No tourist can resist the appeal of grilled chicken and bamboo-tube rice specialties when coming to Mang Den, a highland town in Konplong district, Kon Tum province.
Grilled chicken and bamboo-tube rice are two specialty dishes in Mang Den (Konplong district, Kon Tum province) and are dishes not to be missed for visitors to this highland town. These are two traditional dishes of local people. In recent years, more and more tourists have come to Mang Den, and the service of grilled chicken and bamboo-tube rice here has also flourished, becoming an indispensable street food in Mang Den.
With temperatures around 11-12 degrees Celsius in Mang Den today, grilled chicken and bamboo-tube rice are even more attractive to spring tourists.
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| A series of chicken and bamboo rice grills have sprung up on both sides of the main road of Mang Den. Visitors can eat on site or take out food along the way to explore and visit. |
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| Grilled chicken and bamboo rice cookers are hidden under peach blossom trees. |
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| Ms. Y Trong (30 years old), a local resident, said she and her family have been running a grilled chicken and grilled bamboo rice service business to serve tourists for 5 years. In addition to the main chef, there are also her husband and younger sister helping. |
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| Every day, Ms. Y Trong sells 20-30 grilled chickens, weighing about 1.6 kg/chicken, priced at 250,000 VND and about 100 tubes of bamboo-tube rice at 20,000 VND/tube. The profit is about 70-80,000 VND/chicken, much better than farming. |
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| According to Ms. Y Trong, the chicken is raised naturally so the meat is firm and delicious. |
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| To make the chicken more delicious, which is truly a specialty, there must be wild pepper leaves, onions, lemongrass, and chili filled in the chicken’s belly when grilled. The chicken is grilled on a charcoal stove for about 20 minutes and rotated continuously by a shaft system operated by an electric turbine to cook and brown evenly. |
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| Mr. Le Cong Phien (34 years old), owner of the grilled chicken and lam rice restaurant, said he and his family have settled in Mang Den for 10 years and started serving grilled chicken and lam rice for 4 years. |
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| Every day he sells about 200 fish, and there are peak times during holidays and Tet when he sells more. Particularly in the days after Tet Quy Mao 2023, due to cold weather and many tourists, he sold 400 chickens and about 1,000 tubes of bamboo-tube rice every day. |
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According to Mr. Phien’s family, there must be a secret to making bamboo-tube rice. That is to choose fresh bamboo tubes, wash rice thoroughly, soak thoroughly and mix with a little peanut oil to make it more flexible, and at the same time prevent it from sticking to the walls of the bamboo tube when eating.
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| After the soaking and cleaning process, the rice is mixed with pandan leaf juice before being put into a bamboo tube to give the rice a fragrant and eye-catching green color. Before placing on the grill, tightly plug the rice tube with pandan leaves to keep the water and aroma of the rice inside. |
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| Ms. Thuy Phuong, a tourist from Ho Chi Minh City, said that chicken and bamboo-tube rice in Mang Den are especially fragrant, delicious and have many differences compared to similar products in other places that she has known. On the one hand, because the people here have their own cooking secrets, on the other hand, the cool weather and romantic scenery also help grilled chicken and bamboo-tube rice become more delicious and attractive. |
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| That is also the reason why no tourist can resist the appeal of grilled chicken and bamboo-tube rice specialties when coming to Mang Den, especially on these cold days. |
