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Hue Cuisine - Simply Delicious

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

Also 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's a family-operated place with only a few staff, so service is slow. The restaurant, therefore, is popularly called Quan Ba Doi (Mrs. Bide's Restaurant). While the lantern-lit food stands near the Forbidden City's Hien Nhon Gate provide a wonderful ambiance for late night dining, none of these eateries serve genuine banh canh.

That Ba Doi's Restaurant serves the real thing is obvious just from watching the way 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 flavor 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, although the broth already tastes wonderful. Guests 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 the street vendors, who work from dawn to early morning. In the evening one can enjoy a good bowl of this noodle soup at a street stand in front of 84 Mai Thuc Loan Street in the Citadel. Known as Mrs. Doa's Counter, this stand operates from after eight until almost midnight.

Unfortunately very few restaurants still offer authentic beef noodle soup in Hue today. Somehow two key ingredients, lemongrass and shrimp paste, have been omitted in most restaurants. The large-sized noodles have also vanished. Newly added mint and bean sprouts also alter the distinct aroma of the broth.

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

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