Crispy, fried and packed full of worms: Hanoi’s cha ruoi rag worm fritters are a winter foodie favorite in the Vietnamese capital, but the deep-fried delights are not for the squeamish.
The piping hot patties are made with pork, egg, fresh dill, citrus rind and a hefty handful of fried worms and served up from street food stalls and home kitchens across northern Vietnam.
The edible critters flood farmers’ fields as temperatures in the north drop in October and November.
Photo: AFP
Purveyors of the snack, which cost about US$1 each, urge customers not to be put off by the sinuous insides.
“It looks ugly, but don’t be afraid,” said Bui Thi Nga, whose family has served up the speciality for 30 years.
“The insides are delicious and they’re high in protein,” she told reporters from her Old Quarter stall on a chilly afternoon earlier this month.
The worms can also be stewed in a sticky caramel sauce, stirred with herbs or mixed with chilies to make a spicy condiment.
However, rag worm fritters — best prepared while the wriggling worms are still alive — have long been a favorite.
The pancake-shaped patties have been made in northern Vietnam for generations and are even credited with keeping married couples happy.
“If a couple misses even a bite of cha ruoi during the season, not only will the wife lament, but the husband will surely complain,” author Vu Bang wrote his his 1952 book Hanoi Delicacies.
Although Vietnamese cuisine is best known outside its borders for pho noodle soup and banh mi pate baguettes, winter fritters are not the only dishes to feature creepy-crawlies. Deep fried crickets, squirming coconut worm larvae, locusts and stink bugs are all on offer on Vietnamese menus.
Chefs from Paris to Sao Paulo have embraced the trend, dishing up grasshoppers or scorpions as a cheap and sustainable source of protein.
In Hanoi, cha ruoi will no doubt remain a cold-weather staple.
“I like eating cha ruoi in the winter. You’ve got the sweet-and-sour flavor from the dipping sauce, and the herbs are cooling ... it is very unique,” Hoang Thi Thu Hang told reporters.
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India. The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope. The weather department warned that conditions would likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses. India declares a heat wave whenever maximum temperatures
BIGGER ROLE: Beijing has said it maintains an impartial stance on the war in Ukraine, but by training Russian troops, China is far more involved than previously known China’s armed forces secretly trained about 200 Russian military personnel in China late last year, and some have since returned to fight in Ukraine, according to three European intelligence agencies and documents seen by Reuters. While China and Russia have held a number of joint military exercises since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Beijing has repeatedly said that it is neutral in the conflict and presents itself as a peace mediator. The covert training sessions, which predominantly focused on the use of drones, were outlined in a dual-language Russian-Chinese agreement signed by senior Russian and Chinese officers in Beijing on
RSS