REMEMBER TO TRY THUONG TU PANCAKE IN HUE

Banh khoai (Pancake) is a popular dish in Hue. It’s easy to find a pancake store in Hue but Thuong Tu pancake is the most delicious and authentic one with more than 40 years old.

Thuong Tu gate is an ancient name, which is located at Southeast of Hue ex-capital. On Dinh Tien Hoang street leading to Thuong Tu gate, there are a pancake store of a very special family: everybody are dumb and deaf but they make very good pancakes.

Thuong Tu pancake is made specially

The owner is Madam Ho Thi Tra-90 years old, has 7 good children but all dumb and deaf, communicating by body language only. However, with the good special pancake dish, her family made a very famous brand name of Thuong Tu pancake. The original store is at Lac Thien pancake, at 6 Dinh Tien Hoang, the others next to it are her children’s.

The pancake’s stuff includes shrimp, pork paste, egg, pork belly

There are many places selling pancake: Dong Ba, Kim Long, Gia Hoi, Vi Da…, yet, Thuong Tu pancake is more well-known due to their cake’s flour mixture and the sauce made from 10 spices: soybean sauce, peanut, sesame, liver, pork, shrimp paste…

Because of good dough, Thuong Tu pancake has perfect brittleness. The stuff has shrimp, pork paste, egg, pork belly is very easy to replicate, but mixing the dough to have crunchy, flavor, sticky pancake is just at Thuong Tu pancake.

Thuong Tu pancake has perfect brittleness

The sauce to eat with pancake is similar, so enough with the sweetness goodness that nobody can replicate. The word is that even Madam Tra’s children might not be able to do it without learning carefully from her.

This is not only Hue people’s favorite place, but Thuong Tu pancake is also a popular place with foreign tourists. It appeared in Viet Nam reality show of Luke Nguyen.

If there is any chance to come to Hue, pancake is a dish that you cannot miss besides baby mussels rice, beef noodle soup, rice flour cake, etc…

*Taro**

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ZUCCHINI SOUP WITH CLAMS ( Ngao nấu canh bầu)

** Mixture of clams and zucchini makes a wonderful and healthy food. The clams are used for soup with spinach, water spinach, especially zucchini soup is very delicious. Zucchini itself is used to cure some diseases, make us cool and relax.

**Ingredients:

-       1kg clams

-       500g zucchini

-       Wedge nuts

-       Scallions

-       Cilantro

-       Black pepper

-       Fish sauce

-       Chili

**Instructions:

1.    peel the zucchini, cut into small parts that is enough to eat.

2.    Boil the clams, remove its shells, take the meats in them and marinate in about 5-10 minutes with finely chopped scallions, some salt, black pepper. Then fry it on the stove.

3.    Pour some more water in the water you used to boil the clams, boil it again, then put the zucchini in, add some salt and wedge nuts. Then put all the fried clams in the cooker. Remember not to boil the zucchini overcooked.

4.    Ladle the soup into a bowl, put some more scallions, cilantro and black pepper, which make the food much more delicious and eyecatching. This soup is used with fish sauce with some chili in it.
** Preparing time: 20 minutes
** Cooking time:  20 minutes
** People enjoy: 5-6 people
** Level: Easy

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VẢ TRỘN (Mixed Figs)

As a rustic dish of Hue, "Vả trộn" (Mixed Figs) becomes a delicious one and can not be missed when you come to this ancient city.

Ingredients:

-         4 fresh figs.

-         100gr shrimp, 100gr lean meat.

-         Green onions, laksa leaves, fried onions, sesame seeds, toasted dry pancakes.

Directions:

-         After boiling fresh figs, peel and slice.

-         Boil shrimp, peel shells. Slice boiled lean meat.

-         Have fry onion, sliced figs in a big bowl and mix, then add shrimp, meat, mix again. Add some seasoning, salt, sugar and mix well.

-         Finally, add chopped green onions, laksa leaves and fried sesame seeds. Put the mixture on a plate and eat with toasted dry pancakes.

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My favorite dish-Bún bò Huế (Hue Beef Rice Noodles)

In my opinion, there are some dishes that you just can eat once or twice and wait for a certain of time to have it again. It’s not because you don’t have condition to eat, it’s because if you have a dish so often, it’s going to reduce the good taste of the dish in young feeling. However this rule of mine is never seem right to Bun bo Hue - a soup that starts with pork and beef bones, gets a kick from lemongrass, annatto and shrimp paste, and finishes the job with a tangle of herbs, a squeeze of lime and a few delicious add-ons like sliced brisket, crab balls and, in some cases, cubes of congealed pig’s blood.

