Yesterday, I went on a day tour to the Mekong River in Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam. The Mekong River is 4350km long running through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia before finally arriving to Vietnam and then out to the South China Sea.
Frankly speaking, the river was a bit of a disappointment as by the time the river gets to Ho Chi Minh, its at the end of its journey and the water quality was quite terrible. You can see how murky it is on this boat trip.
The highlight of the trip was actually the visit to a coconut candy factory to see how they make the sweets using fresh coconuts. You can see the entire process which I've condensed into a one minute video.
The process starts with chopping the coconuts in half and extracting all the flesh out. The chunks of coconut flesh are then thrown into the first machine which finely shreds them. Next the coconut is then soaked in hot water for an hour to soften it. They coconut bits are wrapped in muslim and put under a compressor which extracts the milk.
Sugar and caramel is added to the coconut milk which is boiled in a massive pan over high heat till it thickens. During this stage, the liquid needs to be stirred constantly, and this is done with a motorised paddle instead of hand.
Once the liquid thickens to the right consistency it is removed and cooled down a little. Watch how the lady does it with a plate.
The cooled down liquid now becomes a semi solid form and before it hardens it is moulded into long strips like this.
Next, the strips go through a cutting machine, and then each sweet is wrapped by hand. In the video you can see the astonishing speed at which the ladies wrap the sweets. The video is only a minute long, so hopefully you will watch it to the end.
Before I leave, it would be rude not to share some sweets with you 😊
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My video is at DLive
The coconut candy factory tour looks fun! Love the music in your video~ 🎶
Thanks
How did we miss this candy workshop! So cool! Oh ... the Mekong, what a special place it is!
Maybe it depends on the tour company. This one took us to an island which had this little factory and a restaurant who had some bees where we tried the fresh honey, and they also had a massive 🐍the other guys were holding it to takw photos and I had to hide away 😢
I had my fair share of snakes ... ugh! I also stay clear of them :)
Wow the candy making process is cool! I'm drooling!
It was very interesting in deed
看馋了，这个椰子糖的过程讲得真详细
原來很簡單的過程可以做出很美味的糖果
这还简单呀，我觉得可费事了
Oh wow that's so cool to see how it goes from coconut to candy! Are they really sweet though? And how long are you in Vietnam for ? I'd love to visit!
Btw, we finally did the steemit name challenge you nominated us for! ;) Hope you enjoy the explanation hehe
They say its 10% sugar, 10% syrup and 80% coconut milk so it wasnt too sweet.
I'll check out your post!!
coconut candy made of natural ingredients, cool!
It's good that these small scale production plants keeps things original and simple
That's a cool candy factory! Looks like a healthy candy. Do they taste good?
They rolled peanuts in it as well, so there was a bit of bite to it, it was very nice especially since it was still a bit warm when we tried it
Oh must be good with peanuts. I like that combined with sweets :)
I was on the MeKong in Laos on the slow boat, water was dirty, but it was a great time. I also took a boat from Phnom Pen room Siam Reap, Cambodia, there were long stretches of blue water , don't know why it changes
I guess its just one of those things you have to do when you go to Saigon, just like you have to do Ha Long Bay at Hanoi
Wow! I was amazed to see how quickly they were wrapping the candies!! Btw how did it taste?
You can be sure they're not going to be replaced by machines soon! They were actually nice coz they were still quite warm, and they rolled peanuts in it as well
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Thanks!!
I did this tour as well. It was three days to Cambodia but we stopped at such a place where they make these sweets. And also the first stop out of HCM was where blind people work. I forgot what they were making. Enjoy your time in Vietnam.