When you go across Kim Dong town of Hung Yen province, you will see a row of restaurants hanging the signs of “Anabas soup” along the main road. That is one of the specialties of this land. There is an ancient fork song that: Abanas cooked with green cabbage and ginger Otherwise giving compliments, do not decry it ...

Whenever it appears the rainfall in the early summer, water from the ponds overflows onto the garden lane. Sometimes, it is suddenly heard the clack and small water lines splashing on the ground or in the garden. And the children excitedly stream out and loudly grab the anabas leaping out of water. But this anabas is not big, the sort of Ron anabas, or the grapefruit seed anabas

The ideal anabas to make this dish must be big-sized anabas. But this must be the field anabas, not the type of big black anabas having hard bones. A Anabas soup is the simple dish, which is easy to make. Abanas are removed scales, and guts. And after that they are cleaned thoroughly with salt and then boiled. Boil water, keep moderate heat, add some salt into the pot and then put the fish in. Wait about 10 to 15 minutes until fish float on the water, pick them up, set aside to cool off and then remove the meat.

Boiling fish is very important, because the flesh will break if it is cooked too long, otherwise it is undercooked and difficult to separate the flesh. The flesh is marinated, and fried in a pan. Then cook it with ginger juice and dried onions, add a little "sugar sauce" to color the flesh

Frying fish must be careful so that the fish is not fishy, burnt, broken but still keeps the sweetness. Many restaurants marinate fish with turmeric to color it with yellow, toast the gingers and fried onions and add into the broth

The broth is indispensable for a delicious anabas soup, this is an important component bringing light sweetness to the dish. Bones and fish head are boiled to make the broth, some  pork bones may be added into the broth to make it sweeter. Besides, the cook often grill a ginger, crush it, and drop it into the pot. The fragrance of ginger remove the fishy smell of the fish and pervade a heart-warming flavors to the  diners. The vegetable served with the soup is diverse and different in seasons, namely green cabbage, water morning glory, neptunia, water dropwort . The sensible cook will choose the fresh vegetable, wash and poach in the boiled water to make sure that the vegetable is well-cooked, still green. The indispensable herbs are onions and dills

 As the diners come, the cook poach the noodle in the boiled water, put it into the bowl, add some slices of fish, poached green cabbage, pour the broth to the flooded bowl, out some green onions and minced dills on top. In the spawning season, the soup is added some yellow fish eggs. The anabas soup is eaten with fried tofu, the experienced cook often fry the tofu upon the order of the customers to make sure that the fried tofu is hot and crispy. The boiling anabas soup, pervading the tasty smell of fish and fresh flavor of sweet cabbage is irresistible

Years ago, such anabas soup is eaten with rice. In some special banquets, the broth is poured into Hung Yen noodles which are big in size, white, thin and smooth. Hung Yen residents is experienced in making the noodles; the rice soaking water does not turn sour like other areas but the rice is harder to grind. However, today thanks to grinding machine, this step is much easier

Today, as getting approach to the diners’ interests, the anabas soup is served with soya noodles and fresh noodles, making the tasty flavors