UNIQUE BAN SOY SAUCE VILLAGE

Hung Yen is a delta province in the North, having a favorable road, waterway and railway system for social, cultural and economic exchanges and development.

Ban soy sauce is so popular because it is made from large-grain sticky rice, small-grain soy bean, and in particular dinged-well water. There is only one well in Ban Village to supply the water to make the soy sauce, which is its sole purpose. Therefore, coming to Ban village to witness the sauce’s production in Hung Yen is recommended to tourists as it is a fascinating sight around harvest time.

Making soy sauce is not difficult but making Ban soy sauce is an art-form. Producers have to wash the rice carefully then soak it in water and cooked into sticky rice, next scatter the sticky rice onto a large bamboo flat basket and dry it in an airy place until the rice turns yellow. Soy beans must be roasted until the bean is brown and then the beans are soaked in a clean jar for one week. After the beans have fermented, producers will add a little salt and more soy beans into the water and stir regularly. The sauce must be fermented on sunny days.

Pho Hien also has stunning Vietnamese architecture, which is decorated with the colors of folk belief and religion, and some are considered high in artistic value. Along with their architectural features, these relics have preserved utensils for religious offerings, palanquins, hammocks, horizontal lacquered boards and many pairs of wood panels with skillfully-inscribed parallel sentences.

More importantly, the relics of Pho Hien preserve their innate ancient beauty. With the wet rice civilization and culture, we catch the colors of bronze, stone, wood, tile and soil on each roof, door and path, which create a sense of immortality of each relic.

(Source: Cinet)