Hue “Me xung” (sesame candy) – chewing and singing

Food is simply thought as a survival source. However, it reveals people’s characteristics in each area, each city… People can deny their skin, their hair color but always keep their own spirit in the cuisine. “Me xung” is a feature of Hue in Viet’s cuisine.

“Sesame candy chewing and singing” is a poem sentence of a person who loves Hue so much, want to share his experience about this rich traditional culture land. The poem brings me the memoirs of childhood. That time, I followed my parents from South to North. Every time stop at Hue, I always claim my father to buy me some bag of sesame candy to “chew and sing”.

The candy pieces are small squares in my hands were really attractively fragrant. The sweetness fat of sugar, the fleshiness of peanut, sesame, all create an amazing attraction to a young soul like strange things. Somewhere, I hear people call “mè xửng” by “mè xững”. It must be “me xung” with the “~” mark, to have a better reflection of Hue ascent.

Enjoying Hue “me xung” is an art, you can’t rush; if you are not patient, you will not feel all the goodness inside this kind of candy. Eat a good piece of candy, sip a bit of tea marinated with lotus blossom harvested from Tinh Tam lake, read a good book, just simple like that but to many people, that simple is enough for life. The crunchiness fleshiness of peanut, the fragrant of sesame and the sweetness of sugar really matches a cup of lotus tea. Rising the cup of tea to your nose, feel the purity, then enjoy a sip of tea, take a bite of candy, then the sweetness of candy will become lighter.

Later, every time coming by Hue, I always stay a bit longer at the old capital. Hue is sad but calm our soul down as well as enjoying a bag of “me xung” can think of many things in life. It’s not only a snack for kid, but also becoming specialty that follows Vietnamese to Hong Kong, Paris. Nowadays, there are many famous family making and selling “me xung”. For example: Song Hy on Phan Boi Chau street (Phan Dang Luu), Nam Thuan on Hang Be (Huynh Thuc Khang now), Hong Thuan, Thien Huong, Thanh Binh,… can be more than 20 stores. To many people, Song Hy is still the best one. Unfortunately, this is just in memory of many Hue people because his family transferred the business to the US.

Some said that “me xung” likes France’s chewing gum. I don’t know whether I love Hue so much, but I always think that chewing gum will never be compared with “me xung”. Is it because the soul of Hue was derived into every piece of the candy?

Food is simply thought as a survival source. However, it reveals people’s characteristics in each area, each city…Perhaps, Dzoan Cam Van was right when saying that “To the cuisine, there is no flat world”. People can deny their skin, their hair color but always keep their own spirit in the cuisine. “Me xung” is a feature of Hue in Viet’s cuisine.


*Taro**