Growing up from the fields, steeped in rustic flavors of the countryside - “salty fermented vegetables, sour white eggplant”, yet it was not until my late forties that I first heard of mut ca phao (white eggplant preserves) from Hue. The humble eggplant, so familiar on simple family meals, appears here in an entirely unfamiliar form - a delicately beautiful preserves for the Lunar New Year.
As the twelfth lunar month begins to arrive, Hue Today Weekly would like to invite readers to savor, through vision, the white eggplant preserves, before having the chance to fully enjoy the refined taste of this unique delicacy. The photo set was taken by photographer Phan Trung.
Speaking about white eggplant preserves, Trung shared that his first encounter with the dish came through a clip by a well-known food content creator on social media. After that, he sought out Ms. Le Thanh Huong, a long-time traditional confectionery artisan in Kim Long, to photograph and record the process. Ms. Huong recounted that when she was young, she often made this dish. However, because it has low commercial viability and requires a very labor-intensive process, it is no longer made today, not because it has disappeared entirely.
“This dish is visually unusual and also has a very unusual taste. I tried it and found it completely unfamiliar, because I had never tasted anything like it before,” Trung shared.
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| White eggplant preserves - the essence of Hue cuisine |
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| Artisan Thanh Huong |
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| Drying the eggplants following the process of ‘seven days of sun, three nights of dew’ |
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| Ingredients: fresh eggplants |
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| Soaking, peeling, and removing the eggplant seeds |
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| Simmering sugar and white eggplant preserves |
By HUE TODAY WEEKLY
