Exploring the Culinary Culture of Mường Ethnicity – Tân Sơn, Phú Thọ

Alongside the Kinh people, the Mường people have settled in the mountainous districts of Tân Sơn, Thanh Sơn, Yên Lập on the midland land for centuries, forming a significant proportion of the population. Despite the passage of time, the Mường people have retained many traditional customs and unique, distinctive dishes.

When visiting Tân Sơn, travelers will immerse themselves in the majestic natural scenery, with beautiful and enchanting Long Cốc tea hills or Xuân Sơn National Park, a place with a fresh ecological environment and diverse natural landscapes. It’s an opportunity to soak up the vibrant atmosphere with folk tunes and songs expressing the simplicity and innocence of the Mường people. However, the experience would be incomplete without savoring the “mâm cỗ lá” – a symbolic representation of the traditional cuisine of the Mường people.

Culinary Heritage on Leaves – Mường Ethnic Style

“Cỗ lá” simply refers to a feast arranged on leaves. This is the primitive culinary culture of the Mường people, which has been preserved in various rituals, festivals, weddings, and funerals. The Mường people’s dishes are often prepared from forest ingredients, transformed by the skillful hands of the locals into specialties with the unique flavor of the mountains and forests.

The main ingredients for the feast can be chicken, pork, beef, or buffalo, but the most common is Mán pig – a type of pig weighing only 15-30kg. These pigs are raised freely in the mountains, feeding on corn, sweet potatoes, and grass, resulting in firm, lean meat with a natural sweet fragrance. Another special dish is the legendary “gà nhiều cựa” (chicken with many spurs), raised in a semi-wild manner without industrial feed. These chickens grow slowly, taking a year to reach 1.2-1.5 kg, resulting in delicious and firm meat. In addition to pork and chicken, a must-have in the “cỗ lá” is grilled stream fish, caught from natural streams and grilled over charcoal.

Intertwined with meat dishes are bamboo shoots, various forest vegetables, fern salad, and raw vegetables. “Cỗ lá” also includes sticky rice, representing the essence of the land and forest. The sticky rice is carefully cooked and wrapped in banana leaves, creating a square shape. If during major festivals, the Mường people often make multicolored sticky rice with five colors: green, red, purple, yellow, and white, creating a beautiful and eye-catching display. Each feast is also adorned with a plate of banana flower stir-fry and one or two bowls of “canh loóng chuối” – a soup made from young banana plants, thinly sliced and cooked in broth. This soup has a sweet and rich flavor and is an indispensable dish in the feast.

The final touch is the seasoning with roasted or grilled salt combined with dổi seeds – black seeds with a fragrant aroma, roasted on red charcoal and crushed. The dổi salt enhances the flavor, adding depth to the “cỗ lá” and is an essential part of the Mường people’s feast.

Especially, “cỗ lá” is arranged on banana leaves, which is a unique feature in the cuisine of the Mường people in Tân Sơn. The leaves used to set the feast are from wild banana trees, a type of small banana with a distinctive aroma, symbolizing the close connection of the inhabitants with the mountains and forests.

The “cỗ lá” in Tân Sơn is a typical and unique cultural beauty of the Mường people. At first glance, the feast seems simple, but it turns out to be quite intricate because, through it, the Mường people convey their community spirit, mutual affection, family values, and more. The “cỗ lá” reflects the adaptability of the community, the familial bond, and cultural norms, all of which contribute to the survival and development of the community.

“Cỗ lá” continues to exist daily in the villages of the Mường people in Tân Sơn. Enjoying a “cỗ lá” feast is not just about savoring the unique taste of the dishes complemented by dổi salt, but also experiencing the rustic, sincere emotions of the people through the arrangement of the feast. It is an opportunity to sense the rituals, culture, and etiquette through the presentation and reverence of food on the “cỗ lá.”

If you have the chance to visit Tân Sơn, you can experience a tea tour to Long Cốc, visit Xuân Sơn National Park, and indulge in a “cỗ lá” feast with delicious and authentic Mường dishes. You will truly appreciate the profound meaning and the simple beauty of the Mường feast, discovering the unique indigenous culinary and cultural experience along with the breathtaking natural landscapes, and the down-to-earth, friendly locals will surely satisfy any traveler who sets foot in this place.