Besides magnificent natural scenery and diverse ethnic minority groups, Ha Giang is also well-known for its rich cuisine. Visiting Ha Giang, you will find a variety of unique and flavorful dishes that reflect the region's cultural heritage and agricultural traditions. Let’s find the top 09 must-try local foods in Ha Giang with Handspan Travel Indochina!

In this blog post, we will explore these dishes below.

Thang co

Thang co is one of the popular foods in Ha Giang that you may want to try. This dish includes horse, beef, pork, or buffalo meat and its organs. Besides the meat's tasty flavor, broth is a particular characteristic of this food. To make the broth, local people use 12 different spices, such as pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, etc. You may find this dish strange; however, if you want to know more about the locals, it is really worth trying. 

Thang Co Ha Giang

You can find many restaurants selling Thang co in Ha Giang. However, the Dong Van Market, held once a week on Sunday, is one of the ideal places to enjoy this food. The market is one of the largest and most well-known markets in Ha Giang. Coming here, you can find various stalls selling different types of products. Especially, the Thang Co is a highlight in the market. It is extremely exciting to sit around the pot and enjoy a bowl of Thang Co while talking with the locals. A bowl of Thang co takes you about VND 30,000 - VND 50,000. Let’s try Thang co, one of the unique foods in Ha Giang, and learn about local people’s cultural beauty!

Buckwheat flower cake

If you travel to Ha Giang during the buckwheat flower season, from October to December, you should not miss trying the buckwheat flower cake. It is among the special foods in Ha Giang that impresses tourists with its fragrant, slightly sweet taste. 

Buckwheat flower cake

To make the buckwheat flower cake, local people grind the buckwheat grains into flour. The mixture of buckwheat flour, sugar, water, and sometimes a bit of rice flour is steamed until it becomes a soft and spongy cake. You can find buckwheat flower cake at any local market in Ha Giang, and it cost you just VND 10,000 for a round cake. 

Au tau porridge 

Au tau porridge is also one of the worth-trying foods in Ha Giang. The main ingredient of this dish is the au tau tubers, a unique tuber only found in Northern Vietnam’s mountainous areas. The au tau tuber is poisonous; however, under the Hmong people in Ha Giang’s process, the au tau porridge becomes a specialty in Ha Giang. The bitter taste of Au tau tuber, combined with the aroma of pork and spices, creates an unforgettable flavor.

Au tau porridge

Besides the impressive flavor, au tau porridge is extremely good for health and helps against joint pain. It is better to use au tau porridge at night, which helps you to calm down and have deeper sleep. A bowl of au tau porridge costs you from VND 30,000 to VND 50,000. Below are some places you can enjoy the food.

• Huong Restaurant: Group 5 Tran Hung Dao, Nguyen Trai, Ha Giang
• Hoa The Restaurant: 4C Highway, Meo Vac Town, Meo Vac, Ha Giang
• Thuy Linh Restaurant: Group 10 Nguyen Viet Xuan, Tran Phu, Ha Giang Town, Ha Giang
• Ngan Ha Restaurant: 161 Tran Hung Dao, Tran Phu, Ha Giang 

Let’s take a try and see how this food tastes!

Five-colored glutinous rice

Among the local foods in Ha Giang, five-colored glutinous rice is an attractive food for its glistening colors. Local people serve it as a dessert during special occasions such as festivals, weddings, and Lunar New Year celebrations.

Five-colored glutinous rice

Five-colored glutinous rice is made from glutinous rice mixed with natural colors from different ingredients. The natural ingredients used include leaves of the Magenta plant for purple, Gac fruit for red, Pandanus leaf for green, Turmeric for yellow and Steamed soaked pea flower for blue. These five colors are not only beautiful but also meaningful. They symbolize five basic elements on Earth in the Yin and Yang philosophy, including wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. You can try five-colored glutinous rice at local markets, food stalls, and restaurants throughout the province, especially during special occasions and festivals. 

