Vietnam Travel > Travel Special Features > Vietnamese specialities > Hue Cuisine - Simply Delicious
Hue Cuisine - Simply Delicious
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When travel to Hue, Vietnam's former royal capital, it doesn't take a lot of money to dine like a king. Bach Trinh reports on the city's famed street cuisine.
Hue cuisine is often misrepresented lavish dishes made from peacocks or phoenixes, reputedly served in the royal court. These recipes are prestigious royal banquets dishes labeled "dragon" or "phoenix" were only steamed carps and braised chickens, decorated with foil fins, scales, tails and colored bamboo horns.
A meal in the royal palace could be as simple as that found 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, tom chua, which the grand princess shelled with her own fingers. Royal cookery put great emphasis on skillful preparation, not o superfluities. Perhaps that's why court cuisine continues to influence private kitchens and traditional family restaurants in Hue today.
Most traditional restaurants in Hue are frugal, and quite often nameless. They include street vendors. After his hunting excursions Emperor Bao Dai (1925-1945) often enjoyed chicken congee from a street vendor's basket. Having recently had an opportunity to try the spare-ribs porridge at a nameless restaurant in the Thong Market area in An Ninh Ha Village on the outskirts of Hue, I understand the late monarch's proletarian delight.
The restaurant rests at the foot of the flimsy wooden bridge, which crosses the Bach Yen (White Canary) Canal near Thong Market. The market was once known as Cung (Terminal) Market, since the canal ended here. Later, as Emperor Minh Mang (1820-1832) liked to come here to hunt canaries, the court connected the Bach Yen Canal with the Citadel’s Guard Canal to facilitate the royal barge trips.
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