Snail, green banana and tofu soup might seem to be weird to some people; however, it is very common street food in Vietnam. This dish consists of snails, bananas, fried tofu, perilla, turmeric, and other herbs goes well with rice vermicelli or even rice itself.
Snails can be easily found in many places like ponds, rivers, fields, lakes, and the sea. The meats are chewy, sweet and have high protein, calcium, and iron. Some popular sea snails like ‘oc mong tay’ (razor shell), ‘oc gai’ (thorny snail), ‘oc mo’ (common periwinkles), and ‘oc len’ (Cerithidea obtuse) can easily buy in any seafood market.
Green banana refers to unripe banana, which gives a sour taste while fried tofu adds extra flavour to the dish. These combinations of sweet, sour, salty and spicy taste make it really worth to try it.
This dish may require a lot of preparations to cook; thus, it is often served at weekends and holidays. Try this recipe for your next family gathering.
Ingredients (6 servings):
- 5kg Snails
- 200g Tofu
- 200g Bacon
- 5 Green Bananas
- 2 tbsp Turmeric Powder
- 5 cloves Garlic (crushed)
- 3 Onion (crushed)
- 5 Red Chilli (finely chopped)
- 10 Perilla (chopped)
- 5 Green Onion (chopped)
- 3 tbsp Shrimp Sauce
- 3 tbsp Fish Sauce
- 5 tbsp Cooking Oil
- Salt
- Sugar
Directions:
- Prepare the snails by soaking it in cold water with one chilli so that the snail secretes slime and mud. Change the water two times and then boil the snails.
- Filter the snail and keep the snails’ boiled water. Cut the snails into two pieces so it can absorb other flavours easily.
- Meanwhile, fry the tofu and bacon separately and put it aside.
- For the banana, peel the skin then slice horizontally into 2 pieces. Boil the banana with water for about 2 minutes, toss it and put it aside.
- Heat cooking oil in a cooking pot. Stir fry chopped onion and garlic until fragrant.
- Then, add the boiled banana and mix them well.
- Put in about three cups of snails’ boiled water to the mixture and bring it to boil.
- Add turmeric powder, shrimp sauce, fish sauce, salt, and sugar for flavour. Let it cooked for 3 minutes or until bananas soft.
- Then, add fried tofu, bacon, snails, and cook together. Mix them thoroughly.
- Remove the pot from the heat, add chopped perilla and green onion, and mix it well.