Smoked buffalo meat

Smoked buffalo meat, or Thit trau gac bep in Vietnamese, is one of the popular foods in Ha Giang for the Thai people. The meat is first cut into thin slices and marinated in a mixture of spices and seasonings such as salt, garlic, ginger, and lemongrass. The marinated meat is then hung over a fire made with a combination of different woods such as bamboo, lychee, and chestnut, and smoked for several hours until it has a distinct smoky flavor and aroma. You can try smoked buffalo meat at local markets, food stalls, and restaurants throughout Ha Giang, especially in the towns of Dong Van and Meo Vac. 

Smoked buffalo meat

Ha Giang steamed rice rolls (Banh cuon)

Steamed rice roll (Banh cuon) is also among the attractive foods in Ha Giang. Like Vietnamese steamed rice rolls, the rolled rice cake in Ha Giang is also made from rice flour, ground pork, wood ear mushrooms, and other spices. However, in Ha Giang, local people don’t use fish sauce to make the dipping sauce. Instead, they use Banh cuon with bone broth stew, onions, and coriander.

Ha Giang steamed rice rolls

Trying a bowl of the hot steamed rice roll served with hot broth is an ideal choice in the cold weather of Ha Giang. You can find steamed rice rolls at local markets, food stalls, and restaurants. Here are some choices for you. 

• Banh cuon ba Ha: 31 Pho Co, Dong Van District, Ha Giang 
• Ngan Nga Sung Dung Lu Restaurant: Sung Dung Lu, Dong Van Town, Dong Van District, Ha Giang
• Banh cuon ba Bich: 29 Pho Co, Dong Van District, Ha Giang

Let’s visit Ha Giang and try this unique cuisine!

Thang Den

Among the foods in Ha Giang, Thang Den is extremely suitable to try on winter days when the weather is cold. Local people soak the Yen Minh glutinous rice in water for a night, then grind the rice into flour. The flour then will be mixed with water and molded into small balls and boiled until the cake is cooked. Inside the sticky glutinous rice balls, there are different kinds of fillings, like green beans and red beans. Besides the sweet taste of the cake filling and the aroma of the sticky rice, Thang Den is also special in sweetened soup made from apricot blossom sugar, coconut, and ginger. You can try this dish in Dong Van Old Town, at weekly fairs, or along busy streets in Ha Giang’s city center. Each bowl of Thang Den costs from VND 10,000.

Thang Den Ha Giang

Sour Pho (Pho chua)

Sour Pho is also one of the attractive foods in Ha Giang, with a unique flavor and an excellent combination of local ingredients. The locals make this food with rice noodles, pork, tomatoes, bean sprouts, and various spices and herbs. 

Sour Pho Ha Giang

To have the featured taste of sour pho, local people make sour and spicy soup from vinegar mixed with sugar, and tapioca. The soup is then flavored with tamarind, chili peppers, fish sauce, and other herbs and spices. A bowl of pho chua has many toppings served with, such as sliced char siu meat, sausage, roasted duck, carrot, cucumber, and papaya. Sour pho is a popular street food in Ha Giang; therefore, you can find this dish at any local market, food stall, and restaurant in the region. 

Bac Me bamboo rice (Com lam Bac Me)

Bac Me bamboo rice is also among the must-try foods in Ha Giang. The food is made with glutinous rice and cooked inside bamboo tubes. The dish has a harmonious and delicate combination of sticky rice and bamboo flavor.

The ingredients are extremely important to have a tasty tube of bamboo rice. Local people choose the firm, delicious, and fragrant upland glutinous rice and take the water from ravines, and streams to create the featured aroma of Bac Me bamboo rice. After putting rice and water into the tube with one mouth covered by dong or banana leaves, local people will place these tubes over a fire stove and cook them for about one hour until the rice is tender.  This dish can be served with sesame salt, grilled meat, or fish.

Bac Me bamboo rice

You can try this dish as a snack or as part of a meal. Let’s taste Bac Me bamboo rice and enjoy its delicate flavor and texture!

In conclusion, you have just known about the 09 must-try foods in Ha Giang. Hope that these pieces of information will be helpful for you. For more detailed information about Ha Giang, please read our blog post: Ha Giang travel guide: Things you should know before you travel to Ha Giang. Also, here are some Ha Giang tour packages from Handspan you can refer to. 

 

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