The ancient capital of Hue contains many outstanding cultural heritages. Especially food in Hue has over 1,700 dishes, including royal cuisine, folk cuisine, and vegetarian cuisine.
The poetic land of Hue is not only with the Perfume River, Ngu Mountain, and mausoleums and temples but also unique. Because the talented and skillful people have created a typical cuisine imbued with the colors of this beautiful land. But when it comes to this, every tourist wants to enjoy Hue dishes more than once.
Food in Hue have clear and rich flavors. Because Hue people consider food as a philosophy of life. There are all flavors, from salty, sweet, fatty, and fleshy to sour, astringent, bitter, and spicy, but each taste is always evident.
Hue people come to cuisine, not in a simple biological sense, but enjoy it with the sense of smell, sight, and… hearing.
As writer Nguyen Tuan said during his lifetime, Hue people like to eat with their eyes. But even though they mobilize all their senses to absorb nutrients. Hue people only focus on “eating flowers and scents,” as they often say about themselves.
Hue people are sophisticated in eating and drinking, not only in choosing ingredients but also being picky in seasoning, cooking, and decorating. As if each dish is elevated to the level of a work of art.
Hue dishes, whether they are delicacies or simple folk dishes, make everyone who tastes them admire their deliciousness to the point of “mouthing and listening”. And then forever linger on that unforgettable flavor. Through the skillful hands of the woman, the dish has been brought into the soul and spirituality of Hue.
Hue cuisine is the crystallization of the creative process of many generations, with more than 1,700 dishes from royal to folk. Food in Hue is the interference of many regions, the crystallization, and the spread of cultural areas.
Coming to Hue, visitors will enjoy three types of cuisine: royal cuisine, folk cuisine, and vegetarian dishes.
For several centuries, Hue was the center of Cochinchina during the reign of the Nguyen Lords. By the 19th century, it was a land of prosperous capital, and for less than a century and a half. It was the capital of Vietnam, the gathering place of a royal court and its leaders, so many mandarins and scholars.
In addition to the royal court, there are also aristocrats and upper classes, intellectuals, and most of the guests gathered here. That requires Hue people to be better at preparing extremely delicate dishes.
Today, although it no longer holds the role of a leading economic and political center in the country. Hue is still a place that maintains the ancient shadows of a dynasty with all the lifestyles of a golden age. Of course, the cultural capital of eating plays a significant part in forming the culture and style of Hue people.
Hue is a land that was discovered late. Most of the people from all over the world followed Lord Nguyen to the south to settle down. Therefore, the food is also rich, converging the essence of other places, turning into a separate dish with a unique local identity.
Hue dishes are both luxurious and delicious, as well as rustic dishes. But due to being skillful, knowing how to prepare them, and knowing how to season them, they still become poetic dishes.
Aristocratic dishes were strictly allowed by the Nguyen Dynasty. In the book Kham Dinh Dai Nam Hoi Hoi, the rules and regulations for each type of banquet: embassy reception banquets with three kinds of dishes: one tray with 50 dishes, type two with seven trays. Includes 40 dishes; type three has 25 trays of 30 dishes… Those dishes are presented in 1080 precious bowls and plates used only in royal palaces.
Nowadays, even though we no longer have to travel to find precious specialties to cook “Ngu Thien” dishes to serve the kings. They are peacock spring rolls, phoenix rolls, western stupid skin, bear paws, deer liver, orangutan lips, orangutan, elephant leg meat. But with four-season local specialties, homemakers can cook up to 300 dishes that are both rustic and luxurious.
The most rustic and unforgettable dish is mussel rice. It is a simple dish filled with country flavors made from a product located in the heart of the river of flavors of Hue.
Delicious mussel rice thanks to the skill of mixing a combination of ingredients and spices: herbs, banana ears, chopped mint stems, chili sauce, fish sauce, salt, tamarind, finely crushed peanuts, garlic fish sauce, and pork rinds and cooled white rice. Especially with the presence of raw shrimp, the delicious mussel rice is also thanks to this shrimp flavor.
Hue dishes are simple and rich, with the delicious flavors and smells of products from the fields, lagoons, mountains, and rivers of the Old Capital.
Just from lemongrass and salt, the housewife adds a little minced shrimp and meat and other spices. They are garlic, sugar, shrimp paste, and pepper through the soft and skillful hands of the housewives. I’m afraid you’ll never forget the lemongrass salt dish that you eat with rice in the winter in the North.
Meals in Hue are often just a few simple dishes, such as
- Goby fish braised with laksa leaves with coconut water, a typical vegetable soup that everyone has in their garden
- Malabar spinach leaves, lumpy tops, pumpkin flower buds, buds, some bamboo shoots…
- Cook a little with shrimp and meat, otherwise, take boneless fish (small fish), add some delicious fish sauce,
- A little shrimp paste, sautéed with onions and fat, stir-fry to get a sweet bowl of vegetable soup.
Every Hue family’s meal includes a plate of raw vegetables and a bowl of fish sauce to match the dish. Some people believe that the plate of raw vegetables in Hue is a miniature universe. With red tomatoes arranged around to symbolize the sun. Star-shaped star fruit slices instead of stars, and purple crescent-shaped fig slices. Felt, round slices of acrid banana with spots representing the vastness of the earth, little green herbs. And a few strands of water spinach and fresh chili twisted on top like blue and pink clouds floating on a sky of different colors.
In addition to the rustic yet sophisticated dishes of the ordinary people, delicious dishes were initially only for the nobility in the royal palaces. Still, they gradually followed homemakers to serve well-off families on occasion. Ceremonies, holidays, offerings, or entertaining friends. Everyone may know about An Cuu spring rolls, Thanh Han pork rolls, and many other dishes.
It would be a mistake to mention vegetarian dishes if everyone has known about Hue for a long time. During the time of the Nguyen Lords, Buddhism became the state religion.
An entire class of aristocrats are vegetarians, so vegetarian dishes in Hue are vibrant (about 125 dishes). For Buddhist families in Hue who invite friends to eat a vegetarian meal, it is a way to express their affection and respect for their friends.
Along with family meal dishes, Hue also has specialty dishes such as beef noodle soup and pork sausage. The most famous of which are Gia Hoi noodle soup and Tuan market.
There are also dozens of types of sweet and salty cakes. Anyone who has tasted them once will never forget the unique gift of the Old Testament. These are famous cakes with places: Dong Ba Banh Hoi, Ngu Binh duckweed cake, Nam Pho soup cake, Kim Long grilled meat wet cake…
Hue sweet soup is as rich as the cakes and gifts. Thirty-six different types of sweet soup are attractive enough on hot summer evenings to take a fantastic walk along the banks of the Perfume River, such as sweet soup with roasted meat, lotus seed sweet soup with longan, bean sweet soup, and bean sweet soup. Green bean soup, royal bean sweet soup, blood bean sweet soup… every dish brings us particular enjoyment.
Hue’s fruits include many types of three regions. Especially local specialties such as Huong Can tangerine and Nguyet Bieu green tea.
Today, with the combination of royal skills and local talent with popular ingredients here. Hue people can cook hundreds of different types of Hue food, luxurious and rustic.
Popular dishes are found around Hue city. Food in Hue is unique flavors, attractive cooking, and decoration before enjoying it. It gives diners a wonderful feeling and a unique style of enjoying Hue cuisine.
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