The ancient imperial city of Hue is located where the Perfume River meets the East Vietnam Sea. Fresh seafood is plentiful and a must eat when you visit Hue.
Our guide Nguyen Ngoc An of Connect Travel brought us to Quán Hải Sản Tuấn Phúc for seafood dinner. There are upmarket and well appointed seafood restaurants in downtown Hue but our brief to An was to take us to local favourites, regardless of the decor and furnishings. And, so here we are - a rickety shack of a restaurant by the breezy sea.
But, it's not really a culture shock as we are familiar with similar setups in Malaysia, Indonesia and old Singapore. In fact, we all love the rustic, rural feel.
Quán Hải Sản Tuấn Phúc seafood is less than 30 minutes northeast by car from Hue. It's a chance to see the countryside along the way.
The restaurant is at the southern head of the abandoned Nguyễn Văn Tuyết bridge which has a missing span in the middle.
There were kelong style fish traps in the sea just off the restaurant.
We were here during the lull before dinner time 😄 Decor is
The kitchen looked like those in village homes, and the kitchen crew were mom, pop, daughter and helper. So, it's a family, homely thing and the dishes reflected that.
The menu, sort of, was in Vietnamese only.
We let An do the ordering for us - he got us fish, among other things. They just went out to the "kelong" and netted a couple 😄🐟
Live, flapping groupers.
Naturally, we opted to sit in the spacious veranda outside to enjoy the sea view and breeze.
First dish, clam soup with lemongrass and cut chili.
The meaty clams were tender, soft, juicy, sweet, briny with a bit of heat from the lemongrass and chili.
Squid - simply gutted, cleaned and blanched in hot water. Chewy, sweet, briny as uber fresh squid should be.
By now, we were realising that this place ain't going to try to awe us with fanciful techniques or presentation. They're just going to let the top quality, fresh ingredients speak for themselves.
Crabs simply boiled in water.
Not chili crab, black pepper, kam heong, salted egg yolk...., no...., just boiled.
No, gargantuan crustaceans like their Sri Lankan siblings either. The largest one in the pot weighs 600 grams at most.
But, oh... my.... that rich yet clean tasting crustacean sweet umami was oh... so.....
Next up, eels. The boiled small eels and plantain strips come in a pool of mildly spiced up watery sauce.
ok.... this eel dish was a bit of an acquired taste. The eels gutted, head and tail cut off were cooked with the bone in. The meat was tender-firm with the boney spine intact - I just chewed it all up. The eel meat was sweetish with an earthly taste. I ate half a dozen as the unique taste grew on me quickly.
Last dish was the grouper.
The fish was cooked with the guts intact.
The fish was cooked by boiling in porridge. The porridge was nice as the rice's sweetness was complemented by sweetness infused from the large grouper fish.
Nice, meaty, tender, sweet fish - though not as nice as steamed fish as some of its natural sweetness was leached into the porridge. But, this boiled fish was still nice.
If you like to have the same foodie experience, you can contact Nguyen Ngoc An who arranged our visit to Quán Hải Sản Tuấn Phúc seafood restaurant.
Restaurant name: Quán Hải Sản Tuấn Phúc
Address: Tân cảng, Phú Vang District, Thua Thien Hue, Vietnam
Tel: +84 234 3866 149
Hours: 6:00am to 10:00pm (best by prior arrangement)
Date visited: 6 Mar 2020
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments submitted with genuine identities are published