Arriving in Hue in the late afternoon, we were revving to go on the first event on our itinerary - Hue street food tour on trishaw.
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The locals call the trishaw, cyclo. Yeah, it was a whirlwind tour sweeping through main streets, side streets and back streets of the proud old city at the centrestage of many of Vietnam's historic milestones.
Cyclo is the quickest and most comfortable way to experience Vietnam's ancient imperial city, up close and personal. Watching the city from behind a window pane in an aircon taxi won't do, and walking doesn't quite cover as much territory in the 2-3 hours of the cyclo tour.
First stop was Bánh Bèo Nậm Lọc Bà Đỏ - they are a banh specialist with all kinds of banh.
(But, they also have bun bo Hue. This is Hue, bun bo Hue is everywhere. More about the iconic beef noodle from Hue here 👈 click.)
At Bánh Bèo Nậm Lọc Bà Đỏ every banh is freshly made on order.
Meet banh khoai, Hue food icon perhaps second only to bun bo Hue. The crisp and tender rice crepe is yellow from turmeric. Inside the fold were prawn, Vietnamese pork sausage in thin strips, bean sprout, chive etc.
Banh khoai is supposed to be eaten with a thick dip made with minced meat, ground peanut, and ground liver held together with soy sauce. At Bánh Bèo Nậm Lọc Bà Đỏ, it is served with a simpler dip of fish sauce and cut chili pepper. Actually, I find that banh khoai by itself is already rich enough in flavours and I didn't use any dip at all.
Banh beo reminds me of chwee kueh. It's steamed flat rice cake in a small shallow dish topped with chopped boiled shrimp and a bit of aromatic fried scallion oil. It is scooped up with a spoon and eaten with a dip of fish sauce and cut chili pepper. At Bánh Bèo Nậm Lọc Bà Đỏ, their banh beo comes with a crispy crunchy fried pork rind topping. I enjoyed this soft floppy little delicacy with a blend of savoury sweet flavours.
Banh nam seems to be a variation of banh beo but the rice cake, minced shrimp and pork are folded into a leaf and cooked by steaming. Eaten in the same way as banh beo with fish sauce and cut chili. I actually like banh nam a little more than banh beo as it has an additional aroma imparted by the leaf wrapping.
Another variation, banh loc - it's a shrimp encased in tapioca batter, wrapped with leaf then cooked by steaming. I didn't like this as much as I don't quite fancy firm, chewy, somewhat flavourless tapioca.
Nem Lui is minced pork with spices and herbs wrapped around lemongrass stems and cooked by grilling over charcoal embers (like satay or kebab).
No, nem lui is not eaten like a satay or kebab though it looked like one. The nem lui is folded into a thin translucent sheet of rice paper together with raw leafy aromatic greens like mint, coriander, cucumber, chili pepper, banana blossom etc.
It is eaten with a savoury sweet peanutty sauce. Chomp off the whole "kebab" including the lemongrass stem. It's so full of savoury sweet spicy grassy herby nutty flavours. Lots of soft, tender textures and crunch too.
Shiok.
I defect. This is better than any satay, I have ever eaten so far 😝
Just the first stop with 4 more to go, and we already ate so much, initiated to so many Hue dishes. I was enjoying every bite and my stomach space was filling up too quickly 😂
Restaurant name: Bánh Bèo Nậm Lọc Bà Đỏ
Address: 8 Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, Phú Cát, Thành phố Huế, Thừa Thiên Huế
Tel: +84 234 3541 182
Hours: 8:00am - 8:00pm
Passing Hue's colourful Truong Tien Bridge across the Perfume River. The lights change colour every few seconds. Every section across the span sports a different colour. Truong Tien Bridge was built in 1899. The bridge was damaged and restored during the war with France in 1946 and the Americans in 1968.
Photo credit: Wikipedia
Truong Tien Bridge was designed by Gustave Eiffel. Yes, the same Monsieur Eiffel who brought us the Eiffel Tower and also the Statue of Liberty in New York City.
Second stop, this street corner shop Quán Thuý Bún Bò Huế for com hen Hue or Hue clam rice.
Our guide Nguyen Ngoc An of Connect Travel said com hen Hue is a humble dish eaten by rice famers. In the bowl, there were rice topped with clams, fried peanut, and a salad of bean sprout, julienned banana blossom, chopped basil, chopped spring onion etc. There's also fried pork rind, and a dollop of fried ground chili etc.
Com hen basket clams come from Con Hen island in the middle of the Perfume River. I caught this shot of Con Hen island from my room window in Imperial Hotel. The com hen basket clams from Con Hen island are reputedly the best in Vietnam.
