Eat like A King!

The Nguyen Dynasty ruled Vietnam from 1802 – 1945 from the Imperial City in Hue, and during this period there were thirteen emperors. The Emperor Tu Duc was the longest reigning of the Nguyen monarchs, ruling for thirty-six years. He was particularly known for being a weak ruler and how he spent his time during his reign, focusing on himself and his pleasures - which were numerous.

He enjoyed 16 years of boating, fishing, meditation and poetry, composing thousands of poems on the grounds of his (now) mausoleum. He kept himself very busy with 104 wives and a whole village of concubines. He drank tea made from dew collected from lotus blossoms and he insisted on at least 50 dishes in every meal.

He apparently didn't like eating the same dish twice in a year, so his army of chefs worked tirelessly to create many recipes to suit his wishes. Due to this, Hue cuisine has developed into thousands of dishes and is presented more elaborately than anywere else in Vietnam, here they use many small dishes so the table looks like a king's. Central Vietnamese food is all about seasonal produce as they have four distinct seasons.

The cuisine today in Hue is a combination of Hue home-cooking, tasty vegetarian dishes which stem from the Pagodas and elaborate Imperial dishes handed down through generations of Imperial cooks.








Adam and I visited Ythao Garden, an old colonial villa inside the walled citadel, one of a few that offers a sample of an Imperial menu. Our host greets us dressed in her silk ao dai at the gates of the villa and we are shown to the dining room set out amongst the garden. I am feeling a little under-dressed, as you do when you are travelling. We are shown the set menu for $8 each – there is no other menu available.




Within minutes of being seated out comes the first dish, an elaborate vegetable carving of a peacock decorated with springrolls accompanied with a dish of nouc mam (fish sauce).





Then a light vegetable broth followed by four gigantic steamed prawns with a side dish of salt, pepper and a fresh squeeze of lime. There is no breathing space, next comes Hue's speciality – a pancake filled with pork, shrimp, bean sprouts with a peanut and sesame seed dipping sauce.





We have barely finished our pancakes and out comes a fig salad – finely chopped pork with green figs, peanuts, sesame seeds, mint and coriander to be scooped onto crunchy prawn crackers. The green figs work well with the fattiness of the pork as they have a chalky flavour.



We ask for a break but a few minutes later grilled beef arrives with a beautiful parcel of steamed lotus rice. They are really in a hurry here. Our host slices the parcel open and retreats to a corner along with another four girls all dressed in ao dais sitting at a table giggling and staring at the foreigners. I feel like a caged animal in a zoo.

Our plates are cleared and at last we can have a break, relax and unwind, take our time, soak up the atmosphere, out comes dessert – fruit and a flower vase filled with two stems of green bean cake fashioned to look like fruit, too pretty to eat.

The fig salad was excellent, the rest of the dishes were good but unimpressive but great value for $8 a head. The presentation was creative and elaborate, it takes time to make each fruit and vegetable carving - an army of staff, I should imagine.

However we were so rushed through our dinner, I was really disappointed that we couldn't take our time and enjoy all the hard work to make dinner look beautiful.

So we tried a sample of seven dishes out of a possible 2,500, I get the feeling that Hue's Imperial food has been revived for the tourists and for their tastes, its all about the presentation and the atmosphere but not really about the food, I am sure there is tastier food out there, we just have to go and explore Hue to find it.