Ha Giang Travel: Unique cuisine and top 12 dishes to try

Last updated - January 26, 2024
Ha Giang Travel: Unique cuisine and top 12 dishes to try

Ha Giang not only attracts tourists because of its majestic scenery, gentle people, unique ethnic customs and culture but also has distinctive specialities. This place is the culinary cradle of many delicious dishes with different flavours that few places have.

On Ha Giang loop, remember to enjoy the dishes here because their style is very interesting, so you can experience all the different flavours that Ha Giang has to offer.

Ama Journey has prepared a list of 12 delicious dishes in Ha Giang just for you. Anytime you come to Ha Giang, you can enjoy it.

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1. Thit trau gac bep - Buffalo meat hung up in kitchen

Buffalo meat is suitable as a popular dish to buy as a gift. This dish originates from the Thai people.

Buffalo meat is cleaned, and seasoned with some special spices, such as macadamia nuts, chilli, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, salt, and sugar. After pounding, you mix them well to make the spice mixture thick.

buffalo-meat-hung-up-in-kitchen
Buffalo meat hung-up in kitchen

Once finished processing, the buffalo meat will be hung on the kitchen ceiling for a long time to dye in the smell of kitchen smoke.

Therefore, the finished dish will be a combination of the delicious taste of meat, and fragrant spices, mixed with the faint smell of kitchen smoke.

Reference price: from 800,000 (VND) – 1,200,000 (VND)/kg

2. Com Lam – Bamboo-tube rice

Com Lam or bamboo-tube rice is a specialty dish of the Northwest region in general and Ha Giang in particular. The dish is made from fragrant sticky rice, put into a bamboo tube, sealed at both ends with banana leaves, and grilled on a charcoal stove.

bamboo-tube-rice
Bamboo tube rice

All the natural, rustic ingredients of the mountain town have blended together to create the typical flavour of this delicious Ha Giang dish.

Reference price: 25,000 (VND) - 50,000 (VND).

3. Thang Co - Horse offal soup

Coming to Dong Van market and skipping the Thang Co dish of the H'Mong people is a big mistake for tourists when travelling to Ha Giang. Thang Co is made with horse meat and organs. However, there are not many horses left, so they tend to switch to using buffalo and cow organs to cook this dish.

thang-co-dish-in-ha-giang
Local is making Thang Co dish

After being prepared, cleaned and marinated with 12 special spices, beef internal organs will be simmered for one hour, creating a pot of Thang Co with an impressive flavour for visitors.

This dish is often enjoyed with fermented corn wine as standard. The spicy aroma of wine along with the rich aroma of Thang Co creates a typical flavour of this Ha Giang dish.

Reference price: 30,000-100,000 VND/bowl

4. Banh tam giac mach - Buckwheat Cake

When mentioning Ha Giang, many people will immediately think of the famous Tam Giac Mach - Buckwheat flower. So, do you know that this flower is a main ingredient used to make the cake of the same name?

buckwheat-cake

Locals are making buckwheat cake

That's right, Buckwheat Cake is made from the seeds of this dreamy purple flower. The cake has a light fragrance and sweet taste. It is spongy, soft and rich with the rustic flavour of the mountains and forests.

Reference price: 10,000 (VND) – 15,000 (VND)

5. Xoi ngu sac - Five-coloured sticky rice

Five-coloured sticky rice is probably the most unforgettable dish when you travel to Ha Giang. This is a traditional dish of the Tay ethnic group in Ha Giang. The ingredients of the sticky rice are mainly from premium upland sticky rice, both fragrant and sticky.

five-colored-sticky-rice
Five colored sticky rice in Ha Giang

Divide the rice into 5 different parts: the colours will be dyed using a special ingredient. Red is made from cochinchin gourd, yellow is dyed from saffron water, green is used from ginger leaves, purple is used from black rice leaves and white is the colour of sticky rice.
All of the above ingredients have created this attractive Ha Giang delicious dish.

Reference price: 5,000 (VND) – 15,000 (VND)

6. Sour Pho Ha Giang

With its origins in Chinese cuisine and the innovation in cooking methods of the ethnic people here, it is not difficult to understand why Pho Chua (sour pho) is on the list of dishes you should try when coming to Ha Giang.
Unlike normal bowls of pho, sour pho noodles must be made separately and follow a family recipe. The pho noodles are chewy, soft and white without using chemicals to bleach them.

sour-pho-ha-giang
A local family is enjoying sour pho in Dong Van market

The important part is about the sweet and sour broth. The water is mixed from rice vinegar, and sugar, seasoned with a little spice and mixed with tapioca starch to create a thick consistency that makes it extremely attractive to tourists.