The small clams are boiled in water, and the tiny pieces of meat are lightly sauteed with fish sauce. The water for boiling the clams is made into soup.
Each com hen comes with a bowl of clam soup which is tipped directly into the bowl of rice and toppings.
Toss and fold everything in the bowl together.
Wooo hooo.... every mouthful was full of tenderness, crackle and crunch followed by explosions of savoury, umami, sweet, spicy flavours with every bite.
By now, I am beginning to get a sense of Hue cuisine - they pack a lot of textures and flavours into even the humblest staple.
Super delicious.
Anthony Bourdain says it better.
The bigger yellow signboard says Quán Thuý Bún Bò Huế which is a popular bun bo Hue stall (I would love to try it next time). The com hen Hue stall is on the right (in this picture).
Restaurant name: Quán Thuý Bún Bò Huế
Address: Vĩnh Ninh, Thành phố Huế, Thua Thien Hue
Tel: +84 91 239 85 71
Passing Cho Dong Ba which is Hue's central market. By day, locals come here for vegetable, fruit, seafood, poultry and meat. At night, the handicraft and clothing stalls stay open. Cho Dong Ba is a popular place for local street food.
By the third stop, I was getting worried as my stomach space was reaching its limit. Fortunately, it was a timely cafe stop to cool our heels and rest our tummies.
They have many different concoctions of coffee here but no drip coffee - the iconic Vietnamese way of drinking coffee. Actually, we went to at least 10 different cafes and street side coffee stalls during this trip but couldn't find any drip coffee.
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The west side gate of Hue's historic Citadel is just across the road from the cafe.
Cyclos are super convenient - they can pull up right up to the front of the food stalls.
Stop number 4 is a dinghy side walk stall serving bun bo Hue or literally "beef noodles from Hue".
If you have time only for one dish in Hue, make it bun bo Hue.
It's a noodle soup dish. Despite the name"beef noodle from Hue", bun bo Hue soup is actually made by boiling both beef and pork bones together with lemongrass, fermented shrimp paste and chili. It's a blend of beefy porky savoury sweetness with lemongrass aroma and a bit of spicy heat.
The noodles which look like thick bee hoon (rice vermicelli) are made with rice and cassava flour. It is soft and smooth like good Ipoh hor fun but is round and thinner.
Toppings include beef brisket slices, beef shin slices, pork slices, pork ribs but the definitive topping is the yellow colour crab meat - pork meat ball.
Bun bo Hue is eaten with leafy aromatic garnishing like mint, basil, bean sprout, and julienned banana blossom which adds crunch and fragrances to the savoury sweet beef, pork and noodles.
This was my first taste of bun bo Hue and I fell in love with it. By this time, my stomach was filled beyond its normal capacity.
Restaurant name: Bún bò Huế Bà Bớt
Address: 11 Hà Nội, Vĩnh Ninh, Thành phố Huế, Thừa Thiên Huế
Tel: +84 379 888 770
After "beef noodle from Hue" we walked across the road to a popular sidewalk hot dessert stall - Chè Mợ Tôn Đích - Chè Heo Quay (our 5th and final stop for the cylco food tour of Hue).
Many different kinds of sweet desserts - some looked familiar, others I've not seen before. We reached here near closing time at 10pm, some dishes were near the bottom of the pot.
It was time to deploy my dessert stomach.
I picked the loud purple one as I have never seen it before. It was a sweet paste enriched with coconut milk. I guessed it was perhaps a sweet potato mash. (Professor Google confirmed that it was chè khoai tía Huế made with local purple sweet potato.)
(By this time, we missed their signature sweet dessert unique to Hue - chè bot loc heo quay which is usually sold out within 30 minutes of opening at 6:30pm. It's candied roast pork belly wrapped in a ball of glutinous rice dough - like mochi balls with candied roast pork inside and served in a sugary sweet soup. I can already imagine how delicious it is with its savoury sweetness and combination of crisp, tender, and chewy textures. Hope to try it next time.)
Restaurant name: Chè Mợ Tôn Đích - Chè Heo Quay.
Address: 02 Trần Hưng Đạo, Phú Hoà, Thành phố Huế
Tel: +84 234 3512 858
Hours: 6:30pm - 10:00pm
Recommended for you 👍 Thanks and good bye to our cyclo drivers. I think there is no better way to get a quick overview and taste some of the best street food of Hue in two hours than by cyclo.
Our cyclo food tour was arranged by Nguyen Ngoc An of Connect Travel.
I flew to Hue by VietJet Air (via Danang).
Date visited: 1 Mar 2020
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