The cold, wet day was perfect for sitting around the fire, preparing dishes. Mrs. Kan Hia told me that her family would make salt dishes of the Ta Oi people on that day.
Wild chili and pepper salt of the indigenous people is very labor intensive, so it is usually reserved for gifting. On the days near Tet, Mrs. Kan Hia's family would make a few dozen jars of wild chili and pepper salt to give to relatives, friends, and acquaintances in the lowland.
Wild chili and pepper salt of the A Luoi people
Ta Oi people call the salt boi tiu. Wild chili and pepper salt of the people are divided into two types. Boi tiu pa lang is used as an ingredient in cooking, which is very elaborately processed, including ingredients such as wild ginger, wild pepper, wild chili, lemongrass, and table salt.
Whereas, Boi tiu a soanr is used to dip food is simpler, containing only salt, wild chili, and wild pepper. To make the salt dish more delicious and richer, the people often add crushed dried frog meat and dried fish. Pa lang or a soanr then will then have a sweet and aromatic taste from meat and fish, the spiciness of pepper, chili, ginger, and lemongrass. The salty taste of salt will be subdued and not harsh at all. It seems that all the delicious flavors of the mountains and forests are mixed with the sweet and fragrant salt of the highland people.
Mrs. Kan Hia said she would make pa lang salt. The day before, Mrs. Kan Hia's husband went to the forest to collect a lot of ingredients to make the salt. In the garden, there was also a green pepper bush and a few red chili plants that are full of chili. In the plot behind the house, the ginger bushes are also luxuriant and green. But Ms. Kan Hia said that the ingredients must be taken from the forest to be delicious.
Plants growing freely among the forest canopy gave a stronger flavor than spices grown in the home garden. It must have been the original taste of the deep green mountains and forests, the sweet and fragrant aroma of the mountains without human intervention.
Like many other families in the village, Mrs. Kan Hia's house directs water from the stream to the porch. The clear, cool spring water flows all day next to the porch.
The night in the highlands was so peaceful that I fell into a deep sleep as soon as I lay down on the Zeng mat before I could immerse in the sound of the mountains. I slept until the coolness of the morning woke me up in surprise. Lying in the house, inhaling the sweet smell of the mountain creeping through the doorway, sniffing up the smell of firewood spreading in the kitchen, I thought I was somewhere far away in the countryside.
Ms. Kan Hia's footsteps from the garden brought me back to the present. She had just gone to the garden to cut a big handful of lemongrass and was sitting by the basin to wash away the mud. Ginger and lemongrass were also washed, then pounded and left on low heat to dry.
For the finished salt to be delicious, this stage was very important. The ingredients must be roasted just right, so there would be no water left because it will make the salt wet, but not too dry so that the salt would lose its quality and reduce the aroma. A skilled cook will feel with her eyes, hands, and even her own soul to determine the right degree.
The pa lang salt of the highlanders is usually made from granulated salt. The salt is roasted to make the salt dry and more fragrant. Sitting by the fire, I watched each grain of salt dance on the pan, one grain and another popped in turn. The forest wind blew through the window and then swooped down by the fire, making the fire roar with excitement as if meeting an old friend.
The stage that took away the most tears from the cook was roasting hot chili. On the cold rainy day, sitting by the fire roasting a pan of chili until dry, a bit vapor of hot chili wrapped around the eyes of the cook. Though not feeling sad, tears kept falling like the rain on the hill. The wild pepper was grilled to wake up the aroma. Then salt, chili, and pepper were all pounded finely and left for about 1 hour for the ingredients to cool down before mixing.
For boi tiu pa lang to be delicious, with a mild salty taste, the mixing ratio between ingredients must be balanced, so that each spice can maximize its strong aroma and not be overwhelmed by other flavors. It is the balance that will create a harmony that makes the aftertaste of salt just enough, not too salty, not too light.
Among the spices, pepper is added in the smallest amount, so as not to over dominate the aroma of galangal. Depending on personal tastes, people might grill frogs or fish and then pound it and mix it, making pa lang salt more fragrant and sweeter.
Boi tiu a soanr is made simpler with only four ingredients: table salt, wild chili, wild pepper, and a little MSG. The procedures are the same as how to make palang salt.
A soanr salt is often used for dipping dry meats such as stove-dried pork, buffalo meat, and beef, or meat dishes grilled in bamboo or on leaves. Sometimes when going to the mountain fields, the people also take rice balls with them. At noon, they sit under the tree and eat rice balls with a soanr salt.
Looking at the little salt jar, if one didn't participate in the process of making it, surely no one would know that, creating a salt jar like that is not only hard work from climbing the mountains, wading streams to the forest to find ingredients, but also the time spent sitting by the fire roasting the ingredients. Just like me on that day, just sitting next to the stove as the assistant, how my tears were shed when Mrs. Kan Hia roasted the hot chili by the flickering fire!
Story and photo: Le Ha