Hard to resist delicious Hue’s specialties

Hue is famous for its royal, noble, and aesthetic cuisine, but street vendors and normal dishes are also very attractive and hard to resist. Hue people are very elegant and tasteful, so they are also very sophisticated in eating, not only in material selection but also in the cooking process as well as decoration making each dish is same as a work of art. Besides, the popular dishes and Hue’s street vendors are no less famous and attractive. The appealing characteristics appear not only in the flavor of the dishes but also in the image of the mother, the girl who carrying baskets in Hue’s streets which is gentle and incredibly romantic.

List of tasty Hue’s specialties you must try once

1. Mussel rice (cơm hến)

Mussel rice is a traditional dish that appears everywhere whether in villages or country roads, and it still to be tasty. Mussel rice is most delicious only cooked in Hue and its delicious taste is due to mussels’ meat and mussel broth. To have a tasty bowl of mussel rice, you should have cooked rice, mussels’ meat, adding spices, and fried greaves. The special spice of mussel rice is Hue’s shrimp sauce which creates a fleshy, bitter, spicy, and pungent taste. It is served with vegetables like bean sprouts, chopped white taro’s body, and so on as well as roasted peanuts in gold color.

If you want to savor the best mussel rice, you should go to Con Hen or Ms. Nho store located on the corner of Pham Hong Thai Street, crossed point with Truong Dinh Str, but she only serves it in the morning, or you can eat at 2 Truong Dinh Str. The price is quite cheap, only 10,000 VND.

2. Bánh canh Bà Đợi

Located on Dao Duy Anh Street, at the end of a small alley, there is a “bánh canh” shop that is not signed. It is operated by a family, with few employees so guests have to wait a bit long time, patrons, therefore, call this shop “Mrs.Waiting” (Bà Đợi). The broth here is quite different which is fresh and flavored because of the natural aroma of shrimp.

When one bowl of bread soup (bánh canh) is served, you can see egg rolls together with fresh crispy shrimp and eaten with pepper, salt, lemon, chili sauce, and chopped scallions on the table although the broth itself is enough tasty for you. Therefore, visitors rarely leave leftover broth in a bowl of bread soup at this restaurant.

3. Alley sweet gruel (chè hẻm)

It was said that if Hanoi had “36 streets”, Hue also had “36 kinds of sweet gruel”. No one knows why called sweet gruel, it may be because it is usually located deep in corners with many different kinds of sweet gruel. Each type of gruel has its flavor, delicious, delicate, and sophisticated as people here. For example, sweet corn gruel which is prepared from the young corn of Con Hen is pure sweet and aromatic, or sweet lotus seed gruel with special incense like lotus in Tinh Tam Lake which is spent only for kings.

You also can enjoy sweet lotus seed wrapped in longan gruel which is light sugary and fleshy and many other types like sweet pomegranate gruel, sweet taro gruel, etc., or roasted pork gruel. Some recommendations for you include 17 Hung Vuong Str or Star Sweet gruel at 60 Phan Chu Trinh Str.

4. Vegeterian meal (cơm chay)

If you want to have a frugal meal and cleanse your body, let’s try a vegetarian meal in Hue. The vegetarian dishes are quite diverse and abundant although it is cooked from vegetables, mushrooms, tofu, etc. If you want to enjoy a vegetarian meal in Hue, you may contact pagodas to have it.

You can go to any pagoda in Hue but it is better to go to Tu Dam pagoda because it is a nun pagoda and they cook vegetarian rice very well. It is located inside the city, at Dien Bien Phu Str. Another choice is Lien Hoa vegetarian restaurant at 3 Le Quy Don Str, the price is quite suitable.

5. Hue’s beef noodles (bún bò Huế)

Hue-style beef noodle with their famousness and delicious flavor, is truly the soul of Hue’s cuisine. It normally has a piece of pork leg, a piece of egg rolls, some small pieces of blood pudding, and slices of beef. It is served with fresh different kinds of vegetables. You can enjoy the most famous one for cooking beef noodles at 13 Ly Thuong Kiet Str (near the Trade Unions hotel). In addition, you can easily find a good quality restaurant in Hue with a price of around 30,000 VND.

6. Grilled meat rice noodles, grilled meat wet cake (bánh ướt thịt nướng)

A special feature of these two dishes lies in grilled meat. It is marinated enough, and fragrant, the meat slice is soft and it has a special and different flavor from other areas. The sauce served with this dishes is also fits your taste, very delicious. You can enjoy them in the Kim Long area, on the way to Thien Mu Pagoda.

7. Hue’s “cakes”: banh beo, banh bot loc, banh khoai

Visiting Hue, you will see how “banh beo” attaching to the life of people here. Every day from 3 to 5 pm, women with baskets on their shoulders or hips walk to sell “banh beo”, and “banh loc” to each house. The Hue people like it and enjoy it as snacks inhabit.

You can go to “banh beo” streets like An Dinh Palace, Ngu Binh Str, and Nguyen Binh Khiem Str to directly feel the “banh beo” culture. About “bánh khoái” in English, it can be called “favorite cake” which is made from rice flour, egg yolk then added pepper, onion, fish sauce, salt, peeled shrimp, sliced grilled beef or bird and bean sprouts, most famous one is Thuong Tu and you can go to three branches that are Lac Thien, Lac Thanh, and Bach Yen to enjoy it.

8. Sticky Rice:

This is a famous dish in Hue and originated from Nhat Le streets in Royal Citadel, where focusing dozens of baking places. Sticky rice is scented and quiche because of skillful flavor combination between beans, meat (fat and lean) with sticky rice, and spices like pepper, and onion. The long time eating, the more hunger for it.

9. Nem Lui Hue

Many people often say that “Nem lui is a characterized dish of Hue”. At Nguyen Hue Str, there are two “nem lui” shops. Every day and night, it is always crowded with customers. The first time, wow, all feel delicious, then they come back second, three times, even eating every day like “addictive” people and keep excellent compliments for “nem lui”.