Grilled lizards for lunch

Grilled giong are juicy and delicious - Photo: Dang Hoang Tham

Giong are lizards with a similar shape but larger size than tac ke bong (geckos). They are very tasty grilled. A plate of grilled Giong is a popular dish in many restaurants on the South Central Coast from Ba Ria-Vung Tau to Ninh Thuan provinces.

Grilled giong has a distinctive flavor. To make the lizards juicy, people have to boil giong and soak them with banana leaves before washing carefully. Then they are spiced and mixed with lemongrass to grill. Giong can be cooked in variety of ways including fried giong served with grilled banh trang (dried pancake) or goi giong (giong with vegetables) or lau giong (hot pot).

Giong is thought to have medicinal qualities as the lizards eat herbal leaves and grasses. In traditional medicine they are used to cure aching bones. People go hunting for giong on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month when the early rains wet the dry sand hills and giong start to hatch.

Vienna charity gala in Hanoi

The Austrian Embassy in Vietnam will hold the first Vienna charity gala in Hanoi on November 11, reports Sai Gon Giai Phong.

Singers from Vietnam and Austria such as Thanh lam, Duc Tuan, Bich Thuy, and Marcela Cerno will perform a concert at the event.

To open the gala, a group of dancers from the Austria-based dance school, Olympic Dance Club, will perform the Polka, Quadrille, and the Waltz, promising an entertaining evening to mark the bilateral relationship of the two nations.

Miss Vietnam World Ngo Phuong Lan will be the M.C.

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