Reference price: 25,000 - 40,000 VND/bowl

7. Au Tau Porridge

Tourists who have been to Ha Giang often say, "If you come to Ha Giang, you must try Au Tau porridge", which is not wrong.

Au Tau porridge is an extremely nutritious dish, made from Au Tau - a type of tuber that grows on rocky mountains. After going through the processing steps to remove the toxins contained in this tuber, people will stew it with fragrant upland rice and pig's feet to create this unique dish.

au-tau-porridge-ha-giang
Au Tau porridge in Ha Giang

Au Tau porridge is not only a delicious dish in Ha Giang but also helps improve health and prevent bone and joint diseases. When eating, people also add eggs, green pepper, green onions and coriander to make the porridge more fragrant and beautiful.

This is a Ha Giang speciality that leaves many memories for tourists. But you can only enjoy this special porridge dish in a cold, windy morning market.

Reference price: 10,000 - 15,000 VND/bowl

8. Trang Kim chicken pho

On a cold, foggy morning in Ha Giang, there is nothing better than enjoying a bowl of Trang Kim chicken pho. Trang Kim chicken noodle soup is a familiar breakfast dish of people here on market days, made from hill chicken - a type of chicken grazed by Mong people in the mountains.

trang-kim-chicken-noodle-ha-giang
Trang Kim chicken noodle in Ha Giang

What makes Trang Kim pho bowls special is that the noodles are soft and not chewy because they are made and dried by hand. The broth is stewed from bones with familiar spices such as ginger, cinnamon, anise, and cardamom, creating a characteristic sweet aroma, and bearing the unique mark of the Trang Kim people.

Reference price: 25,000 - 30,000 VND/serving

9. Banh cuon trung - Small pancake with egg

Compared to the extremely famous Banh cuon in Hanoi, the Banh cuon with egg in Ha Giang is not much inferior.

This is a dish that tourists often choose for breakfast. Small pancakes with egg are eaten with a dipping sauce made from naturally sweet bone broth, sprinkled with a little dried onion and herbs. The pancake rolls here are coated directly on the stove, breaking the eggs and then using the white egg layer mixed with the yolk to wrap.

steam-pancakage-with-egg
Ha Giang steam package with egg

When enjoying Ha Giang small pancakes with egg, tourists can feel a very special flavour, rich egg yolks, wrapped open on the outside with a layer of chewy dough mixed with the characteristic spongy taste of egg whites.

Reference price: 25,000 (VND) – 50,000 (VND)

10. Thang Den sweet soup

If people in the lowlands have a dish of sweet soup to warm up in the winter, then in Ha Giang, there is also a similar dish of sweet soup called Thang Den.

Thang Den is a sweet dish made from rice flour, the best is Yen Minh glutinous rice, a type of upland sticky rice famous for its fragrant taste. When being served, the cake will be sprinkled with a little Hoa Mai sugar water, roasted peanuts for flavour, creating an attractive snack, at a cheap price.

thang-den-sweet-soup
Local in Ha Giang is cooking Thang Den sweet soup

To enjoy this Thang Den dish, please stop by Dong Van Market, Ha Giang!!

Reference price: 10,000 VND/serving

11. Grilled moss

Few people think that moss can also be a dish. However, in Ha Giang, there is a unique dish made 100% from green moss, called Grilled Moss, a traditional dish of the Tay ethnic people in Vietnam. So what is special about it? The moss is taken from the stream, through careful selection of young and clean mosses.

green-moss-dish-ha-giang
This green moss will be used for a good dish in Ha Giang

Then wash the moss, tear it loose, chop it finely and season it with spices: lemongrass, coriander leaves, pineapple shavings, chives, salt, MSG... Mix the moss with spices, then wrap the moss in dong leaves and put it on the charcoal grill.

This dish is delicious, extremely nutritious and good for health. It helps circulate blood, detoxify, and cool the body.

Reference price: 20,000 (VND) – 50,000 (VND)

12. Leaves yeast corn wine

Ha Giang corn wine is known as the wine of the H'Mong ethnic group. Ha Giang leaves yeast corn wine is considered a famous speciality of the Northernmost region of the country.

The wine is made from native corn grown by the people of the rocky plateau, mixed with traditional leaf yeast of the H'Mong people, and has a sweet taste and aroma of corn when drunk.

making-leaves-yeast-corn-wine
Local is making leaves yeast corn wine

When drunk, it creates a very high feeling without any fatigue in the body. Drink it the night before and you can wake up and go to work normally the next day without giving yourself an unpleasant headache.

Reference selling price: 40,000 (VND) – 50,000 (VND)/litre

Now you have in hand a list of delicious dishes during your trip to Ha Giang if you are planning a trip to explore and experience these wonderful dishes. Buy yourself a long-day tour of Ha Giang at Ama Journey to explore!!!

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