Smoked soil eating popular in Vietnamese town

Khong Thi Bien eats smoked soil, a specialty of Lap Thach Town, Vinh Phuc Province

By Lan Phong
Head of World News, Dantri Online Newspaper, Vietnam 

HANOI: Smoked soil, a rare and odd dish, has been a popular cookie for many local people in Vietnam’s northern province of Vinh Phuc for generations.

Khong Thi Bien, 86, in Lap Thach Town took out a bag of smoked soil from her kitchen to invite us. Seeing us reluctant to take a bite, she smiled, saying that many guests from other places do not dare to try it, but many others have become addicted after eating.

Khong Thi Bien eats smoked soil, a specialty of Lap Thach Town, Vinh Phuc Province

“Smoked soil is a specialty of our town,” the elderly woman said. “I don’t know when we started eating the soil dug up from the foot of the mountain behind our house, but we just followed our parents in eating it.”

Bien said that smoke soil used to be a popular junk food for local people and many other people from other places came to buy it.

Khong Thi Bien slicing the stone in Lap Thach Town, Vinh Phuc Province

“It’s not normal soil from the farms or gardens but a special type called ‘tile soil’ collected from some mountains here,” she explained. “We have to dig 5 – 6 metres down to the ground to find edible chalky seams. Big lumps of soil dug up from deep down are carefully sliced into pieces as cookies. Those pieces can be eaten raw or smoked with fresh rose myrtle leaves.”

Khong Thi Bien’s son digs for soil at the mountain behind their house

And many people have become addicted to the rich buttery flavor of soil and typical aroma of smoked rose myrtle leaves, she added.

The woman said that she used to sell over 10 kilos of such “cookies” a day at a local market.

“People usually buy the soil to eat or give to visitors as a local specialty” she said. “Many people like this junk food, especially pregnant women.

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Fading habit

While Bien and some elderly people in Lap Thach still eat soil as a special traditional habit, many people, especially young people, have turned to different kinds of junk foods.

“Now in my family, only I eat the soil,” she said. “My children and grandchildren said they have many other kinds of cakes and candies which taste much better. When I want to eat the soil or sometimes some people come to buy it, my son still goes to find it.”

Digging for the coveted “cookies”

Although local people said that the chalky soil is not only tasty but also rich in calcium, there has been no scientific research into the soil and its effects.

Sifting the stones to get them ready for consumption