MUONG CUISINE IN ‘‘TOURISM ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MUONG ETHNIC’’

Abstract

This article presents the knowledge about Muong cuisine in the future work: Tourism encyclopedia of Muong ethnic. Therein, the author focuses on some main contents: (1) Identify entries about
Muong cuisine in the “Tourism encyclopedia of Muong ethnic”: Classify items according to their use
(food, drink); classify items according to methods of identification (based on raw materials, processing
methods, product characteristics, spices...). (2) Identify information in the entries about Muong cuisine. At
the same time, the article also give some discussions as following:
Firstly, what is “cuisine in culture” and “culinary culture”? Cuisine is a Sino-Vietnamese word, meaning
“eating - drinking” in general. This is originally a “verb”, but has a homophone for it, “noun” (meaning
“food to eat”). Muong cuisine, in Muong language is not only “food to eat”, so when talking about “food to
eat”, it is necessary to describe ingredients, craft, craft villages, ways of making, and flavors; forms, ways
of enjoying, the relationship with other dishes, impacts in culture; “Culinary culture”: Cuisine is a cultural
element, related to the customs of a community. In a narrow sense, culinary culture are food recipes,
ingredients and processing tools, products... In a broad sense, culinary culture is part of a complex of
material and spiritual characteristics. Culinary culture is folk knowledge, emotions, tastes, presentations,
enjoyments and behaviors, and communications of a community through “eating”.
Thus, when learning about culinary culture, it is necessary to consider two aspects: material culture
(food; drink...) and spiritual culture (process of making food and drink, art of cooking, processing; taste,
behavior, communication in eating and drinking; meanings, symbols, spirituality...).
Secondly, what is the position of Muong culinary knowledge in the “Tourism encyclopedia of Muong
ethnic”? This encyclopedia is a handbook that provides knowledge about trips, destinations, landscapes
and meets other interests in tourists’ travels to Muong.
Based on the purposes of trips (visitors want to know or experience something new), it can be seen that
cuisine in Muong culture is one of the number one concerns of tourists in cultural tourism.
The study of cuisine helps to understand more deeply the cultural meaning contained in “cuisine”,
understand somewhat how to behave with nature and understand society of the Muong. This is also an
attractive point in travelling in Muong areas.