Spicy Eats

Just like the weather, the food of Hue is hot hot hot. Their meals are full of seafood, from this soup above, with shrimp, watercrest, and shredded banana seeds or my favorite, Banh Canh Cua Roi, or thick noodles with crabmeat, ground meats, cilantro, shallots, onions, yucca, chilies, veggies and other spices, which one of Michelle’s aunts makes and sells outside of Uncle Sam’s house at least twice a week.

Other great spicy dishes included a pan fried Birdfish in a fish sauce of sauteed garlic, peppers, onions with sugar and chopped tomates reduced and added at the end. Fan, or thinner noodles, with beef, or pork, was Bri’s favorite. Another great “finger food” which many vendors sold on the streets, but Aunt Nga made one night is shrimp, stuffed with beef, lightly breaded and then quick-fried. This one is served with a sweet and sour sauce sprinkled with dried chilie flakes.