The towns of the Mekong Delta were not quite what I expected. They weren't small towns with a slow, bucolic pace. This was developing industry, smoke-ridden, motorbike-riding commerce. Luckily for us – because we live in smoke-ridden industry and see a power plant from our window – we managed to get into a sleepier part of the Mekong.
When our guide told us we were going to a coconut candy factory I bristled a little and had visions of an industry for the foreigners, and tourism by rote. What we actually found was a small hut on the banks of the Mekong, replete with the hulling of coconuts and the manufacture of candy by hand by a whole family.
They use only older coconuts – young ones are the green coconuts you drink the water from – and the older ones are the fibrous, brown coconuts with harder flesh. This is then caramelized and spun over a fire. Then the gooey mess is spread over some rubber and pushed by hand into wooden slats to create a uniform shape and size. Once it has cooled it is then cut by hand into pieces, wrapped with homemade rice paper and then in paper.
The result is candy that I have been eating everyday, and I don't normally eat candy. But this is not overly sweet with a very satisfying chewiness, and the most wonderful caramel-like smoky flavor, that comes from cooking it over an open flame. I can't stop eating them, and unfortunately when they're gone, it's going to be quite impossible to get more. Unless of course, I go back to the Mekong.
Yum!
It reminds me of a candy we have here in Brazil called "cocada".
Posted by: Patricia Scarpin | January 24, 2008 at 07:11 AM
Beautiful photographs you take.
Posted by: Pazoy | May 04, 2008 at 08:23 PM