Huong Tram Restaurant located in area E, Dong Quang Lake, Quang Tien, Soc Son, Hanoi is an interesting destination that my friends and I chose to visit. Soc Son is a district of Hanoi city, where most of the area is mountains and forests, so there are many eco-tourism areas and camping activities. Taking advantage of the fresh, relaxing nature, Huong Tram restaurant is an ideal stop for those who want to rest, relax and enjoy Northern cuisine. It will be great when you can enjoy everything here with family and relatives
Huong Tram Restaurant is located next to Dong Quan Lake, the restaurant's space is surrounded by beautiful, cool natural landscape with many trees. The big plus point of Huong Tram is that it has a spacious and airy play area for children such as slides, ball houses, ferris wheel,...For mothers, Hương Tràm is the perfect spot for Instagram-worthy check-ins with its beautiful and impressive ambiance. Beyond just a restaurant, Hương Tràm also offers exciting experiences with rural products, especially the specialty of Dong Quan Lake braised fish - a hometown delicacy of Sóc Sơn, promising guests a taste of the rich flavors of the countryside.
With a diverse menu ranging from typical river fish dishes to famous Sóc Sơn hill chicken dishes, Hương Tràm promises to bring diners unique and impressive culinary experiences.
Moreover, the restaurant's location near Thanh Gióng Temple and the Bản Rõm Ecotourism Area, Phủ Thành Chương, is a major advantage, allowing visitors to combine sightseeing and activities in the same day.
The space of Hương Tràm Restaurant is designed like a traditional stilt house with thatched roofs, coconut, and palm leaves, creating a cozy and intimate atmosphere close to nature. Each area is discreetly distributed, providing privacy for guests, suitable for birthday parties, company gatherings, or family reunions. We booked 8 tables here, with delicious dishes including: grilled chicken, fish rolled with vegetables, lotus root salad, fried pigeon, fried corn, tomato pineapple soup, Rice cake, dried buffalo meat, pork rinds with tomato sauce.
"Gác bếp" meat (dried buffalo meat or dried beef meat) is one of the precious specialties of the ethnic groups in the Northwestern region of Vietnam. The main ingredient of this dish is meat from buffaloes and cows living naturally in the mountainous areas of this region. To obtain the best gác bếp meat, people often select muscle meat, a type of meat without tendons and has been refined, removing fat.
During the cooking process, the meat is cut into long small strips about 20 cm long and 5 cm thick. Then, the meat is carefully marinated with natural spices such as chili, ginger, and "mắc khén" - a characteristic type of pepper of the ethnic minority groups in the highlands of Northwest Vietnam. These spices not only create a distinctive flavor but also remain intact on each piece of meat, creating richness and appeal.
What's special about gác bếp meat is the completely natural cooking process, without using any preservatives, which can be preserved for about a month. After being cooked, gác bếp meat is often shredded and drizzled with lime juice to be eaten with flavorful chili sauce, creating a unique and enjoyable culinary experience.
I had a period of disdain for chicken due to the Vietnamese New Year celebration, where the main dish was chicken. We had to eat chicken every day during that time, which made me dread chicken dishes. I thought I wouldn't eat chicken for a year; however, the grilled chicken at Huong Tram Restaurant changed my mind. The grilled chicken here has a super crispy brown skin, and the meat inside is both tender and juicy, with a delightful sweetness. Each bite of the chicken is fragrant and delicious, completely different from my dreadful imagination of chicken dishes. Pigeon meat was also delicious, with crispy skin on the outside and tender meat on the inside. This dish was very popular with children.
Grilled fish was also an interesting dish that one should not miss. The fish, caught from Dong Quan Lake, had firm meat, unlike industrially raised fish with a fragile texture and mushy meat. The fish was grilled with small baskets of galangal and served with cucumbers, carrots, radishes, green bananas, and herbs. It was accompanied by rice vermicelli, rolled in thin rice paper, and dipped in soy sauce or fish sauce.I had mentioned too many meat dishes, haha. Vietnamese cuisine always prioritizes refreshing and less fatty dishes with vegetables and roots as the main ingredients. The next dish I wanted to introduce was crispy pork belly served with lettuce and coriander. The pork belly was diced into small squares, then fried until crispy and cooked with sweet tomato sauce. It was served with various fresh vegetables to balance the fatty flavor. If there were no vegetables on the table, we couldn't eat anything because it would have made us feel indigestible. Therefore, meat dishes always had to be balanced with vegetable dishes.
The crispy lotus stem salad was crunchy, fresh, delicious, and had many health benefits, so we didn't miss it when we had the chance to visit this place. Lotus stem is the root part of the lotus plant, cylindrical in shape, with a tough brown outer layer and a soft, white, spongy inner part. So when you buy it, you need to remove the outer part and only take the white inner part, then soak it in salted water to remove impurities. The lotus stem salad at Huong Tram Restaurant was combined with carrots, aromatic herbs, topped with peanuts, creating an ultra-crispy dish with a sour, spicy, sweet, salty flavor. When eating, it gave a refreshing and invigorating feeling.
Canh chua ( Sour soup) is a dish that is essential in Vietnamese meals, whether it's in family dinners or upscale banquets. Unlike thick soups in European cuisine, Vietnamese soups are typically thin, with the main ingredients being vegetables, broth, and various spices. Vietnamese soups serve to cleanse the palate, making it easier for people to swallow while eating. At Huong Tram Restaurant, we ordered one pot of canh chua for each table. Canh chua typically includes tomatoes and pineapples to create a sour taste, cooked with Colocasia gigantea - a vegetable with a crispy texture. The sour taste of canh chua is refreshing and brings a sense of relief, especially when eaten with vermicelli. This is a common dish in Vietnam, often enjoyed during the summer to cool down the body.
I had a very good experience at Huong Tram culinary restaurant. The food was delicious, abundant, and reasonably priced. If I had gone during the day, I would probably have been able to see more scenery.
**This article has images and content 100% from me @a-alice!!**
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