My childhood closed to the aroma of lemongrass, shrimp paste, beef, pork blended in Bun bo Hue’s broth, since my mother started a small stall selling bun bo Hue when I was 12. It was near to our school, so my father usually took us there to have a “free breakfast” from my mom. We can have my mom’s bun bo Hue for about 3 4 consecutive days and never got bore, unlike other breakfast’s dishes. It was like that until we got into university and live far from home. We never got bored of my mom’s bun bo Hue; we can eat in the morning, at lunch and still can have the broth to eat with rice in dinner. I don’t know why I love bun bo Hue but I never want to try any bun bo Hue different than my mother’s. Sometime I came over to help my mom for washing bowl or serving, and she told me a lot about Bun bo Hue, so there is no other dish I know more better than this. Contrary to what the name implies — bun means noodles and bo means beef — Bun Bo Hue is most often based on a pork-intensive stock, with small amounts of braised or raw beef added as a garnish. I sometime asked my mom “why do you call Bun bo Hue but there’s also pork ribs or pork legs in there and it’s only 10% beef?” My mom cannot explain it and I think either other cooks. It is not easy to have a good broth pot of Bun bo Hue. Every step requires the care and the precision of the cook. The dish is the same as one but to different cook, it will come out differently. The same to Bun bo Hue. There might have a lot more delicious bun bo Hue than my mother’s but there is no childhood memory in any bowl of other Bun bo Hue. 

As long as my mother still cooks it I still eat Bun bo Hue. This dish is soulful and rich, delicious and complex. It’s spicier than most of Vietnamese soups. It’s just incredibly dynamic. This is not simply a dish to feed but a dish of my life. 

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NEM CÔNG (Peacock egg roll)

Nem công, this is not familiar with the diners nowadays; but at the earlier, it used to be an indispensable dish in royal parties or in Kings’ daily meals.

Ingredients:

-   50gr Ground pork shoulder

-   50gr dried shrimp

-   50gr shred jicama

-   50gr shred carrot

-   50gr bean sprout

-   50gr shortly cut soya noodle

-   50gr finely chop black fungus

-   50gr scallion

-   2 well beaten eggs

-   10 egg roll wrappers

-   1 teaspoon salt

-   1 teaspoon sugar

-   1 1 teaspoon pepper

Decoration:

-   1 bunch of parsley, lettuce

-   1 carrot

-   1 pineapple cut into peacock shape

Directions:

-   Clean and wash dried shrimp, soak until tender, crush finely. Mix well all the ingredients together except the egg.

-   Lay the wrap in front of you like a diamond.

-   Place 1 tablespoon of the mixture in center of wrapper

-   Fold bottom point up over the filling and roll once.

-   Fold in the right and the left point.

-   Brush beaten egg on top of the finishing point. Finish rolling

-   Heat 2-3 inches oil in large frying pan to very hot

-   Fry a few egg rolls in pan at a time, 2-3 minutes per side.

-   Drain on paper towels.

-   Decorate with the peacock pineapple and carrot, vegetable.

-   Serve with sweet and sour sauce.

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BÁNH XÈO (Vietnamese Pancake – The Raining day)

I was a child, every time the cold of the winter is nearby, my sister and I usually insisted our mom on making pancake, a famous and familiar food in Vietnam. Winter when I was ten is the most memorable time. In that year, rains seemed never the end and we got the greatest chance to eat the cake freely. While it rained heavily outside, we were enjoying our sweet pancake in our sweet home.

Vietnamese Pancake

In the morning, my mom cleaned rice and poured it into the bowl, then added the water to the rice until the seeds became bigger and softer. Afterwards, my sister and I took the bowl to the miller to make them into flour. Later on, my mother again added a little of water to the flour, mixed them with eggs, a spoon of turmeric and that is how to make the pan cake batter. I remembered that my sister is always interested in stirring that mixture.

My mother did almost everything likes cooking meat and shrimp with sauce, cleaning vegetables, washing bean sprouts, making gravy. Sometimes, we asked mom “what’s this?”, “what is it used for?” or ate one piece of meat on the sly.

Central Pancake

The cake was continuously cooked no matter how sweats fell on her face. She poured a large spoon of the mixture onto the hot greased frying pan, added some shrimps in the middle of the pan cake, some bean sprouts over and cooked them in closed pan. After 2 or 3 minutes, when it was cooked, mom folded it double, took it onto the dish. We quickly ran to the table while trying to smell deeply the sweet scent of that cake. Rolling the pancake with vegetables by rice paper wrappers, we tasted the food with hot and salty gravy. I will never forget that crispy, sour and sweet pan cake. That’s amazing!

