Vietnamese Pepper

Moving to the second in our series examining a selection of the main pepper producing countries, we will be looking at Vietnamese Black Pepper.

Vietnam has six main pepper producing Provence's but given that we do not have the resources to taste and comment on all six, we have selected the pepper from the Phu Quoc Island in the south of Vietnam.

Famous as a holiday resort the 400ha under organic cultivation produces arguably the best pepper of all the pepper growing Provence's of Vietnam. Certainly this is a premium regional product, all hand picked and sun dried

So to the tasting. The immediate response from our tasting panel was the dominance of the aroma - much like the Indonesian Lampong black pepper and with lovely lemon / Citrus notes

And again like the Lampong pepper, the flavours are relatively mild. Our tasters thought it would work nicely with salads and given the great aroma and lemon notes we thought it would compliment seafood. Worth trying in your favourite seafood recipe !

From our view the Phu Quoc pepper would not be the first choice for meaty stews but like the Indonesian pepper would make a great rub for steaks, pork and butterfly chicken on bbq's and grills. The aroma would be pretty special and worth noting that Spice Road Spices Chef's Signature Rub uses Phu Quoc pepper

Another suggestion for the Phu Quoc pepper would be with the spaghetti and pecorino cheese style where pepper is an integral part of the recipe to give flavour balance.