7 Dishes Of Dong

Dong is an animal similar to a lizard and lives under the hot sand hills of Ninh Thuan.

It can be said that this province is the only place that Dong is used as food. The meat of this animal is tasty, soft and fragrant, hence it is suitable to be made into various dishes. However, the chefs in Ninh Thuan often use Dong to create a series of 7 best dishes, including salad Dong, grilled chopped Dong, roasted Dong, Dong curry, steamed Dong, Dong with salted vegetable and Dong gruel. The most elaborate one would be salad Dong, which requires a skillful cook with extensive experience.
Photo: dulichninhthuanvietnam.com.vn

Besides Dong, this salad often contains mango, spices, peanut, flavor leaves and is eaten with rice papers. However, the most attractive dishes would be roasted Dong because it preserves almost completely the fresh and original taste of Dong meat. Roasted Dong is used with lemonade and pepper salt, in addition to the Dong mango leaves that makes the typical flavor of the meal. The bones and egg of dong is edible and perfect to be used with medicated liquors. The 7 dishes of Dong have to be eaten in the exact order from salad, steamed, curry, etc... and finally the Dong gruel. This order helps the diners protect their stomach from indigestion as well as to completely be able to taste the flavor of each dish.