Tag Archives: hue

A Meal Fit For A King, Vietnam, November 2005

15 Jan

A little gecko watches us from a lamp overhead.

The emperors of the Nguyen dynasty were a decadent bunch. They made their home in the palace in Hue, they had concubines and servants coming out of their ears, and when they died they were buried in huge, elaborate tombs near the city. Apparently (as legend would have it) these gluttonous darlings also wanted variety, variety, variety in their food. They demanded that their servants serve them fifty DIFFERENT dishes every night. Can you imagine? FIFTY dishes? Those poor damn chefs must have been scared witless.

Anyway, in order to satisfy the hunger of their emperors, the chefs had to get pretty damn creative with their food; this tradition of culinary creativity has been handed down over the years, and now Hue is famous for its ’emperor-style’ culinary traditions.

Porky peacock from above

To get a taste of this tradition, Emma, Kylie, Troy and I decided to hunt down a restaurant called Tinh Gia Vien, which was inside the citadel in Hue. We heard claims that they served food in the old tradition, and although we didn’t expect 50 courses we figured it had to be good, so off we set to find it.

Pineapple with fried entrees

First of all, heading into the citadel at night was a bit of a scary proposition. None of us had a proper map and we had to just follow our noses. We had heard that it was down an unlikely-looking laneway but we didn’t want to get the wrong one! First, we got stalked by the rickshaw drivers, and then when they finally left us alone we got chased by a pair of scary dogs. We noticed that the streets were almost completely empty (somewhat eerie), but thankfully, there was one small family hanging out on the street (I’m still not quite sure what they were actually doing); they spoke not a word of English and we in our ignorance spoke not a word of Vietnamese. However, they somehow managed to understand our ridiculous gestures and pointed down a tiny hedge-lined lane that looked like it could contain any number of rapists, muggers and Jeffrey-Dahmer style serial killers in its darker corners. The family were, however, quite forceful in their gestures so we decided to trust them… hopefully they weren’t just trying to steal our kidneys!!!

Vegetable soup

We followed the lane and stumbled across the most beautiful garden, studded with fairy lights, fountains, neat-looking statues and cobblestoned clearings. This was indeed the restaurant, and one of us went back to the family to thank them profusely. A beautiful woman in traditional Vietnamese costume met us and ushered us to a table right next to a little fountain, so we enjoyed the tinkling sound of water throughout our meal. There was nobody else there… I suspect that a lot of people probably get scared off by the location of the restaurant!

Spring (roll) chicken

Anyway, we were handed a menu with a handful of choices on it. We chose one of the banquets, and sat back and waited for the food onslaught to begin! The first course was (we guessed) a sort of pork roll with veggie ‘highlights’, sliced up and arranged to look like the tail of an exotic bird. It was a little spicy and totally delicious.

The next course was a range of fried goodies which included dumplings, seaweed rolls and chicken, all of which were on skewers poking out of a pineapple lamp.

Little flowers dotted on the tail of our spring chicken

Next up, we had a hearty vegetable soup, and by this point another group of diners had joined us so the place didn’t seem quite as isolated and otherworldly! Following the soup we got a bird carved out of pineapple which sported some ridiculously good spring rolls as its plumage; little chillis had been used to make the comb at the top of the bird’s head and it had peppercorns for eyes! Its ‘tail’ (the leaves of the pineapple) had small flowers made from carrot and radish (I think) arranged all over it.

Fresh prawns, served with a salt/pepper/lime dip - yum!

After the spring rolls the lady brought us a plate full of plump, fresh prawns. She pulled out a little white bowl and put a generous tablespoon of salt into it, and then added another tablespoon of ground pepper. Onto these, she squeezed a whole heap of lime juice. Oh. My. God. Dipping the prawns into that mix was like a party in my mouth! If there was one thing that I took from Vietnam, foodwise, it was that. So simple and so delicious – I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before.

Dragon salad!

Recovering from the prawns, and at this point already feeling a bit stuffed, we moved onto the next course of dragon salad…! Then came the fish with a tomato sauce. Then came the beef stir-fry (surprisingly not done up to look like any sort of animal this time!). Just as we were about to explode like the fat guy in Monty Python, they brought out ANOTHER course of fried rice, shaped like a cute little turtle. Could we eat it? Well, we gave it a damned good try.

 

Turtle fried rice - disgustingly cute

Finally, as a dessert, another dragon came out, this time filled with fresh green bananas and scooped-out pineapple. And with that, our gastronomic extravaganza overload came to an end. All in all, it cost us about $14 each, which for a feast of that size is remarkable. Was it the best food I’ve ever eaten? Hmmm… not really. I’ve had meals with more interesting flavours. BUT… was it the most beautiful meal I’ve ever eaten? Yes, yessiree. Just the sheer magic of having your food come out looking like a dragon that’s about to wriggle off your plate… brilliant. And the setting was fabulous.

Dessert - sweet green bananas in a pineapple dragon

We stumbled out of the restaurant, half-drunk from our gorging, and stared bleary-eyed at all the pretty lights before setting off out into the night. Totally worth braving the laneways in the dark. I learned that sometimes it’s worth risking the theft of your kidneys for a good meal…!

There is one other thing that I learned that night…

The kings must have been real fatasses.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

Tara.

To see all the pictures from the meal full-sized, see the photo gallery here.