How to east Pancake

When I grow up, there are a lot of food stalls where pancake is served. However, it’s no way more delicious than the cake made by my mom – The cake which is full of family love.”love.”

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Mì Quảng (Quang Noodle) - The Simple Love

         Someone told that: the shortest way to a men’s heart is through his stomach. Being young, most Vietnamese boys tend to flirt with sexy girls. They would like to lay their eyes at someone who is beautiful and charming. However, men are more careful to choose their wife, who will be their children’s mother and daughter-in-law of their parents. Obviously, they would rather choose the girls who are proficient in household affairs. Because of this above thinking, when I start to love him, I also start to pay more attention to my kitchen. I often surf the web to search for new recipes. Despite variety of dishes I tried to cook, he still loves only Quang noodle. 

Quang Noodle with shrimp, pork

          Sometimes, in the morning, I go to market early to buy noodles. Noodles are made from rice flour. Rice flour is steamed, then floored a little bit sesame oil. There are 2 types of noodles, namely white noodles and yellow noodles. Yellow noodles are different from the white ones that it’s also made from rice flour but added some saffron flour. Therefore, yellow noodles are much more delicious than white ones and that’s why my darling likes yellow noodles so much. I buy pork, noodles, shrimps, quail eggs, vegetable, lemon and especially green pimento. Once I have got all the necessary ingredients, I begin to process Quang noodles. This process consists of 3 steps: Boiling the eggs, Cooking the mixture of pork and shrimps and Mixing all of them into boiling water. Finally, I add some pimentos to make the sauce more palatable.
          Now are how to enjoy the noodle. We first need to add clean vegetables to a big bowl and let the noodle on then finally add the sauce of shrimp and pork on top. Don’t forget to add cooked peanuts, cilantros and a little bit lemon juice to enjoy perfect Quang noodle. My darling likes salty food so I also prepare a spicy fish sauce which is made from pure fish sauce and finger-sized, fresh pimento.

        Looking how he enjoys the Quang noodle makes me feel so happy.The sweet mixture of shrimp sauce, pork sauce, the tasty fish sauce with spicy pimento and the sour lemon juice is good enough to glamour that man.

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Cá nục hấp cuốn bánh tráng (Rice paper rolls with steamed scad - Scad rolls)

           When referring to types of rolling meals, central coastal people who live in severe weather conditions can't help mentioning "Scad rolls" - A popular dish with regional flavor. In July, when wind starts blowing from the South to the Coastal, It's time for fishing Scad. 

Steamed Scad with chili and scallion

It is the high value species in both nutritional and economic aspect, chosen by most of Vietnam housewives for cooking a lots of diversified and interesting dishes. 
               Scad Rolls is always given priority to be chosen because of the simplicity in cooking but diversity in nutrient. Its ingredients are also easy to find and very cheap. It's definitely not a bad choice. When reading the name of this dish, You can easily envision the main ingredient that makes it special Scad . After being washed, the fresh fishes will be put on the dish and marinated with onions, spices, peppers and chopped chili. All of them are blended until the fish is absorptive enough to be ready for the final step putting in the steamed pot. Each region has each special steaming method. Especially in Danang, You will have a chance to be experienced the very special taste because Scad is sometimes wrapped in a silver paper to steam. Thus, the flavor and nutrients of the fish will be kept entirety. In addition, heat will make liquid secreted from the fish which later is blended with marinated spices and then became a dish that’s mixed by salty taste of the sea, sweetness from the fish and piquancy from chili. We’re sure that it will satisfy any diner.

Rice paper rolls with steamed scad - Scad rolls

            Scad Rolls is enjoyed with water morning glory (bindweed) – A very familiar vegetable in Vietnam. The crispness and sweetness of this vegetable will harmonize with the softness of the fish by a very surprising way. This combination not only makes diners not be fed up about the dish but also unforget the special tasty of them when leaving Danang. The next component will be Rice paper. The tasty of this dish also depend on what kind of Rice paper will be used because of its flexible. In Danang, people usually use Rice paper made from rice flour.  However, this dish won’t be perfect if misses a very important component: Sauce. In Danang, the housewives often uses seasoning sauce. When you taste it, the saltiness will be on your tongue first, then it becomes spicy and finally, the sweetness of pineapple remains in your neck.

            Eating method is very simple: Just spread the girdle-cake on your hands, put on it some pieces of the fish and vegetables and then roll them all.

Scad Rolls, with the perfect combination of traditional flavors and multi-nutrients, has been being success in holding visitors to stay longer when they come to Danang. In addition, due to eye-catching and simplicity form, it often appears in family meals of local people.

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