Things to See & Eat at Historic Cho Dong Ba Market in Hue

Wherever I go, the sights, sounds, feel, smells and tastes of the local market is a must in my itinerary. In Ho Chi Minh City, there's Ben Thanh Market, and in the ancient imperial city of Hue, it is the century old Dong Ba Market.



Dong Ba Market is a sprawling hive of activity located at the western head of the historic Truong Tien Bridge across the Perfume River.

Refugees fleeing across the damaged Truong Tien Bridge during the Battle of Hue in 1968. Photo credit: Philip Jones Griffiths

Truong Tien Bridge was built in 1899 by French engineer Gustave Eiffel - yes, the same monsieur Eiffel that gave us the Eiffel Tower and New York City's Statue of Liberty.

Truong Tien means "Royal Mint" as the bridge was named after the mint factory commissioned by the Emperor located at its southern head. During French Indochina days, the French named it Clémenceau Bridge.

Truong Tien Bridge was twice badly damaged by war. Once in 1946 while battling the French and in 1968 during the Battle of Hue against the Americans.



Today, Truong Tien Bridge is a busy thoroughfare connecting east and west Hue across the Perfume River. The girdles of the 6 spans are lit with lights that change colour every few seconds.

In the old days, everybody get their supplies at Cho Dong Ba, the central market of the imperial city. The public, the garrison, even the palace kitchen get their daily supplies here. The Nguyen dynasty's Citadel is just a stone's throw away.

The ancient Dong Ba Gate in ruins during the Battle of Hue in 1968. Photo credit.

The Dong Ba Market is named after the ancient Citadel's Dong Ba Gate as it is just outside the imperial city's east gate.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

The Dong Ba Gate was destroyed during the American War.

Along Chương Dương street heading towards the core section of Dong Ba Market, there are many street side vegetable stalls.



This stall is literally a vegetable garden 😄 So many things to see, so many things I have never seen before.



In Vietnamese culture, watermelons symbolise good luck and prosperity. Watermelons and seeds are eaten to celebrate the New Year Holidays.



Hue is blessed with abundant seafood from the East Vietnam Sea and the brackish Perfume River.



Don't leave Hue without visiting at least one of its many seafood restaurants 👈 click



This hawker has free range chicken. One way Hue folks like to eat chicken is to season it with black pepper and grill it over charcoal 👈 click



Fresh, never chilled daily fresh pork which is a key part of Hue people's diet (more so than beef).



Roasted option, if you prefer pre-cooked convenience.



Fresh quails. How do locals eat these?



Sun dried seafood like those which Cantonese and Teochew people use to make soup.



Grand old lady enjoying a quiet smoke, then all those pesky tourists come and disturb her peace, hovering and darting around her like flies while clicking away. Unfazed, she must have seen a lot during her time.

Who has tried snails stir fried with chili and spices? I haven't. If you have, how does it taste?



Another thing I haven't tried. Looks like chocolate mousse but is fermented shrimp paste. If you have tried it, how does it taste? Deeply savoury salty?



Bun bo Hue or "beef noodle from Hue" is everywhere in the imperial city (though it is rarely seen elsewhere, unlike the globally available pho). We passed at least 3 or 4 bun bo Hue stalls before our guide Nguyen Ngoc An of Connect Travel brought us to this stall. It was so crowded, I wondered where we were going to sit 😱



Despite it being called "beef noodle from Hue", the soup is actually made by boiling pork and beef bones. In the bowl are thick rice vermicelli, pork blood curd, beef slices, pork, and the signature crab-pork meat ball. Please do not leave Hue without tasting bun bo Hue 👈 click



An also brought us to this stall selling yellow looking noodles and pork offal in fiery looking spices in a large wash basin. I said yellow looking noodles because what I thought were the familiar yellow noodle (that we have in Singapore and Malaysia) were in fact thick rice vermicelli stir fried with turmeric. This Hue dish is known as bún nghệ or turmeric noodles.



Customers sit around the little stall on tiny stools, slurping up the delicious noodles, the way it is all over Vietnam.



I like this dish with turmeric coloured rice vermicelli, pork intestine and liver cooked in spices, topped with aromatic greens and a large dollop of ground chili paste - it reminds of dry curry mee of Ipoh (Malaysia) though it tastes and looks quite different. Basically, a combination of savoury, sweet, spicy but doesn't taste as burning hot as it looks (to my taste buds lah.... ).

Other Hue food icons you must try here include com hen (mussel rice), banh khoai (seafood pancake) etc.



Of course, we must have a street side cuppa. It's always nice - robust savoury bitter taste balanced with sugary sweetness in an almost syrupy thick brew. Strangely, throughout our week long foodie trip to Hue, we couldn't find any place that still serves the iconic, photogenic Vietnamese drip coffee.



Fashionable face masks in the market. The market is chock-a-block with stalls selling handicraft, daily necessities, household goods, clothing (inevitably, T-shirts & conical hats for tourists), much like a department store.

Some stalls cater to tourists but Dong Ba Market is by and large still a market for locals (thank goodness for that).



Recommended for you 👍 Drop by the historic Dong Ba Market when you are visiting Hue. Lots of interesting things to see, and delicious food to taste. Get to know what locals cook and eat, see a slice of life of Hue folks.



Address: 2 Trần Hưng Đạo, Phú Hoà, Thành phố Huế, Thừa Thiên Huế, Vietnam
Hours: 3:00am - 6:00pm (8am - 11am is the best time to eat as most food stalls close after lunch)


 

Date visited: 4 Mar 2020