Xin Chao! (Hello in Vietnamese). This is my first time in HUE.
I'm so lucky to have my friend here to guide me around and today he took me to this place for food.
So, please welcome my friend, Jin!
Thanks so much for bringing me here today.
It's my pleasure.
OK. Could you introduce what are the names of these foods?
So, for tonight, we are going to enjoy these kind of traditional rice cakes.
The first one is 'Banh Beo'.
The second one is 'Banh Nam'.
It's hard to find the word to be translated into English.
And the last one is 'Banh Bot Loc'.
So, 'Banh' means rice flour?
Cake. 'Banh' means cake in general.
I saw some meats, right? Shrimp?
Minced shrimps...and...
We have pork skin.
And, they have this local special sauce.
Firstly, we need to have spoon.
OK. Alright.
And then, you just grab one and then you can pour the sauce.
OK.
Hmm...Very good...Very good!
How many of these (little bowls) you have each time?
Twenty or one tray like this.
(Surprised)
Yeah it's good!
one tray for one (person)!
Yes. Alright and now I'm going to show you how to enjoy this kind of cake called 'Banh Nam'.
OK. I'll follow you.
Just put it on the plate like this. And, open it.
And now, you have this kind of sauce. You pour it on the top of it.
Right.
Hmm..(yummy sound)
Now, we move on to the third cake, 'Banh Bot Loc'.
I'll show you how to eat it.
OK. We take the cake out.
Just dip in the sauce. A little bit. And then, enjoy it.
OK. Hmm...
Inside is good!
Hue is a former capital of Vietnam that is associated with the cooking style of the former royal court.
Today, we'll try one famous menu.
For breakfast, one of the options for Hue people is 'Bun Bo Hue', apart from other choices.
"Bun Bo Hue' is still number one.
So, normally we have beef, meat balls, and noodles. It's rice noodles and it is totally different from 'Pho' (another famous menu).
What is the difference?
Ah, you see... in shape. Different shape and different taste as well.
Pho (noodles) is bigger?
Yes. And the taste is really different.
And we also have these noodles with vegetables here. Lemon.
So, you can put chilli and lime into this (soup).
Yes. Into the soup.
It's really good!
Hmm...
Hmm.. (yummy sound).
The food looks so nice!
Thank you so much. But, I've heard it's all vegetarian food.
Yeah, they are vegetarian food.
It's famous here in Hue?
Right. One of the main parts of Hue Cuisine is vegetarian food, apart from royal cuisine an cuisine of the mass.
Umm.
This is dried meat in the clay pot. It looks pretty much like 'Risotto' (famous Italian rice menu).
Risotto!
Yeah.
But, it's all made with some vegetables and rice.
This one looks like...
Yeah, the same cake, 'Banh Beo'.
Banh Beo..but it's not. No meat!
The rice is not the white one, they use red rice instead.
OK. We also have hot-pot here, vegetarian hot-pot.
It looks like fish ball, but it's not. It's tofu.
It's tofu and mushroom - straw mushroom. OK. So, let's start with 'Banh Beo' first (laugh).
Hue has been considered the center of Buddhism since ancient times.
A large number of Buddhists have been living and practicing buddhism.
That's why vegetarian food is popular here.
So, we we now at Dam Chuon Village, one of very famous villages.
From Hue, it's about 7 kilometres. It's by the lagoon - Tam Giang.
And in this local village, they have this local food.
Yeah. This is typical. We cannot see anywhere else that people doing this 'Banh Xeo Ca Kinh'.
So, normally it's fresh. Many people love to come. It's the whole fish, completely the whole fish.
People come and they normally use fingers and make the fish into small pieces and eat with vegetables.
And then, fish sauce.
Very hot.
I don't know, But here, Hue people get a lot of chilis. A lot of that.
So, let's taste! How do we eat it?
Chopsticks or by hands. We open it like this...yeah!!
You look at the fish. There are some little bones, but not much.
And, I put into the fish sauce. A little salty. But it tastes very good.
because they don't put any sugar or whatever in the fish sauce.
Alright. This is 'Bun Hen' or 'Com Hen'. The local name that means Noodles with Mussels and Rice with Mussels.
and also rice porridge with mussels. These are very popular.
So, these are mussels?
Yeah, these are mussels, very little one
Yeah, these are small ones, but they also even have much smaller ones.
Found here in Hue?
Yeah, it comes from in river.
Ah. In the river.
And that one is pork skin. Some vegetables and noodles.
It always comes with this.
You can put a little bit of this on. This is chilli and garlic. It's popular.
For Vietnamese people, we even do it like this. This is normally an option.
But, you could add it in later if you like it. (laugh)...and some fish sauce.
Make a taste. That's very nice!
I feel the flavor of vegetables, rice flour, mixed with the smell of mussels. Quite a unique taste.
So, this is called?
In Vietnamese, 'Bun Thit Nuong'.
which is a kind of grilled pork?
Grilled Pork Noodles.
Ah. Nuek Lae. Peanut sauce. It looks so good!
We have vegetables, noodles, pickles, and certainly, grilled pork,
and especially, we have pickles to make noodles here not boring with taste.
OK. Now, we try. We have to stir it?
Yeah. We have to mix it up.
Hmm...
Trying some street food is one way to experience local lifestyle.
So, let's travel like a local, not a tourist.
Well, this noodle tastes real good!!
So, what we're gonna have now is dessert?
Yes, local dessert. We call it 'Che' or 'Sweet Soup'.
OK.
We have different types of 'Che'. This one is a very special one.
In Vietnamese, it's called 'Bot Loc Boc Thit Quay' or 'Grilled Pork covered with Cassava Flour'.
OK.
These are all about different types of beans - green beans, red beans, and it's mixed with banana.
That is taro and Cassava...Bot Loc.
OK.
So, we have 'Banh Bot Loc' and we have 'Che Bot Loc'.
We will pick a little bit of everything.
OK. let's just try it!
Hmm.. Oh, it's quite special you have grilled pork inside, but it's dessert!
Wow! This is my first time trying grilled pork as a dessert. A very local menu indeed!
Fly to Hue via Danang airport with Bangkok Airways.
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