauce that has been exported to many countries across the world), lemon juice, minced garlic and chilli.

According to herbalist Lê Thân from the Quảng Nam Traditional Medicine Hospital, eggplants are rich in flavonoids, Vitamins P and E, so they are very good for the walls of the blood vessels and can be an aid in anti-ageing.

Nghệ An people enjoy salted green large-round eggplant dipped in shrimp paste. — Photo dailyhatgiongcaytrong.com

The eggplants also help to treat other ailments such as persistent coughs, toothache and many others, Thân said, adding however that weak patients and those with poor stomachs should not eat too many eggplants because large amounts could be poisonous to them. VNS