Spices
In Vietnam, people donât talk a lot about spices, Vietnamese people prefer herbs and nuoc mam and some fresh spices such as gingember, curcuma, chilli and pepper.
But what people usually donât know is that Vietnamese minorities cook and treat diseases with spices since very long time, for example with talauma or pepper from mountain tops. Most popular spices of the minorities are black cardamom and star anise which are only on cloudy plateaux from the North.
There are two ranges of spices at Verticale. The first one are spices that are usually used in daily Vietnamese cuisine (cinnamon, nuoc mam, star anise, turmeric, ginger...). The second range are rare spices that come from remote regions, mountains or from the minorities.
We have a lot of rare spices, they are:
- Wild honey
- Two gingers honey
- Ginger and citrus honey
- 5 spices Tonkin honey
- Nuoc mam 15 years
- Nuoc mam salt
- Pollen from the forest
- Fresh star anise (anise of 15 years in general)
- Fresh coriander seeds in salted water (also called Caviar from the gardens),
- Ambrette
- Wild pepper (also called pepper from mountain tops)
- Pepper from Phu Quoc Island
- Minoritiesâs spice
- Talauma
Talauma:
It's a rare spice from a tree that can reach 20m high found in the North Vietnam. The picking is in September and October. This tree is threatened because of its precious wood, the cutting of its wood continues although the government is banning it. The seeds of this tree have to be on the market and people have to say about the problem to save the species.
The Talauma seed (that women like its little anise smell) is used in cooking by populations in the mountains for game and buffalo meal.
I use the Talauma powder with braised foie fras or for veal sweetbread. Of course itâs ideal for game. I have a friend that put it on the scallop. I find that on fish it calls for travelâ¦"
Some of these spices are usually used in daily Vietnamese cuisine and the others only at La Verticale...
| Spices | Ingredients | How to use | Weight | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cinnamon (Cannelle) | Soft from North Vietnam |
For dessert
and marinated meat and fish
|
25gr | 3.5USD |
| Curry d'Halong | Coriander, turmeric, star anise, spices |
For fish and seafood
good for sauce
|
25gr | 3.5USD |
| Pho | Anise, cinnamon, ginger, black cardamom |
For âphoâ soup, sauted beef
and seasoning steak
|
25gr | 3.5USD |
| Retour des minorités |
Talauma, wild pepper, black cardamom,
minoritiesâ spicies
|
For marinated and seasoning pork
and venison
|
25gr | 4.5USD |
| Hanoi 5 spices |
Anise, cinnamon, black
cardamom, pepper, ginger
|
For seasoning, marinated
and roasted pork, veal
|
25gr | 3.5USD |
| âNuoc mamâ salt | From Cat Hai | For last minute salad and fish | 25gr | 3.5USD |
| Chilli salt | Red chilli from Center Vietnam | For raw vegetable and green fruits | 25gr | 3.5USD |
| Corlou 3 peppers |
Wild pepper, white and black
pepper from Phu Quoc
|
To crush last minute on salad, meat | 80gr | 4.5USD |
| Coriander (Coriandre) | Selected from North Vietnam | Good for salad and fish | 25gr | 3.5USD |
| Turmeric (Curcuma) | Selected from North Vietnam | Good for fish, colored sauce and rice | 25gr | 3.5USD |
| Red Chilli (Piment fort) | From Center Vietnam | To spice your sauce | 25gr | 3.5USD |
| Star anise (Badiance) | From North Vietnam | Good for fish, consommé and dessert | 25gr | 3.5USD |
| Clous de girofle (Clove) | From North Vietnam | For soup and marinated meat | 25gr | 3.5USD |
| Black cardamom | Light spice from North Vietnam | For soup, sauted beef and pork | 25gr | 3.5USD |
| Ginger (Gingembre) | From North Vietnam | For seafood, fish and sauted vegetable | 25gr | 4.5USD |
| Black sesame | From North Vietnam | For salad and dessert | 25gr | 3.5USD |
| White sesame | From North Vietnam | For salad and dessert | 25gr | 3.5USD |
The last secrets from the DC's laboratory:
- Minority salt
- Fresh star anis in alcohol
- Nha Trang salt (Seaweed and salt)
- Red Apron salt (Merlot red wine and salt)
- Pagoda salt (White seasame, peanuts and salt)
- Soya salt (Soya and salt)
We would like to introduce you Helvetas :
The Swiss Intercooporation was founded in 1955 as the first private Swiss organisation for development cooperation. Helvetas is a not for profit, non partisan, politically and denominationally independent association supported by 43,000 members.
They implemented the "Eco-cocoa program" in Vietnam, for an organic and fair-trade cocoa :
The objective of this program is to increase the living standards of the rural population in the southern regions of Vietnam and to contribute to establish sustainable certified cocoa value chains inselected provinces of the Mekong River delta area (Tien Giang and Ben Tre).
We support Helvetas and if you would like to get a fair-trade cocoa from Vietnam, we sell it at La Verticale.
