Top 3 places to buy dried buffalo meat in Sapa

As a mountainous destination in the northern part of Vietnam, Sapa is well-known for its ideal weather with the spectacular natural scenery attracting plenty of tourists all year round. Besides such natural rewards, Sapa can also make tourists fall in love with it thanks to its fine local cuisine. How many delicious local dishes have you ever heard of when talking about Sapa food? More or less, you really should try out at least once its scrumptious and crispy dried buffalo meat. And remember to bring some to home as gifts with our suggestions for Top 3 places to buy dried buffalo meat in Sapa below.

1. How is dried buffalo meat in Sapa unique – Top 3 places to buy dried buffalo meat in Sapa:

The answer is kinda simple. That is its taste and the way locals make it. Keep on exploring. The dried buffalo has the brown color and a strong flavor of smoke. The meat can be a bit tough at first, but once swallowed, you can feel the sweetness. The longer you swallow the meat, the sweeter taste you can feel in your mouth.

Are you curious about the origin of dried buffalo meat?

Buffalo meat is a specialty of the Black Thai ethnic when they preserve the buffalo meat by storing at cool temperatures and dehydrate the meat so that they can enjoy it further during holidays, festivals or in important occasions. In particular, the buffalo meat is an effective way when locals spend a lot of time working in the forest or in rainy season when they can’t go out and get alternative food. The specialty dish now becomes more popular and many locals eat it daily. Tourists who once have tried this specialty will soon love it.

2. How locals make the dried buffalo meat? Top 3 places to buy dried buffalo meat in Sapa:

The way to make this dish is not that difficult. First, locals cut the meat in many ways, they normally select pieces of tenderloin, muscles in the shoulder, back of buffalo and cut into smaller pieces. Then, they cut along the grain and add some marinated peppers, ginger, salt, water taken from forest leaves especially Khen leaves (a forest pepper) and hang the meat in the kitchen where it is smoked to preserve.

The locals will hang the meat for about 8 months to 1 year. After that they will lower down the buffalo meat and grill, stew or cook it into various dishes. The smoke from cooking activities in local’s kitchen gives the dried buffalo meat a distinct smell and taste. The outside part is dry and in dark brown but the inside part has the bright red colour. The taste yes is mouth-watering.

Locals often enjoy the dried buffalo meat in the cool months with corn wine. All brings out such a perfect taste typical for a mountainous area like Sapa.

3. Where to buy dried buffalo meat in Sapa - Top 3 places to buy dried buffalo meat in Sapa:

As we have learnt some basic information about the specialty – dried buffalo meat, do you wanna try it right now? Head to one of the following places to buy some.

a. Viet’s Farm at 26 Dong Khoi Street in Sapa:

Considered as a specialty paradise, Viet’s Farm is a trusted place to buy the dried buffalo meat with the authentic taste of Sapa. Viet’s Farm is a famous chain for selling Sapa specialties as a famous gift. The dried buffalo meat here is made from male buffalo meat with natural ingredients to ensure the unique taste for the specialty.

When coming here, you can find other specialties like dried salmon, dried fruits, herbal bath medicine of Red Dao ethnic, artichoke of Sapa.
One more note is that, remember to ask for dried buffalo meat of A Pao. This is a very famous brand name for this specialty.

Address: 26 Dong Loi, Sapa Town

b. An Thinh Store:

This store sells a lot of Sapa specialties and of course with the yummy dish we are looking for. The store is close to Sapa Stone Church so it is convenient for tourists to drop by and shop for some Sapa gifts like dried fruits, dried tea, dried flowers.

Address: Cau May Street, Sapa Town

c. Sapa Night Market:

Sapa Night Market located in Dien Bien Phu Street has many stalls offering this specialty. The dried buffalo meat here is sold quite a lot. It is wrapped in plastic bags and sold to tourists. The price of buffalo meat here is quite cheap. You should ask the sellers carefully to buy the reliable product.

Address: in Dien Bien Phu Street

4. How to make dried buffalo meat with Sapa taste - Top 3 places to buy dried buffalo meat in Sapa:

For those who have tried the crispy and yummy dried buffalo meat in Sapa and you with to make some by yourselves at home, let us show you how.

a. Ingredients:

• Shank buffalo meat: 2 kg
• Lemongrass, ginger, dried chili
• Mac Khen seeds
• Garlic
• Sugar

b. Preparation:

• Buffalo meat: Cut buffalo meat into pieces with the size of 7x15x3 cm for width, length and thickness. Mince the meat to make it softer before putting some spices.
• Spices: Grind chili, ginger, garlic, mac khen seeds, lemongrass and mix them together. Then add the mixture with buffalo meat. Depending on your taste, you can consider the amount of spices to make it fit with your taste. Please note that, the ratio for using mac khen seeds is: use only 3 teaspoons of mac khen seeds for 1 kg of buffalo meat. Don’t overuse it.
• Duration: Keep the whole mixture for 2 hours before grilling.

c. How to make dried buffalo meat:

1. Prepare some sticks to put through each piece of meat. Prepare some dried trees to grill the meat.
2. Spread the meat on a tray and grill it with the heat from dried trees. As shown in the previous part, dried buffalo meat of Sapa is dried by the heat from cooking smoke in the local’s kitchen. Thus, when we want to make it as our home, we’ll use wood from some trees to dry the meat. You can use the heat from sugarcane trees dry the buffalo meat.
3. Keep rolling the meat to ensure both sides of each meat to be dried and well-cooked.
4. Let the meat cool by itself. Then we can enjoy our dried buffalo meat. Enjoy your meal!

Now that we have shared with you top 3 places to buy dried buffalo meat in Sapa plus with a lot of other interesting information. Keep on reading some more related articles about Sapa to get more useful tips.
1. Sapa Travel Tips: Part 1, Part 2

2. Exploring Cat Cat Village