Besides sightseeing, relaxing, and entertaining, one more interesting thing visitors really should enjoy in the beautiful Phu Quoc Island is trying delicious local dishes.

The first must-mention here is myrtle wine which is considered one of best Phu Quoc’s specialties for its unique taste. This kind of wine is made from forest myrtles mostly in the traditional manual manner. The wine is a beautiful transparent yellow, smells just like the forest myrtles, and tastes sweet and acrid. It assists digestion and cures aches and pains of the elderly.

In Phu Quoc Island, there is a special kind of sea scallop which is called “bien mai”. It is uniquely triangular, as big as an adult’s fist, and sticks deeply into the seabed. It lives in An Thoi water, at the southernmost tip of the island. It can be cooked in many different ways with different tastes such as scallops seasoned sour and sweet, steamed scallops, grilled scallops used with herbs and girdle cakes, etc. The scallops taste sweet and delicious, especially its tendons which are round, white and as big as a coin, lying between their two flesh layers. All dishes made from these rare and precious scallops are often used to treat visitors from other places.

Raw herring is another specialty of sea food in Phu Quoc which anyone visiting the island must try at least once. Herrings have greenish skins and small bones and taste very greasy. To make the fish edible without being cooked, it is filleted and sliced into thin pieces, and then it is cooked with lime juice, coconuts, some kinds of wild herbs, and peanut fish sauce. The interesting thing when making this dish is that the girdle cakes have to be made in Phu Quoc because they are not too tough or thin. To make the cakes easy to roll but not sticky when being wet, they dip them in coconut milk. The fat in coconut milk makes the cake softer but not sticky. When people enjoy the dish, the buttery taste and aroma of coconut increases its attractiveness.

Along the coastal territory, there are many different methods of making fish sauces. However, the most famous is still in Phu Quoc Island since the fish sauce here has a very high protein level, a fragrant sweet taste and the aroma of anchovies. Anchovies are seasoned with salt in a secret proper ratio, and then they are kept in wooden boxes for the fish disintegrating themselves. The longer it is kept, the more delicious the fish sauce is. The pure fish sauce in Phu Quoc Island has the dark color of roaches’ wings, transparent and the specific aroma because of the salty taste of salt and the greasily sweet taste of fish. The quality of the fish sauce is assessed through its smell when being cooked or used directly. The Phu Quoc’s fish sauce is a meaningful present for family after your interesting journey to the beautiful island.