Lan Huế

A sunny Saturday afternoon found me on the motorbike to Bao Vinh ancient town. Accompanied by two handsome guys, I felt kool.

Making a walking tour around the town, all I could see are modern buildings were growing in a hustle. Ancient houses or nha ruong (Vietnamese traditional houses made of wood) were hardly been seen since they were crouching among the concrete buildings to hide their ugly and ruinous look. How sad to witness this scene but nothing much I can do, I know.

While the heart was heavy with the image of bed-ridden old houses, my tummy started to rumble noisily. The other guys were also hungry, I guessed, so we decided to stop by a food stall where they serve only banh canh (*).

I love fresh food so when I looked at the smoke going up from the bowl of noodle soup and a few meat balls lying by an attractive shrimp in it, my eyes were glistering, my mouth was watering so I could hardly wait any longer to taste it. “Yummy! I can eat two or three portions in a row,” I talked to my friends who were looking at me with amusement.

Too enthusiastic telling you how I enjoyed the banh canh, I forget to explain that there are many kinds of noodle soups in Vietnam such as pho, bun, banh canh, etc. with different tastes and shapes. The food stall that I dined last Saturday afternoon is very famous and full of diners because of its tasty banh canh and perhaps because of its brand as well: “Banh Canh Mu Doi”(**).

You can say this banh canh is a specialty of Hue since no where in the world you can find such a tasty, eye-catching dish with white noodle, green spring onion, red chilly, black pepper, light brown meat balls and bright orange shrimp. I love it so much, especially when it's served with boiled quail eggs!!! (No wonder my friends call me country girl.)

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(*) Banh Canh: a type of noolde soup which the noodle is made of rice powder, cassava powder or flour.
(**) Banh Canh Mu Doi: literally means “noodle soup of Mrs. Wait” in English. I’m not so sure if the owner’s name is Mrs. Wait; or it’s because people have to wait for so long to be served that they decided to call it Mrs. Wait’s noodle soup.

* The photo above was taken by Bao Huy - one of the guys who accompanied me to Bao Vinh *