Ragworm balls served in a bamboo shoot broth, a specialty from Hải Dương.. VNS Photo Mỹ Hà

HÀ NỘI — If you take a walk around the wet market in Hà Nội, chances are you'll see trays full of moving pink or blue creatures squirming around or swimming in shallow water. Feeling frightened? You're not alone, as many local residents are just as creeped out as first-time visitors. 

But these creepy crawlies are actually a popular local delicacy known as rươi (ragworms or sandworms), and are a highly prized (and somewhat costly) ingredient in a variety of dishes.

If you're a home cook hoping to make seasonal food for your family, you'll grow out of that initial fear once you taste patties made from the worms, which are both nutritious and delicious. 

From the 20th of the ninth lunar month until the 10th of the 10th lunar month, ragworms fill the beaches, riversides and rice paddies of Quảng Ninh, Hải Dương, Hải Phòng and Thái Bình (now part of enlarged Hưng Yên Province). 

The worms cannot be farmed or raised. They are considered a gift from nature that appears naturally every autumn in and around the Red River Delta. You may think that farmers in these provinces should just sit and wait for the seasonal treat to appear naturally, but they will not show up in just any field — any hint of fertilisers or pesticides will kill the worms.

This year has seen a sudden bumper harvest of ragworms. Prices for the unique ingredient in wet markets have dropped to as low as under VNĐ300,000 per kilo. In previous years, prices have typically hovered above VNĐ500,000. 

You don’t need to look far. Simply ask ragworm sellers to clean and prepare the worms, ready for making patties at home.

A family of four may need just half a kilo. The ragworms can be mixed with minced pork, a few chicken or duck eggs, chopped spring onion, dill and, for a final but necessary touch, julienned tangerine peels. 

The citrus will add a pleasant aroma when the patties are fried. However, not all types of tangerine are suitable, so to be safe, just ask your sellers. 

A delicious and popular delicacy: ragworm patties.

If you want to taste restaurant-quality ragworm patties, then just ask around. Restaurants in big cities like Hà Nội and HCM City also often add this delicacy to their menus at this time of year.

However, the most authentic ragworm dishes are made in Hải Dương. If time permits, you should take a trip there to try out a full ragworm feast. 

The most popular dishes are the patties, which are also the easiest to make, but local chefs make plenty of other meals out of this unique ingredient that was historically offered to royalty. 

Other ragworm dishes include soups, such as ragworm balls in bamboo shoot soup, as well as salads, spring rolls and deep fried or frozen ragworms, which can be used in a variety of ways.

Last but not least, ragworms are sometimes cooked into a delicious clay pot stew.

One of the most popular ragworm dishes, the stew requires a lot of time to cook. It is made by mixing ragworms with minced pork, ginger and a variety of herbs and greens, including Cochinchin gourd leaves, ginger leaves, sour star fruit, hot chilli and again, tangerine peels. 

All of these ingredients are brought to a boil in the clay pot, which is then tucked under smouldering rice husks for many hours, allowing the stew to cook from all sides and from top to bottom.

This type of cooking is very demanding because it needs a large space, like in old village homes where the kitchen is built far away from the main house. 

You can only cook this dish the traditional way, or build a special earthen cooking place for it. Urban living conditions typically do not allow for making this dish at home due to fire safety concerns. So don’t attempt to make it in a modern apartment or city home.

Instead, enjoy being served ragworms clay pot stew at gourmet restaurants — let the pros do the job for you! VNS