More Hue

The weather in Hue has been less than spectacular. Not nasty a far as tropical depressions can be, but breezy, rainy, and cool. Daily high temps have not been out of the mid-teens since we arrived. Still, it isn't a beach town, so we dug our sweaters out from the bottoms of our packs, donned our Vietnam Sun Dresses, and hit the town.

Hue, as I may have previously reported, was a Capital City during several Dynastic rulers of Vietnam, including the last Emperors (the Nguyen Dynasty ended here in 1945 when they turned over rule of the Northern half of Vietnam to Ho Chi Minh). As it was the seat of Empires during the times that emperors did this sort of thing, the City includes a large walled portion: the Citadel,

which contains an inner walled portion: the Imperial Enclosure,

which also contains an inner walled portion: The Forbidden Purple City.

I think the rain is getting to Tig.

All the walls and moats were good for keeping out the Mongols, but not the artillery of the French War and the massive aerial bombardment of the American War, so much of what was the glorious interior of the Imperial enclosure was destroyed or damaged.

Although nothing but rubble remains of the Forbidden Purple City (which was only accessible to the Emperor and his Family) many of the temples, residences, gardens and offices of the Imperial Enclosure are open for touring as a long restoration process is being undertaken.

No military/historic site in Vietnam would be complete without displays of abandoned or destroyed Imperialist weaponry. Here an AD-6 with some prop issues.

A surprise display of Vietnamese advanced tech from the American War - a MiG-21. Hard to believe this riveted- together claptrap flew at twice the speed of sound. Oh, those Russians!

Along with the sights, Hue provided opportunity to sample some of the unique cuisine of the Hue region of Central Vietnam. They like their bun (fine rice noodles, thinner than pho but served the same way) spicy around here, but also have some unique dishes.

We had "banh khoai" at a little shop just off the street, then again at several other places - it was that good. This is a fried rice-flour pancake with some ground shrimp and pork on it. It is served with a variety of condiments, and is despite appearances, it is not eaten like breakfast at De Dutch. First you stick a bit of salad greens and fresh herbs into your little soup bowl and garnish with shredded onion, carrots, cucumbers, fresh garlic, hot chillies, and chili paste (if brave). Then you stick about half of your loaded pancake into the bowl, and smother it all with a cold gravy made from fermented soya beans and spices. Holy shit, it's good.

We were also repeat customers on "banh beo", which are steamed rice paste patties topped with ground shrimp and a variety of other savory flavours. These were served by the tray of up to a dozen individual saucers, which you cover with a sesame-oil based sauce then pop in your mouth as a single-spoon serving.

Finally, we enjoyed some if the freshest spring rolls ever, in that we rolled them ourselves at the table. The delicate rice paper was stuffed with a grilled pork mixture (that was grilled over flame while skewered on a stalk of lemongrass!) and the shredded onion, cucumber, and fresh herbs, all dipped in spicy soya sauce. In our inexperienced hands, a slightly messy treat!

These put the smile back on Tig's face. We discovered that pretty much anything (excepting soup) in these parts can be mixed with some fresh veggies, wrapped in rice paper and dipped in some sweet- savory-spicy sauce. Good times. If only we could find a place to wash these tasty treats down...

 

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