Thanh Hoa’s daring specialty — not everyone dares to try, but food connoisseurs say it’s even tastier than shrimp

Made from fresh raw ingredients and not cooked with heat, this Thanh Hoa specialty becomes irresistibly delicious thanks to the chef’s skillful hands, offering a naturally sweet and refreshing flavor that wins over even the most discerning diners.

Nga Son eel salad (goi nhech Nga Son) is a famous specialty of Thanh Hoa Province. It was recognized among the Top 100 Vietnamese Specialty Dishes (2020–2021) by the Vietnam Records Organization (VietKings) and the Vietnam Top Organization (VietTop).

As its name suggests, the dish’s main ingredient is nhech, a type of scaleless fish with slippery skin. It is strong and rather aggressive, resembling an eel but larger in size.

The nhech fish typically grows to about 70 cm long, with a light brown back and belly. It lives in both saltwater and freshwater environments, especially in coastal lagoons and estuaries.

Locals say nhech from Nga Son is of higher quality than those from other regions in Thanh Hoa. Thanks to the local river mouths, estuaries, and marshes, nhech here grows quickly, producing firm, chewy, and fragrant meat.

Because of its strength and slippery nature, catching nhech is not easy. Fishermen usually have to go out to the estuaries and use sturdy, toothed spears or fixed traps. That’s why the price of nhech can be quite high — several hundred thousand dong per kilogram — and it’s not always available to enjoy.

A dish that requires patience and precision

Chef Le Thanh, who has years of experience preparing nhech dishes in Nga Son (Thanh Hoa Province), shared that while nhech can be cooked in many ways, goi nhech (eel salad) remains the most popular and delicious.

However, making this dish is labor-intensive and requires skillful techniques.

Since nhech skin is extremely slippery, it must first be cleaned with diluted lime water or rice husk ash. In some places, people use salt, bamboo leaves, rice leaves, or nhai leaves (a type of local plant) to scrub away the slime and odor.

Once clean, the fish is rinsed with water, then the skin is peeled off, and the belly is slit open to remove the guts, head, and tail.

The next step is filleting the fish to separate the meat from the bones — this must be done quickly and delicately to prevent the meat from breaking apart or sticking with tiny bones.

After that, the fillets are patted dry with a towel or paper to remove all moisture. This ensures that when mixed with other ingredients later, the salad remains dry and flavorful, not soggy.

The meat is then sliced diagonally into thin, long strips and mixed with minced galangal and finely chopped lemongrass. After letting it sit for a while until the fish “cooks” slightly from the natural acids, seasonings are added. Roasted rice powder (thinh gao) is often served separately so diners can mix it in to their liking.

In some local variations, the fish may also be briefly marinated with lime juice to reduce odor and lightly “cook” the flesh. The meat is then squeezed dry before being tossed with roasted rice powder. Despite regional differences in preparation, goi nhech Nga Son always retains its traditional flavor — fresh, sweet, and subtly tangy.

The soul of the dish lies in the cheo dipping sauce

Like many Vietnamese raw fish salads, goi nhech Nga Son is incomplete without its signature dipping sauce, called cheo.

This thick, savory sauce is made from the nhech bones themselves. After filleting, the bones are pounded finely and mixed with pork belly, fermented rice (me chua), egg yolks, and various spices, then cooked over heat until it thickens into a rich, aromatic paste.

Finished cheo has a creamy, slightly brown color, a rich fragrance, and a nutty, fatty taste that perfectly complements the raw fish.

To enjoy the dish, diners take fig leaves (la sung) or other herbs — such as guava leaves, basil, perilla, coriander, pennywort, mint, green banana, or cuc tan leaves — roll them into a small funnel shape, fill them with goi nhech, then drizzle cheo sauce on top. Optional toppings like chili, shallots, galangal, or lemongrass can also be added for an extra kick.

Hoang Nam, a food lover from Hanoi who has tried the dish several times, shared:

“You have to eat a full bite with all the herbs and sauce to appreciate the flavor. The cool, slightly astringent taste of the herbs combines beautifully with the rich, nutty sauce and the chewy sweetness of the fish, along with the heat of chili and galangal. It’s a truly unforgettable specialty — once you try it, you’ll crave it again.”