Về Đức La thẩm tương chốn Tổ

Who goes to Yen Tu, Quynh Lam

Vinh Nghiem has not come to meditate yet

It is an old folk song to affirm the position and importance of Vinh Nghiem Pagoda, also known as Duc La Pagoda (Bac Giang) in the flow of Truc Lam Yen Tu Buddhism. Also at this temple, monks still preserve important tips to make a traditional dipping sauce often used by the monks at the meditation gate to receive vegetarian meals early in the afternoon, now a specialty. Many people like it - it's La La.

My hometown in Tri Yen commune, Yen Dung district, Bac Giang province, people still call this the "ancestral place" because it is still regularly bright in the afternoon, the familiar chanting sound echoes in the wind from the ancient temple. Vinh Nghiem - a typical Buddhist cultural work in the Tran dynasty associated with Truc Lam Yen Tu sect founded and developed by Tam To Truc Lam, which still stores a woodblocks repository recognized by UNESCO as a documentary heritage. in Asia and the Pacific region. Tri Yen is a low-lying area lying on the Luc Dau Giang river (Luc Nam river), near the confluence of Phuong Nhan (phoenix eye) - the meeting place of two large rivers (Thuong and Luc Nam rivers) carrying heavy loads. sa for a delta and then to the sea.

If you have the opportunity to make a pilgrimage to the temple, visitors should once enjoy the specialties of La La, the craft products that have been associated with people for a long time. When I was a child, I ate a dish that was rich and full of the flavor of the homeland, the feeling of fatness, richness, sweetness, salty intertwined, melting in the tongue is unforgettable. Although later I had the opportunity to go many times and have enjoyed many kinds of soy sauce in different regions, but perhaps my country still has its own taste and richness. Venerable Thich Thanh Vinh, deputy abbot of Vinh Nghiem pagoda said: Soy sauce is used by the temple regularly in daily vegetarian meals. Over time, the monks staying here have taught the secrets to making delicious soy sauce for Buddhists and people living in the surrounding areas. Therefore, the sauce here is also called La sauce. However, it is also possible due to the influence of the market economy, the rapid development of society with many different sauces, while to make a future batch is very picky, takes a lot of time and effort. so there are times when the whole area only has monks in the temple and a few families still maintain similar jobs to use all year round. And my family is one of them. Many other households quit their jobs. Jars arranged in the garden corner. Stone thrown in the corner of the kitchen.

My mother and my grandmother still said that Tuong is a rustic dish of Vietnamese farmers in the past, which is an indispensable sauce when eating bread, bread, spinach, tomato, boiled meat or according to the experience handed down in Tri Yen, to make a satisfactory batch and in accordance with the old technique, it takes a lot of complicated stages. The ingredients that can not be replaced are yellow rice and yellow beans. First, want to taste good, is to have good ingredients, glutinous rice grain to make sticky rice mold must be regular, not mixed rice, not too white. Formerly, pounding about 600 baseball rice was fine. And now buy any kind of seeds, with yellow and plum color. Another thing is soybeans, must choose small, round seeds, eat fleshy, aromatic and fatty. To have a liter of soy sauce requires 200 grams of soybeans. Even choosing soy sauce to make soy sauce must also pay attention. Good or not also in the water source. In the past, rainwater tools had been stored for a few months or from the village's underground water source, now using tap water and bore water. In general, to make a batch requires a lot of stages which are also important, just one fault is that the batch is of poor quality right away. For example, if the sticky rice is too rotten, the sauce will be black. When the sticky rice is cooked, the soy sauce will be sour. If the roasted beans are too old, the pulp will be black, the color of the soy sauce will be black. If the roasted is too young, the white pulp, the sauce will easily rot ... There is a difficult thing to explain, but only based on folk experience, that is not every jar used to contain also produce similar batches as expected, because That choosing jar is always focused.

My grandmother used to tell my mother when making soy sauce: When the rice is brewed for two days and nights, the sticky rice has white silk mold. At this time, the mold must be molded to the island for the mold to leave each grain and load evenly into the pan, covered with incubated cloth. It was hot and airy. If it's cold, cover an extra sack to keep the heat. According to experience, mold up evenly, discolored areca flower, natural flower is quality. Broken mold is black or red. Next, just mix the mold until the mold wilted like a bird rice, put together without sticking. Then put in a sealed basket for three to four days, depending on the hot or cold weather to make the mold of honey water and place in a jar.

The soy sauce jars must be placed in a shady, moderate temperature. Until it stinks a little unpleasant. The old people have the phrase "cha thiu, rotten mother", which means that mold must be slightly stale, beans must be slightly rotten to make new soy sauce. In the early morning, stirring with chopsticks once and then covering again. Do continuously for 2-3 days. On the 4th and 5th days, we saw the bubbling phenomenon, at that time, we poured the jars containing mold and jars of soaked bean flour into a third jar. Add more water, thick or thin depending on us. Bring the jar to dry daily from 9am to 5pm. Stir once a day, then cover. Only ten days later, we have soy sauce to eat. For as long as the soy sauce.

The ancients had a saying: "Whoever comes to the North looks / The land is good, white rice, clear water" to evoke the richness, diversity and appeal that traditional dishes of Bac Giang people. In addition to containing physical elements, my hometown also contains intangible culinary culture, which is the knowledge, know-how, talent in the processing of the ancients. And of course, to get that sauce, the people of my country also have to pour effort and the grave. People in the region have distilled the methods and methods of making delicious sauce of the temple and in folk to inherit and develop into similar products from near and far.

In order to preserve and develop traditional making craft in the ancestral land, for many years in Thanh Long village, Tri Yen commune, Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan's family has established the Tri Yen Agro-forestry Service Cooperative. He was the head of the committee and attracted a number of households in the commune to participate. Mr. Tuan's family has invested several hundred million dong, personally he went to Nghe An to buy dozens of crockery pots to store soy sauce. The soy sauce profession has been restored to diversify products for tourism, meeting the needs of tourists visiting the ruins of Vinh Nghiem Pagoda, and creating jobs and income for local people. In 2014, the People's Committee of Yen Dung district supported VND 70 million for Mr. Tuan to implement a project of restoring and developing delicious soy sauce products here. This amount is mainly for people to buy jars, jars and nong nia to make soy sauce. Currently, each year, his family produces more than 5 thousand liters of soy sauce (VND 40,000 / liter) mainly for sale to local people and tourists. And specialties of La La are the products that many people look for if they have the opportunity to make a pilgrimage to Vinh Nghiem.