After harvesting, the people in Tay Bac use the sticky rice to cook Lam rice in bamboo tube served with sesame or grilled fish and can be taken to anywhere.
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Coming to Tay Bac in the beginning of the winter, you have to find newly Lam sticky rice which is processed in a simple way right on the rice field without any pot. They use the bamboo tube to baked rice and catch the fish on the stream to grill on fire.
The new sticky rice can be mixed with purple sticky rice (or nep cam in Vietnamese), added salt and ginger, then immersed overnight and put into bamboo tubes with water. All types of bamboo tubes can be used for this food as long as they have a suitable freshness and thickness. As experienced, 25 cm – 30 cm bamboo tubes are the most suitable ones to make Lam rice.
The rice is grilled on the hot coal and continuously rotated to make the rice well-done and not burned. The delicious Lam rice is very sticky and has the special flavor of fresh bamboo.
The people in Tay Bac often eat hot Lam rice with salt and sesame, grilled fish or pig which are put into banana leaves. Thai people eat Lam rice with “cham cheo”- a special spicy made from salt, chili, garlic and “mac ken”. The restaurants serving Lam rice for tourists also have grilled hill chicken with honey, grilled beef in bamboo tube and Can wine. Surrounding the fire and enjoying the specialties of mountain will be a unforgettable memory in the trip of exploring Tay Bac.
The provinces such as Yen Bai, Son La, Lao Cai… serve rice and grilled chicken in the restaurants in the center area or tourist destinations such as Sapa, Mu Cang Chai and Tu Le. The nearest place in Hanoi is Lac village in Mai Chau (Hoa Binh) where you can enjoy this dish. You can eat this food in meals or take away with the price of about 10,000VND per tube.