Old-Time Vietnam – Bun Thit Nuong, a Hue Delight

I told the taxi driver that I was going to visit a restaurant for a meal.  The address was reading a bit odd to me, it says Opposite No. 35, Nguyen Truong To Street, Hue.  The restaurant’s name is a nondescript Nguyen Truong To Nem Lui.

The driver found No. 35, Nguyen Truong To Street.  It is a proper store.  I kept looking “opposite” and around for a restaurant with the name Nguyen Truong To Nem Lui, but when I looked a bit harder, it all made sense to me.  This is a street stall.  It is street food on shortlegged-stool seating.

Photo: A “full house” at the street stall restaurant

Normally, to eat Vietnam’s street food one would go to a night market type of setup, where there are many, many food vendors selling street food on one full street.  This one, however, is a lone tent over a makeshift kitchen, and people sat on bathroom stools to eat their bun thit nuong.  I had no problem with this.  I always choose a truly local dining experience over hygiene concerns.  And surely, this bowl of bun thit nuong was well worth the risk of stomach problems.

Bun Thit Nuong is a cold dry white noodle with grilled pork, an abundance of herbs and a sauce for mixing.  It was looking somewhat familiar to me, as I might have had the same noodle elsewhere in Vietnam before.  As with all food in Hue, this noodle acquires a special Hue spin to make it especially tasty here.

The secret to Hue’s bun thit nuong is in its sauce.  According to my source:

“The distinguished sauce is made from pork liver, peanut and sesame that will make you speechless once you try it.  Hue Grilled Pork Noodle is one of the royal cuisines from ancient times.”      – Bee Bee Travel

I could not wait and so I grabbed a stool right away.  I noticed that people were actually “ordering,” meaning that there are variations to what you can put in the noodle salad.  Again, with no Vietnamese in me, I resorted to pointing at the bowl my neighbor was having.

It was really quite a show at the makeshift kitchen.  With deft hands and fingers the lady chef quickly put together all the wonderful ingredients that go into this heavenly dish.  The sequence was somewhat like salad in, cold noodles next, pork on top, more radish and the distinguished sauce as a finishing touch.  Perhaps she could make a bowl in 30 seconds or so.  I was simply amazed.

After having the noodles, people handed back their bowls to another lady, the bowls as good as being licked clean.  It was a small bowl, indeed, and I did debate if I wanted another one.  The cost was đ15,000, and I certainly could afford another bowl.  But in Cantonese we say “eat small portions with full appreciation of its taste.”  So even though I saw others ordering seconds, I stopped.  Maybe I should look around for other snacks.

In that early evening I had my first street food in Hue, after a full day of touring the Citadel and three royal tombs.  Indeed, my source said that it is a type of food that Vietnamese people eat in the afternoon.  As soon as I left, my little bathroom stool was taken over by another hungry soul.

And I did find a little sweet something not far away, and had this:

Well, what a wonderful end to the trip.  The taxi driver made a few rounds in the vicinity and came back for me.  He took me back to the hostel and I happily tipped him.  To say the least, this first day of touring Hue was an amazing experience.  It was imperial Vietnam that I saw.

In Hue, I walked one day for a hundred years in time.