Thanh Hóa Province

Fermented sour pork rolls from Thanh Hóa - pork pounded with toasted rice powder and wrapped in guava leaves to ferment for three days, developing a tangy, garlicky flavour with a bouncy texture, eaten throughout the province as a snack and considered among the finest nem chua in northern-central Vietnam

Steamed rice rolls with a distinctly thicker, chewier texture than the Hà Nội version - filled with seasoned pork and wood-ear mushroom and served with a sweeter dipping sauce and extra fried shallots, eaten at dawn markets throughout the province as the standard morning meal

Black sticky rice cakes from Tứ Trụ village - gai leaf powder turns the glutinous dough a deep inky black, filled with sweetened coconut and mung bean then wrapped in dong leaves and steamed, a Thanh Hóa specialty with a more intensely herbal gai flavour than other regional versions

Bitter leaf soup from Thanh Hóa's highland districts - wild bitter leaves foraged from mountain forests simmered with pork bones and fermented shrimp paste into a deeply bitter, cleansing broth that Mường and Thai communities drink as both food and medicine, an acquired taste that highland locals crave when away from home

Raw eel salad from Thanh Hóa's coastal estuaries - the eel is sliced thin and cured in lime juice then tossed with green banana, roasted peanuts, fresh herbs, and chilli, a coastal specialty eaten at fishing village restaurants along the Sầm Sơn coastline where the estuary eels are prized for their particularly sweet, clean flesh

Prawn paste grilled on sugarcane skewers over charcoal - fresh prawns from Thanh Hóa's coast are pounded with pork fat and lemongrass then moulded around sugarcane sticks and grilled until golden, the sugarcane sweetening the paste from within as it cooks, eaten wrapped in rice paper with fresh herbs and a tangy dipping sauce