As you may know, food is something LAK Tented Camp is very proud to talk about. It is not about the luxury of choices, refinery or sophisticated cooking techniques, guests praise our dishes for its authentic taste, fresh and healthy ingredients. This Top 9 must-try dishes at LAK Tented Camp will make your trip to Buon Ma Thuot more memorable.
Beside the homegrown coffee and cacao garden, LAK Tented Camp also reserves large space to plant vegetable, herbs, fruits. We raise cage free chicken and some pigs, goats with natural feeding ingredients.
We elaborate the menus based on local sourced ingredients and fresh seasonal products. We are not aimed to spoil you with thousands choices of international delicacies but we trust our selected healthy dishes will make your dining satisfactory!
Let’s journey through the handpicked menu of Y LAK Restaurant and explore TOP 9 must-try dishes at LAK Tented Camp one by one.
1. Wild eggplant salad with dried anchovy – Top must-try Salad
In the starter and salad selection, you may enjoy many healthy choices such as “Banana blossom and chicken salad”, “Lotus roots salad with pork, shrimp”, “Papaya salad with pork, shrimp” or the “Morning glory salad with stir-fried Lak shrimp and crushed peanuts”.
However, if you are a curious foodie wanderer, you may not ignore the typical “Wild eggplant salad with dried anchovy”. This is one of the most popular dishes in the Central Highlands. Its bitterness of wild eggplant, mixed with dried tiny fishes, and spicy fish sauces reflects the unique flavors of local life.
2. Grilled pork served in bamboo tube – Top must-try pork
For meat lovers, beside grilled pork ribs or braised pork in clay pot, we recommend you the grilled pork served in bamboo tube.
Needless to say this wandering small pigs produce less fatty and more tasty meat. The way this dish is prepared add some more poetry. Marinated pork is stuffed in bamboo tube then slowly grilled on charcoal. Therefore, it well contains all flavours and juice.
The grilled pork is best served with Cơm Lam (rice in bamboo tube).
3. Grilled duck in Lak style – Best BBQ duck worth sharing
When approaching LAK Tented Camp, you may be amazed with vast rice fields and mighty wet land. It is the ideal habitats for the ducks, and local may call it “wild ducks”. They are well taken care of, by natural food.
The duck is therefore rather skinny with tasty meat, and great texture. Additionally, the chef at LAK Tented Camp grill it slowly on charcoal, at low heat, to avoid the dish being so dry and over burnt. It takes up to one hour for the grill part only.
So if you don’t mind eating the local way, with both hands and enjoying every skin and bonds, this is a great delicacy to trust. In that case, please order it in advance to avoid long waiting. Alternatively, grilled farm chicken is also great but let’s save it for the breakfast chicken noodle.
4. Sauted wild vegetable with garlic – favourite “farm to table” option
Regarding veggy, there are many nice choices with homegrown vegetable. Notably, there are Chicken soup with ‘sour-soup creeper’ leaf and Wild, bitter melon and fishcake hotpot.
Among those, “wild vegetable” is most asked for. Interestingly, you may ask the kitchen for a pair of scissors and bamboo basket, then go to the vegetable garden to pick some, up to your eating. Then you may ask the chef to cook the “fresh harvest” to your style. Steamed cook or stir fried are equally great.
5. Deep fried Lak Lake Fishcake – Wrap & Roll with dill, mustard leaves
In the wrap and roll category, “Cha ca Thac Lac ho Lak”, deep fried Lak Lak fishcake, rolled with mustard leaves and garden herbs is a bright candidate. The fishcake is a truly culinary delight, it consists of filleted fish from Lak Lak, then ground and mixed with a starchy ingredient, and fried until golden. It goes well with dill, mustard leaves and dip with a mixture of minced aromatic herbs, chili, pepper, salt.
6. Hemibagrus menoda catfish fillet marinated with turmeric in banana leaf – Gift of Mother River
If deep fried fishcake seems popular to you, then another fish dishes will surely provoke more love of the land. “Hemibagrus menoda catfish fillet marinated with turmeric in banana leaf”. As you may know, Daklak is the name from the province which means the Lake of Water. This land is nurtured by the Father River “Krong No” and Mother River “Krong Ana”. They run from the Mountains of Gods and rejoin at the seven- branch rapid near Serepok River, before joining Cambodia’s sea lake and Mekong River. Along the stream, the Mother Rivers offer the highlanders its most sought after gift “Hemibargrus menoda catfish”, known locally as “Ca Lang”.
Like the sage people from the forest, we continue its primitive way of cooking, by marinating the fish tronc with minced fresh turmeric then steamed cook in in banana leaf envelop. It is fresh, healthy and maintain all the authentic flavours
7. Caramelised Lak Lake shrimp with star fruit – Legendary Y LAK legacy
Another combination of fresh gift from LAK Lake and garden grown vegetable is “Caramelized Lake lake shrimp with start fruit”.
These tiny shrimps from fresh water have a sweet taste and become very flavourful when caramelized. The sour and juicy star fruit balance the salty and smell of fish sauce. This dish is a great company with steam rice.
8. Chicken noodle soup – surprisingly great hot dish for breakfast
It is not necessary to describe the national dish “Pho” noodle soup with chicken. But believe us, the chicken noodle soup in LAK is surprisingly great. Maybe it is because the chicken enjoys fresh air and playing hide and seek the whole day under the coffee tree. Or it may come from the fresh home-grown vegetables that go well with.
Either on a continental or a buffet breakfast at LAK Tented Camp, we highly recommend you try the chicken soup and have your final saying.
9. Baked banana cake served with vanilla ice cream – Most wanted homemade dessert
Dessert is always a big thing that confirm a great dining experience. We have a few nice choices, with seasonal fruits and local ingredients like lotus seeds sweet soup, banana sweet soups, homemade yoghurt, ice cream, etc…
Above all, I believe the baked banana cake served with homemade ice cream will delight you. The land of LAK is endowed to plant great quality banana. It has a refined taste, quite meaty, tender thus become an ideal ingredient for baked banana cake.
Of course, there are more in the Vietnamese menus and some western dishes that worth trying. However, we hope the above Top 9 must-try at LAK Tented Camp gives you an appetite to come and explore for yourself. But hold on! This is not the menu for one meal, one day. To justify its best potential, you’d better stay for two, three days minimum and leisurely savor it all. Physical activities will add more joys to your dining experiences, hence don’t refrain from going out and about, exploring the nature and participate in tours and excursions activities.
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We look very much forward to your sharing and contributing to make the dining experience in LAK greatly loved for all.
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