Hue - Bún Bò Huế

Even though you see Bún Bò Huế (Hue-style beef noodle soup) places all over Vietnam, we made a point to wait to have it until we were actually in Hue. I found myself almost regretting this, as it proved difficult to pick a place in Hue to have it. Places were closed, too far away, derided as gone touristy and expensive, etc.

I was talking to one of our hotel's friendly receptionists about this, and she told me there was a lady who sets up shop right on the corner every morning and that was where the locals ate.



That was good enough for us. Since we aren't the morning-est of people, we hadn't seen the lady's setup on our first day in Hue - she had already packed up and gone before we headed out. Making a point to get out there before 8:00 the next morning, there she was.



Unlike phở bò, the noodles are bún (rice vermicelli). The broth was pulled from a stewing cauldron of meat bits - our bowls had some beef meatballs in them, along with some fresh beef slices that were added at serving. I've read that cubes of blood are typical, but there were none is this version.



Savory, lemon-grassy and moderately spicy. Delicious. We had it for breakfast on both of our remaining mornings in Hue.

Hue - Bánh Bèo, Bánh Nậm and Bánh Khoai at Quán Hạnh

We had a bit of trouble discovering places to eat in Hue, so it was fortunate that we found a restaurant nearby that we really liked.



Quán Hạnh specializes in local Hue dishes, and we had dinner there twice during our short stay. We got to try a couple of new types of "Bánh". Bánh Nậm comes as a stack of leaf-wrapped treasures:



Inside each package is a luxuriously soft rice cake with shrimp and pork. The texture is completely different than other types of rice cakes we've had and we really enjoyed it.



We also got to try Bánh Khoai - Hue's local version of bánh xèo. Bánh khoai is puffier and you break off pieces to eat directly with greens and herbs, rather than rolling it in a rice wrap.



And we couldn't resist getting some Bánh Bèo:



An order of 16 of these cute little dishes seemed like a lot at first, but they disappeared quickly...



We also had a couple of less-specifically local, but still tasty dishes. Bún Thịt Nướng (pork with rice vermicelli) and Gỏi Cuốn (shrimp and pork summer rolls).



We enjoyed everything we tried at Quán Hạnh, but the clear standouts were the Bánh Bèo and Bánh Nậm.