Residents living along the Tra Khuc River pick ‘don’, a kind of mussel used in local foods, especially soup and porridge, from the river to make living.  ‘Don’ lives in brackish water and is buried in the sand layer of the riverbed. The mollusk is smaller and brighter than ‘hen’. While ‘hen’ has a bitter aftertaste, ‘don’ is sweet and its fragrant taste lingering in the mouth make it delicious.

Let’s take a glance at nice photos taken by our freelance photographer Doan Vuong Quoc to explore how ‘don’ is caught.

At the crack of dawn, a host of boats gather to catch this kind of mollusk at the end of Tra Khuc River.

Mussel catchers have to stand in the water for four to six hours. Some cut their feet on sharp shells doing this and others get cramps in leg

The mussel harvesting is fairly struggling. The mussel catcher's tools include a rake weighing more than 10 kg with a 2.5-meter bamboo handle. The rake is attached to a strap to keep the catch. The person holds the bamboo handle with both hands and walks backward to catch mussels. The catcher holds the bamboo handle and walks backward to catch ‘don’.

On average, a person collects around 20 kg of mussels each day and sells a part to traders and cooks the rest.

Don is a mollusk from the mussel family but has a smaller size, long intestines as well as delicious flesh inside.

Reporting by DNO – Translating by T.VY