Vietnamese Food: The Ultimate Food Guide
Peter Jon Lindberg, Travel + Leisure
Hue is a city that teaches you to pause. Here, flavours speak softly where emperors once thundered, carrying centuries of memory in each delicate bite. The old royal kitchens have given way to quiet gardens, where chefs like Boi Tran cook not to dazzle the eye, but to soothe the soul. A prawn, a rose petal, a thread of fried rice paper, each a note in Hue’s lingering song of grace. In this gentle kingdom, food is more than a feast; it is a tender invitation to remember what it means to taste, and to belong.
Hue is a slow-burn town. While Vietnam’s former imperial capital is certainly beautiful (the flame trees lining the boulevards could make a grown man swoon), it’s also sleepy and standoffish, more village than city.
There’s an upside to this: a short bike ride out from the centre will bring you into the unkempt wilderness, where only cicadas break the silence. But even downtown isn’t much livelier. And though Hue figures into plenty of travellers’ itineraries, for its magnificent Citadel, pagodas, and imperial tombs, many find it tough to crack.
Hue is renowned for its elaborate cuisine, developed by the skilled cooks of the royal court. Legend has it that the Nguyen kings, who ruled a united Vietnam from Hue in the 19th century, refused to eat the same meal twice in a year, so their cooks came up with hundreds of distinct, visually arresting dishes (most using the same few dozen ingredients).
This tradition endures in the local craze for dainty, flower-like dumplings and cakes such as Bánh Bèo, which aesthetically owes much to China and Japan, Bánh Bèo is an acquired taste, a bit too gluey.
Ingredients Preparation
The highlight in Hue, however, was a three-hour dinner at the royal garden (Hoàng Viên), opened in March 2010 by the painter and chef Boi Tran in a restored French-colonial house.
In an open-walled dining pavilion, long teak tables are set with vases of yellow roses, creating an ideal setting for a modern take on Hue cuisine, presented with appropriate flourishes, such as Vietnamese kaiseki.
“Shrimp with five tastes” was reminiscent of Thai tom yum koong, with a single, plump pink prawn swimming in a consommé spiced with Kaffir lime leaf, lemongrass, chilli, shallot, and ginger. Each flavour came through brilliantly.
The Hoang Vien’s Nem Rán (pork, shrimp, and mushroom spring rolls) were shrouded in wispy golden threads of fried rice paper and accompanied by a salad of rose petals.
Across five more courses, all presented on exquisite china from Bát Tràng, the famed pottery village outside Hanoi, Boi Tran took the precious formality of Hue cuisine to a new place, where the pleasure of pure flavour, not mere visual dazzle, was primary.
About the author
Peter Jon Lindberg is a journalist, editor, and travel storyteller with a keen eye for the soul of a place. Formerly Editor-at-Large at Condé Nast Traveller and co-founder of Story Collective LLC, he is known for weaving vivid, human-centred narratives that linger in the imagination. A professional “leaver-of-town,” Peter brings both curiosity and empathy wherever he goes, celebrating the beauty of cultures through food, landscape, and the quiet moments in between.
About TRAVEL + LEISURE Magazine
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