Besides magnificent natural scenery and diverse ethnic minority groups, Ha Giang is also well-known for its rich cuisine. Visiting Ha Giang, you will find a variety of unique and flavorful dishes that reflect the region’s cultural heritage and agricultural traditions. Let’s find the top 06 must-try local foods in Ha Giang with Focus Asia Travel!

Thang Co

Thang co is one of the popular foods in Ha Giang that you may want to try. This dish includes horse, beef, pork, or buffalo meat and its organs. Besides the meat’s tasty flavor, broth is a particular characteristic of this food. To make the broth, local people use 12 different spices, such as pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, etc. You may find this dish strange; however, if you want to know more about the locals, it is really worth trying.

You can find many restaurants selling Thang co in Ha Giang. However, the Dong Van Market, held once a week on Sunday, is one of the ideal places to enjoy this food. The market is one of the largest and most well-known markets in Ha Giang. Coming here, you can find various stalls selling different types of products. Especially, the Thang Co is a highlight in the market. It is extremely exciting to sit around the pot and enjoy a bowl of Thang Co while talking with the locals. A bowl of Thang co takes you about VND 30,000 – VND 50,000. Let’s try Thang co, one of the unique foods in Ha Giang, and learn about local people’s cultural beauty!

Buckwheat flower cake

If you travel to Ha Giang during the buckwheat flower season, from October to December, you should not miss trying the buckwheat flower cake. It is among the special foods in Ha Giang that impresses tourists with its fragrant, slightly sweet taste.

To make the buckwheat flower cake, local people grind the buckwheat grains into flour. The mixture of buckwheat flour, sugar, water, and sometimes a bit of rice flour is steamed until it becomes a soft and spongy cake. You can find buckwheat flower cake at any local market in Ha Giang, and it cost you just VND 10,000 for a round cake.

Au tau porridge

Au tau porridge is also one of the worth-trying foods in Ha Giang. The main ingredient of this dish is the au tau tubers, a unique tuber only found in Northern Vietnam’s mountainous areas. The au tau tuber is poisonous; however, under the Hmong people in Ha Giang’s process, the au tau porridge becomes a specialty in Ha Giang. The bitter taste of Au tau tuber, combined with the aroma of pork and spices, creates an unforgettable flavor.

Besides the impressive flavor, au tau porridge is extremely good for health and helps against joint pain. It is better to use au tau porridge at night, which helps you to calm down and have deeper sleep. A bowl of au tau porridge costs you from VND 30,000 to VND 50,000.

Five-colored glutinous rice

Among the local foods in Ha Giang, five-colored glutinous rice is an attractive food for its glistening colors. Local people serve it as a dessert during special occasions such as festivals, weddings, and Lunar New Year celebrations.

Five-colored glutinous rice is made from glutinous rice mixed with natural colors from different ingredients. The natural ingredients used include leaves of the Magenta plant for purple, Gac fruit for red, Pandanus leaf for green, Turmeric for yellow and Steamed soaked pea flower for blue. These five colors are not only beautiful but also meaningful. They symbolize five basic elements on Earth in the Yin and Yang philosophy, including wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. You can try five-colored glutinous rice at local markets, food stalls, and restaurants throughout the province, especially during special occasions and festivals.

Smoked buffalo meat

Smoked buffalo meat, or Thit trau gac bep in Vietnamese, is one of the popular foods in Ha Giang for the Thai people. The meat is first cut into thin slices and marinated in a mixture of spices and seasonings such as salt, garlic, ginger, and lemongrass. The marinated meat is then hung over a fire made with a combination of different woods such as bamboo, lychee, and chestnut, and smoked for several hours until it has a distinct smoky flavor and aroma. You can try smoked buffalo meat at local markets, food stalls, and restaurants throughout Ha Giang, especially in the towns of Dong Van and Meo Vac.

Thang Den

Among the foods in Ha Giang, Thang Den is extremely suitable to try on winter days when the weather is cold. Local people soak the Yen Minh glutinous rice in water for a night, then grind the rice into flour. The flour then will be mixed with water and molded into small balls and boiled until the cake is cooked. Inside the sticky glutinous rice balls, there are different kinds of fillings, like green beans and red beans. Besides the sweet taste of the cake filling and the aroma of the sticky rice, Thang Den is also special in sweetened soup made from apricot blossom sugar, coconut, and ginger. You can try this dish in Dong Van Old Town, at weekly fairs, or along busy streets in Ha Giang’s city center. Each bowl of Thang Den costs from VND 10,000.