Hue cuisine is usually misrepresented as lavish dishes made from peacocks or phoenixes, served is that the royal court. These recipes are imaginary. In reality, even at the most prestigious royal banquets dishes labelled "dragon" or "phoenix" were solely steamed carps as well as braised chickens, decorated with foil fins, scales, tails and colored bamboo horns.

A meal within the royal palace might be easy to find on any commoner's dinner table, like fig salad and boiled vegetables or river smelts braised in pepper and mint Emperor Thanh Thai's eldest sister was known to crave pickled shrimps that the grand princess shelled along with her own fingers. Royal cookery place nice stress on skillful preparation, not on superfluities. Maybe that is why court cuisine goes on influencing non-public kitchens and
traditional family restaurants in Hue nowadays.

Most ancient restaurants in Hue are frugal and very often nameless. They consist of street vendors when his looking journey, Emperor Bao Dai (1925-
1945) typically enjoyed chicken congee from a street vendor's basket. Having recently had a chance to do the spare-ribs porridge at a nameless restaurant in the Thong Market sector in An Ninh Ha Village on the outskirts of Hue, I perceive the late monarch's proletarian delight.


The restaurant rests at the foot of a flimsy wood bridge that crosses the Bach Yen (White Canary) Canal close to Thong Market. The market was once referred to Cung (Terminal) Market since the canal concluded here. Later, as Emperor Minh Mang (1820-1832) liked to come back here to hunt canaries, the court associated fee Bach Yen Canal with the Citadel's Guard Canal to facilitate the royal barge journeys.

The owner and cook shyly answered that she didn't know her restaurant's name. She said that from time to time she overheard people call it O Gai's (Miss Girl)

Restaurant. This restaurant's location is convenient for employees and drivers within the mornings and afternoons. At simply VND4.000 per bowl, in another era O Gai's porridge would surely be happy with the palate of finicky royal guests. The broth bears the honest style of meat and bone. The semi-clear, reddish porridge contains fried chilli sauce, tenderly cooked spare ribs and slices of boiled pork heart, green scallions, coriander, and barely steamed onion slices. Like others cooking ancient Hue congee, O Gai adds lotus seeds from Tinh Tam Lake to enrich the dish's flavour.

Field duck congee is served at a frugal restaurant at 86 Bui Thi Xuan Street close to the Lon Bridge. The congee here is cooked within the ancient method
with scallions, lotus seeds and chilli. The taste is honest, however the wealthy flavour of beef stock is replaced with the gamy style of fresh field duck. Hue people eat their boiled duck with lettuce, mint, and particularly with thinly sliced cucumbers, green bananas and figs. Thuan Restaurant is thought for its dipping sauce, regionally referred to as nuoc leo - a combination of bean sauce, duck broth, sugar, chilli, ginger and peanut puree that's boiled till thickened.When frying the congee and boiled duck here, a friend from the American embassy in Hanoi recommended that the owner of bottle the sauce for export.

The dishes on the emperors' dining tables were very tiny and therefore the bowls in Hue's easy restaurants stay equally humble. When the congee, visitors can still have area for different native culinary specialties, like banh khoai, or egg ternpura crepes. This ancient and extremely widespread crepe can be found everywhere in Hue. Banh khoai restaurants close to the Thuong Tu Gate and in the Citadel have long been well-known however most are over-modified. Only some places, like a simple restaurant referred to Banh Khoai Ben Do Con or the Sandbank's Crepe, at 88 Chi Lang Street in the Gia Hoi District, stay true to the old recipe.

A real banh khoai is small with a semi-browned outside and moist interior full of fresh soft - water prawns, pork flank and crunchy bean sprouts. Most
important of all is the dipping sauce. This restaurant's sleek nuoc leo could be a good balance between sweet and salty, while the pureed pork liver and
peanuts are not too strong. Besides the same old lettuce, mint and green fruits, Hue's green jalapenos are indispensable to banh khoai.

In Gia Hoi, turn right at the end of an alley at 42 Huynh Thuc Khang Street to a nameless banh canh (tapioca noodle soup) restaurant. it is a family-
operated place with solely a couple of workers thus service is slow. The restaurant, therefore, is popularly called Quan Ba Doi (Mrs. Bide's Restaurant).
While the lantern-lit food stands close to the Forbidden City's Hien Nhon Gate offer a beautiful ambiance for late night dining, none of those eateries serves real banh canh.

That Ba Doi's Restaurant serves the real thing is apparent simply from watching the method the father rolls the flour patty, the mother slices it into noodles, and the shirtless son pestles the pork. The broth has the natural briny and aromatic flavour of shrimps. The noodle soup is served with crunchy fresh-water shrimps and ground pork pies. Salt, pepper, lime wedges, fried chilli paste and chopped scallions stand on the tables as seasoning though the broth already tastes wonderful. Client rarely leave a drop of soup in their bowls at Ba Doi's Restaurant.

The best Hue beef and pork-hock noodle soup comes from street vendors who work from dawn to early morning. In the evening, one person will enjoy an honest bowl of this noodle soup at a street stand in front of 84 Mai Thuc Loan Street within the Citadel. Known as Mrs. Doa's Counter, this stand operates from after eight till almost midnight.

Unfortunately, only a few restaurants still provide authentic beef noodle soup in Hue nowadays. Two key ingredients such as lemongrass and shrimp paste, have been omitted in most restaurants. The large-sized noodles have also lost. Newly added mint and bean sprouts also alter the distinct aroma of the broth.

These hot dishes represent simply a couple of of the treasures of Hue's ancient cuisine. Clam-rice and the flour pies like beo (steamed flour cupcakes), nam (wrapped shrimp pies) and loc (tapioca and shrimp pies), for instance, are a part of the traditional capital's culinary heritage. Less than 30 cents per
serving, these delicacies once graced the dining tables of Kings and Queens.

vietnampeace.com

Vietnam guide, Vietnam travel guide