Savoring Hue ~Excluding Shellfish and Crustaceans~ (Written by Ho)

One of Hue's most representative dishes is Bánh bột lọc. It's made by mixing tapioca flour into a dough, filling it with pork and shrimp, wrapping it in banana leaf, and steaming it.

It has a translucent look and a smooth, chewy-bouncy texture that's easy to swallow. The Vietnamese way is to dip it in a sweet-and-spicy sauce, but the ingredients are already seasoned, so for me, this alone is more than enough! It's an appetizer, but it's quite filling, so it's a dish you need to watch out not to overeat on. I really think this texture is something Japanese people love~. And this is also an appetizer. I still haven't reached the main dish. I'm already full though...

It's steamed chicken. There's a bold, hearty feel to it — steamed whole, then chopped into big pieces. The green shredded bits are citrus leaves. It seems to be steamed together with something, but I'm not sure what. Anyway, it's really refreshing. I eat it with lime salt, a mix of lime, salt, and pepper. Liver and offal parts are also served alongside it. These too have no gamey smell and go down easily, bite after bite. I have a feeling this isn't just plain steamed chicken, but I wasn't able to ask about the cooking method. Next up is what I guess I can finally call the main dish... fish and hot pot. Fried white fish topped with tomato sauce. The white fish is cut about 3 centimeters thick, lightly deep-fried, and coated in a juicy tomato sauce. I felt the tomato tasted unusually sweet—maybe that's because of the sugar?

The thick white fish is light in flavor, but it has quite a bit of fat too, so you can really feel its richness. I thought this would definitely be delicious even without the sauce. Among the Hue dishes, I think this one had the most solid seasoning.

And then there's canh chua — the sweet and sour soup. It's packed with white fish! Tomatoes, green beans, tofu, coconut sprouts, pineapple, and all sorts of herbs and seasonings. It comes with bún noodles, but... by that point I was already so full that just finishing the soup took everything I had. Still, once I tasted it, it was completely different from what I'd eaten in Ho Chi Minh City!!! The seasoning is light, but the broth is packed with flavor from the ingredients, so it's rich with umami. You can really feel it soaking into your body. I was truly, truly full, but it was the kind of soup I felt like I could keep drinking forever. Hue's seasoning really is exactly my kind of taste, through and through.

And the most moving part is the dessert, Bon Bon! It's a fruit that, from its appearance alone, doesn't really tempt you to reach for it, but it's a king of fruits with a gap between looks and taste that's simply tremendous!

It's about the size of a Kyoho or Muscat grape. The skin isn't thick, so you can peel it easily with just a little force. Inside, the translucent flesh is divided into about 4 to 6 segments. This translucent, milky-white fruit doesn't have a big seed like lychee or rambutan. The one thing to watch out for is that there's a core-like lump inside the segments — it's bitter and has an unpleasant texture, so it's probably best not to eat that part.(Even eating it, it's not really that bad-tasting) but once you toss it in your mouth and taste it... a texture and sweetness unlike anything you've ever tasted before spreads across your whole mouth. Unlike a mandarin or grapes, the juice doesn't burst out vigorously. It has a crisp, gummy-like texture that's lost its springiness, and there's a bit of a grapefruit-like bitterness too, but the sweetness wins out... it ends up sounding like such a clichéd description.I'd like to look into this more carefully and write about it at some point. I got one right away since it was also being sold at a market in Ho Chi Minh City.

About 30,000 VND ≈ 150 yen. I felt like I might just eat it all in one go, so I quickly saved it to share with my husband Sei instead. Whew, that was close... it almost all went into my stomach! This fruit, bonbon, is just coming into season, and apparently you can enjoy it in Ho Chi Minh City until around October. Highly recommended! Please do try it. But while I was happily savoring this delicious dessert...

The excitement of the company trip deepened even more... One employee's father treated everyone to his beloved homemade wine — actually Vietnamese rice liquor — that he'd brought from home. Sharing a single shot, everyone gulped it down going "whoa, that's strong!" as we all toasted together. The party goes on... Expat Life Ranking