The special dishes made from ant eggs

In Lang Son, when it comes to dishes with bold flavors of the mountains, in addition to wormwood cakes, chili bamboo shoots, roasted duck with Clausena indica leaves, there are also delicious dishes made from ant eggs with a fragrant, greasy flavor, once eaten, you will remember forever.

From ant eggs to make delicious dishes are eggs of black ants, small bodies, pointed tails. This species of ants often nests and lays eggs on tree branches in the forest, so when people go to “hunt” ant eggs, they often have to go to the forest with many bush trees… The ant egg season only lasts from February to March of the lunar calendar, each nest gives from 0.1kg-0.2kg of eggs. Every time people go to the forest to find ant nests, people can harvest 1 to 2 kg of ant eggs, the price of ant eggs is about 350,000 VND / kg depending on the time. In Lang Son, ant eggs are often sold in many districts: Binh Gia, Van Lang, Trang Dinh, Bac Son…

Sticky rice cake with ant eggs

Black ant eggs are milky white, succulent, almost as big as a grain of rice and have a high protein content, good for health, so this is a raw material to make many attractive dishes, the most popular of which is ant egg cake, sticky rice with ant eggs, ant egg pork roll.

The main ingredients to make ant egg cake include Ficus auriculata leaves, kitchen powder and ant egg filling. The crust is made from clean glutinous rice, soaked overnight, then ground into powder. The ant egg filling is likened to the “soul” of this dish. Mrs.Hoang Thuy Nga, That Khe town, Trang Dinh district said: After the ant eggs are collected, they are screened cleanly, removed impurities and carefully choose round, plump white eggs. To make the cake more attractive and rich, I often stir-fry ant eggs with minced meat, seasoning with a little spice. Normally, for every 0.1kg of ant eggs, I will make about 10 cakes, each cake sells for 10,000 to 15,000 VND depending on the size of the cake.

Sticky rice with ant eggs

Unlike sticky rice cakes wrapped with banana leaves or Phrynium placentarium leaves, ant egg cakes are wrapped with young Ficus auriculata leaves because this is a type of leaf that has a cool taste, has a cooling effect, and is good for health. After being wrapped, the cake will be steamed for 35 to 40 minutes. This cake has a delicious, greasy taste from the combination of ant eggs and minced meat, the softness of glutinous rice flour, the stickiness of Ficus auriculata leaves.

Different from the fussiness of ant egg sticky rice cake, ant egg meat roll is the perfect choice for families because of its deliciousness and ease of making. The main ingredients to make ant egg rolls are: ant eggs, minced meat, Piper sarmentosum leaves and seasonings. After preparing the ingredients, families often mix the ingredients and marinate for about 15 minutes to infuse, can add scallions and a little chopped Piper sarmentosum leaves to marinate according to the taste of each family.

After the ingredients have been absorbed, the mixture of Piper sarmentosum leaves has just been marinated into evenly spaced rolls and then fried in a pan of hot oil. When eaten, the meat roll has the sweetness of meat, the greasy taste of ant eggs, in addition to the aroma of Piper sarmentosum leaves and pepper.

Delicious dishes from ant eggs are loved by tourists inside and outside the province. Mrs. Le Thi Lien, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi city said: Having the opportunity to come to Lang Son at the beginning of April 2023, our group enjoyed ant egg sticky rice and ant egg meat roll, I felt the food was very delicious and strange. After enjoying and asking about how to make, I bought ant eggs to make this dish myself for my family to enjoy.

The chef of Dong Que restaurant, Trang Dinh district is arranging a dish with ant eggs meat roll

In addition, ant eggs are also processed into a few other dishes such as: roasted ant eggs with lemon leaves, crispy fish with ant egg soup, fried fish ball with ant egg…

Despite being a nutritious ingredient, ant eggs are high in protein, high in tryptophan and some amino acids, so they can cause allergies in some people. Therefore, if diners have allergies, they should consider before enjoying dishes from ant eggs.

The season of ant eggs is coming to an end, if anyone has never tried dishes from ant eggs, then come to Lang Son to enjoy the delicious, strange mouth that ant eggs bring. Believe that, anyone who once enjoys ant egg meat rolls, ant egg sticky rice, ant egg sticky rice cake… will remember and never forget.

Ant egg meat rolls