๐๐ถ๐ด๐ต 3 ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ๐ด ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ถ๐ต๐ด ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ต๐ด ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ฆ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ท๐ข๐ญ๐ถ๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐จ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ 25 ๐บ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ด. ๐ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ 8 ๐บ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ด, ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ 2007 ๐ต๐ฐ 2015, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ 1,174 ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต๐ด.
๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ฐ ๐๐ฉ๐ช ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ฉ ๐๐ช๐ต๐บโ๐ด ๐๐ถรก๐ฏ ๐๐ถแป๐ค ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ถ๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ฃ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐ช๐ฏ 2015 ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ญ๐ข๐ด๐ต ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต๐ด, ๐ข๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ถ๐ค๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ด๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ถ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ถ๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ฆ. ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ต๐ข๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ง๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ถ๐ฏ๐จ๐ณ๐บ ๐๐ฏ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ. [๐๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด๐ง๐ฆ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ, ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฆ 23, 2015]
My colleague from Hue insisted that Iโve not experienced true Vietnamese cuisine until Iโve had Imperial Hue cuisine, purportedly more refined than other regional cuisines in Vietnam, and whose finesse reflect the exacting demands of Tu Duc (1829-1883), the 4th Nguyen emperor and a die-hard gourmand in his time.
For lunch today, my Hue colleague brought me to Quรกn Ruแปc, reputedly one of the top spots in Saigon to have a true taste of Imperial Hue cuisine. This very popular Hue restaurant is owned by the famous Saigon-based writer-poet-artist, Mฦฐแปng Mรกn, and is more than a decade-old.
The restaurant is named after the pungent, addictive shrimp paste from Hue: mแบฏm ruแปc. Westerners might be turned off by the salty, overwhelming fishy odour (fermented smell) of mแบฏm ruแปc, but for folks like me who love โbelachanโ (our own shrimp paste in Singapore), the aroma was irresistible.
Mรณn khai vแป (hors dโลuvres).
Each table has a tray of tasty banana leaf-wrapped mรณn khai vแป (hors dโลuvres). There were 3 types to choose from:
- Trรฉ, unwrapped: it consisted of pigโs ears, galangal, sesame seeds, fermented pork, guava leaves and garlic, blended together to give trรฉ its trademark flavour.
-
Nem is pate-like fermented pork and sourish in taste.
-
Chแบฃ bรฒ: a very tasty, pale-coloured beef sausage.
Cรกc mรณn bรกnh (steamed cakes)
A selection of steamed rice cakes:
- Bรกnh ฦฐแปt tรดm chรกy: steamed, flat rice rolls with grilled shrimp (similar to Chinese โcheung funโ).
- Bรกnh nแบญm: rice cake filled with grilled shrimps.
- Bรกnh bแปt lแปc: steamed dumplings with pork and shrimp (almost similar to Singaporean โsoon kuehโ), tinged reddish-brown with annatto seeds.
- Bรกnh bรจo: small, saucer-shaped steamed rice cakes, topped with dried shrimps and pork crackling (similar to Singaporean โchwee kwayโ).
Mรฉp bรฒ (Boiled cowโs lips)
This trademark Hue delicacy is absolutely unmissable: parts of the cowโs mouth, eaten with a salad of bittergourd, starfruit, mint leaves & Hue figs (smaller & sweeter than Saigon ones) - very tasty when dipped into mแบฏm ruแปc/shrimp paste.
Powdered chilli was provided to be mixed into the mแบฏm ruแปc and was super-spicy: Hue cuisine is perhaps a few hundred thousand rungs above Saigon on the Scoville range when it comes to spiciness.
Hแบฟn xรบc bรกnh trรกng (Baby clams with rice paper wrap)
Another signature Hue delicacy, though my colleague explained that the version here is a non-spicy one, an inexplicable departure from the usual Hue rendition where itโs very spicy.
Mรณn bรบn giแบฅm nuแปc (Hue summer noodles with jelly-fish)
Mรณn bรบn giแบฅm nuแปc - a staple Hue summer noodle dish of thick rice vermicelli (roughly the same as Singapore laksa noodles) topped with crunchy, thick jelly-fish slices (from Hue, and very difficult to procure in Saigon), pork, shrimps, rice crackers studded with black sesame seeds, groundnuts, finely-julienned curls of banana blossom, mint leaves and coriander.
Sour soup accompaniment to mรณn bรบn giแบฅm nuแปc
Accompanying the noodles is a small bowl of sourish seafood soup with crabmeat quenelles, wafer-thin pineapple slices, cherry tomatoes, scallions and coriander. The โtraditionalโ Hue way to consume this is to finish the noodles first, then proceed to the soup, although some Viet diners would pour the soup over the noodles. Either way, itโs absolutely scrumptious.
Bรบn ฤuรดi bรฒ - thick rice vermicelli with ox-tail broth and pigโs blood.
Iโm a sucker for pigโs blood, so this dish is irresistible for me.
Chรจ ฤแบญu ngแปฑ - โngแปฑโ bean dessert.
Hue cuisine does not favour the sweet flavours much loved by the Southerners and Saigonites. Conversely, its selection of dessert also pales in comparison, and seemed limited to sweet soups containing syrupy legumes and beans, called chรจ.
Address
Quรกn Ruแปc
145A Nguyแป
n ฤรฌnh Chรญnh, Phฦฐแปng 11, Quแบญn Phรบ Nhuแบญn, TP. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Tel: +84 838463614