Tré Bà Đệ: a unique dish of Đà Nẵng, eat just one bite and you'll understand why drinking buddies love it

Among the specialty souvenirs from Da Nang, everyone knows beef sausage and sesame rice paper candy, but many visitors still skip tré because it doesn't look like food at first glance. It is bundled into small bunches, with straw or leaves on the outside, looking like a tiny bundle of wood. Tré Bà Đệ is the name people in Đà Nẵng mention most when talking about this dish — a tré brand that has been around here for many years. When you open it up, inside is thinly sliced pork (ear, head meat, sometimes with added pork belly), mixed with roasted rice powder, galangal, garlic, and chili, then left to ferment lightly. The first aroma that rises is turmeric — fragrant, slightly pungent, quite different from the smell of pork roll. The taste is mildly sour, moderately salty, and the more you chew the clearer the sweetness of the meat becomes. The meat isn't mushy but chewy and crunchy, especially the ear part; the toasted rice powder coating it makes the meat slightly dry, not soggy. Tré tastes best eaten with other dishes, because eating it alone quickly gets boring. Popular way: pick up a clump of tré, add fresh herbs, a few slices of fresh garlic and green chili, roll it in rice paper, then dip it in chili sauce. Some people like to tuck in grilled rice paper for extra crunch. Tré's sourness and galangal flavor really come together when the weather is cool, in the late afternoon, and pair perfectly with beer — which is also why this is more of a drinking snack than a rice-accompanying dish. If you buy it as a gift, tré is quite convenient: it's dry, wrapped up compactly, and easier to tuck into a corner of your suitcase than chả bò. But remember it's still a fermented product, so buy it close to your departure day, put it in the fridge as soon as you get home, and eat it within a short time — the fermented taste will get stronger by the day. This dish is not for everyone. Those who don't like ginger or aren't accustomed to fermented foods might find it strange at first bite. But if you're the type of person who loves chewy meat, enjoys sour and spicy flavors, and likes to sit around sipping drinks and snacking, then tré can easily become a dish you'll want to buy again next time.