Traveling and vegetarian eating in Hue

Hue is not only a charming former capital city of Vietnam but also a place where most of the cooking art techniques are fully developed and preserved until today. One cannot consider himself traveling Hue without trying the food here, especially try the art of making vegetarian food.

Where to eat

Hue is a former capital with many pagodas which are very well-known in many Vietnam tours. Especial in the countryside, each village has one pagoda called “village pagoda”. From the dynasty of Nguyen Phuc Chu, the royal family has started the habit of vegetarian eating. Many royal family members had contributed to the construction of pagodas. At Nam Giao, there is a large old house group call Trai hall for the king to come and do vegetarian eating before making rituals. There are also people who don’t go to pagodas but spend 4 days per month doing vegetarian eating. In common, this has become a tradition of Hue families.

Whenever you visit Hue in Vietnam tours, no matter whether you are staying in a city or countryside, you can try vegetarian food everywhere. This food is delicious, healthy and very cheap. You can visit Dong Ba, Ben Ngu, An Cuu markets with all kinds of vegetarian food. The western urban area of Hue is well-known as the “Pagoda Hood”. Along the old town of PhanBoiChau, Dien Bien Phu, Thuy Xuan are many small vegetarian restaurants just a couple of houses apart from one another. The food here is sold as buffet with a very cheap price.

What makes it special

Not less than the cuisine of Nguyen dynasty, Hue vegetarian food is amazingly delicious and attractive from the very first look during Vietnam tour. The famous chefs in Hue say that cooking this type of food takes a lot of time and work twice as much as the others.A good cook can make the vegetarian ingredients become the regular and delicious food. The ingredients are sold in many stores in a market especially at Hue. However, the key is to find out where to buy which ingredient because they are all family-made.

You can find the best restaurants at the popular tourist spot at the southern bank of Huong like Pham Ngu Lao, Doi Cung, Ba Trieu, Nguyen Cong Tru streets, particular with these names Bo De, Tinh Tam, An Lac, TinhBinh. Though it is more complicated to cook vegetarian, these dishes are 20,000 – 30,000 VND cheaper than the regular food. The “classier” vegetarian restaurants have their ingredients imported from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc., of course, have a higher price than that of the local ones.

When the evening comes, it is the right time when the vegetarian streets in Hue started to be crowded with tourists. The restaurants and the stalls are filled with people. Finally, it is not a big surprise with the availability of 30 – 50 of delicious choices for vegetarian food cooked in Hue style when traveling this charming town in Vietnam tour packages.