Central Vietnam’s seasoned squid specialty getting ready for Tet Residents in central Vietnam prep seasoned squid for Tet

Seasoned squid is a popular item in the daily life of locals in the central region, more so during Tet, the country's Lunar New Year holiday.

Nguyen Thi Tuyet Trinh (pictured) of Quang Nam Province opened the first facility in the region to make seasoned squid five years ago. The number of families making this dish has risen to 10 since then.

Tam Tien Commune is known for having the freshest squid in Quang Nam. Trinh says after buying freshly caught squids she dries, stores and preserves them to make seasoned squid.

The squids are placed in a barbecue net and grilled on a charcoal stove. The worker manually turns the net continuously so that the squid is grilled evenly. It takes 110-130 squids to make one kilogram of the seasoned squid.

Crushed ginger, garlic and chili are the key seasoning components.

Workers put the seasoning with melted sugar in a pan and bring it to a boil. The seasoning making process takes around 30 minutes.

After that they put the cooked squid in a thickened sauce along with other ingredients.

"Each producer has their own secret ingredients," Trinh said.

After soaked in seasoning, the aromatic squid is sweet. Trinh said she makes around 10 kilograms of seasoned squid on a normal day, but that number increases to 100 kg around Lunar New Year time.

Each bottle weighing 180-200 grams contains around 12 squids and costs VND42,000 ($1.81) in the central region.