I find Vietnamese food to be light, healthy and delicious. I am afraid that if I stayed longer in the country, I will gain and extra 5 kilos, haha.
In Vietnam, they have of course popular regional cuisines. The province of Hue located in central Vietnam is known for its imperial cuisine. I haven’t been to this place, but I have tasted some of its food specialty at Mon Hue, a traditional chain restaurant in Vietnam specializing in Hue food cuisine.
My sister and I found this restaurant whilst walking on Dong Khoi. We were strolling the city centre and enjoying the beautiful city lights when we passed by this restaurant. When I looked up I saw that they have open balconies. Now that is a place I would like to have dinner at.
So we went back to the hotel to wake the parents up for dinner. My mom was in R.E.M. state and couldn’t be bothered so it was just my dad, sister and I. We’ll just bring something later for my mom because we are sure she will wake up later at midnight, and hungry. We didn’t want to waste much time walking so we hailed a cab.
Mon Hue is very easy to find on Dong Khoi street because it is right across Gucci.
The interior of its indoor restaurant was truly of imperial taste. White and blue porcelain decorate the walls and the ceilings. It was very interesting to see the suspended plates on the ceiling, the interior is a mix of modern and Vietnamese imperial style design. But we prefer to eat alfresco so we informed the wait staff that we will sit outside the balcony. Here we had a good view of the thriving Dong Khoi street below.
We decided to order 3 dishes to share.
We started with the ‘Banh Uot Thit Nurong’ for our appetizer. A BBQ pork rolled in a steamed rice cake. This was delicious, I could eat this every single day as a snack. The peanut sauce just gives the right oomph and the thinness of the rolled rice cake wrapper was just good enough. We figured out my mom would love this so we ordered a takeaway for her.
Then came the steamed rice pancake called ‘Banh Dap Mam Nem’. They call it on the menu – Beating pancakes with man nem sauce. Perhaps because you need to crush the rice pancake to eat it? I love the whole yin-yang combination of salty shrimp sprinkles and the a bit sweet flavoured thin wafer sheets of sticky rice. But the crunchy cracker-like pancake cover is what makes this dish. This was just oh so good! For sure the stellar dish on the table.
Next is the rice noodle with marinated char-grilled pork ‘Bun Thit Nurong’. They served this with a separate sweet and sour light sauce that you have to mix with the noodles. I found this quite nice and very refreshing to the palate.
My favourite though would have to go to the rice pancake, the Banh Dap. One way or another I need to find a restaurant offering this dish soon here in Europe.
After this lovely Vietnamese dinner, we hit the famous cafes of Dong Khoi and had coffee.
Inside the interior of the Mon Hue restaurant on Dong Khoi street.
‘Banh Uot Thit Nurong’ - Steamed rice cake roll with pork with peanut sauce.
‘Bun Thit Nurong’ - Rice noodle with char-grilled pork.
‘Banh Dap Mam Nem’ - The imperial style Hue pancake. They also call this rice paper cracker.
Dining alfresco at the balcony.
Coffee and tea before going back to the hotel.
Travel Period: December 2016
Destination: Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City (Southeast), Vietnam
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Happy Travels! Enjoy Life =)
All pictures were taken by a point and shoot pocket camera or a smartphone.