Totally stuffed, but very happy, we come to the end of our meal

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Old Towns, Tombs & Temples, Vietnam, November 2005

7 Jan

Strolling in the old part of town, Hoi An

And so… I proudly introduce the last instalment of Vietnam 2005, written on the fly in Ho Chi Minh City in a grey-toned net cafe buzzing with old fans.

Helloooooooooo everybody!

I am back in Saigon after a couple of weeks of cross-country cruising, and I would just like to reiterate…. this city is DEFINITELY nuttier than a fruitcake! I have, however, mastered the art of crossing the road without dying. One simply shuts one’s eyes and steps out from the pavement and hopes that the zillions of lunatic drivers miss one. (Either that or you use a 6-foot-4 Australian to shield you from the onslaught and hope that his screams alert you to oncoming danger… thanks Troy!) I’m actually getting into the whole thing; I’ve formulated a blase, devil-may-care look that I deliberately use to exude an air of cool. (It’s all false but hey – it looks good to the locals!) 😉

So much to tell, so little time (as always)… where to begin? Well, I think last time I emailed I was in Nha Trang, avoiding touts and getting cheapo massages (not the dodgy kind!). After Nha Trang, Emma and I headed north on a sleeper train, which was an experience in itself. We shared a four-bunk berth with about 80 members of one Vietnamese family, including a 6-month old baby and an ancient grandfather. Everything went fairly smoothly (we even swapped food and attempted to make gestures to tell stories and say hello) until about 5 am when granddad came back into the berth, lit up a cigarette and proceeded to cook breakfast. On a portable stove. On the bed. Cue the whole family joining in and myself and Emma, bleary-eyed, peering over the edge of our top bunks in disgust. They got off the train about 2 hours before we did, at which point we did a little wiggle-dance in the berth with joy and grabbed a quick nap before arriving in Danang.

Hoi An is famous for its beautiful lanterns, which light up every street in the older part of town.

From Danang station we caught a cab straight to the little town of Hoi An which was, to be honest, the highlight of my whole time here. It was absolutely beautiful. The ‘ancient town’, right by the river, has been listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, and I can see why. Hundreds of little cobbled lanes peopled by tailors and shoemakers and pretty little girls (okay, and some not-so-pretty girls) on bicycles; a huge fresh produce market full of hustle and bustle, and an array of lovely little restaurants. The local authorities have also limited touting there so it’s not as bad as it is in some places… phew! Emma and I spent our days pottering the streets and having clothes and shoes tailored just for us at the cheapest prices imaginable… 5 items of tailored clothing for $35, anyone?

Overgrown Cham temple ruins at My Son, outside Hoi An

While there we went on a trip to a place called My Son (no, I do not have a Vietnamese love child…!), which is a 7th century complex of Cham towers. You basically drive out to the middle of nowhere, and then walk a bit further into the jungle, and come across the most breathtaking sights. Some of it was, sadly, blown to bits by American artillery (which seems to have happened a lot here… sigh), but it really is still quite remarkable. The intricate carvings of Shiva and other Hindu gods have really stood the test of time out there, and the growth of vines etc into the brickwork seems only to have made it more beautiful. It was like being in that Tomb Raider movie… except that it didn’t have a bad script! God, I hope my photos come out…!

On that day trip Emma and I met another Aussie pair (brother and sister) called Troy and Kylie, who were on a similar route to us. We ended up keeping each other company for a number of days, which was really good fun. We all went to the beach (I now have a tan to envy, oh yeah!), and tried some good food, and we all also took a Vietnamese cooking course at a beautiful little place by the river, so now I’m officially the best Vietnamese chef ever. No really! 😉 We tried to auction Troy off to some Vietnamese ladies who were looking for ‘sugar daddies’ (ohmigod) but for some reason, funnily enough, he didn’t seem keen on the idea. Can’t imagine why! 🙂

Schoolgirls pick up their bikes after school, Hoi An

We all got the same bus to our next destination, Hue, which in comparison to Hoi An was a bit of a disappointment. On our first day there we witnessed two violent assaults (lovely) and I don’t know about everyone else, but I missed Hoi An’s quiet nature just a little! Still, we managed to have a good time. We wandered around the Citadel (backtracking a couple of times when chased by scary dogs) and took a boat trip along the Perfume River to see the famous Thien Mu Pagoda and the tombs of the emperors… it was fairly impressive stuff but the heat was oppressive and a couple of times we ended up sitting outside the tombs eating ice cream instead of wandering around!!! Shame on me! 😉

Two very relaxed-looking ladies outside the palace, Hue

After Hue Emma and I flew back to Saigon. Yesterday we took a day trip out to Tay Ninh to see the Cao Dai temple Holy See, which was a complete architectural extravaganza. Cao Dai is a religion that is a mix of Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Confucianism and Christianity, so as you might guess the temple looked… well, words fail me. Brightly coloured and a bit gaudy, to be honest, but a marvel all the same. Lots of carvings of goats on globes and all-seeing eyes and crucifixes and Chinese revolutionaries and lotus blossoms…! And when the service started, there were hundreds of people in attendance, all dressed in white. What a sight!

Cao Dai followers during a ceremony

After the service we went to Cu Chi, which is where the Viet Cong had a huge network of underground tunnels during the American War (which, not surprisingly, is what the Vietnamese call the Vietnam war). An ‘informative’ video described the American forces as ‘shooting anything and everything like crazy dogs, from women and children to pots and pans to leaves and vines’. It also proudly announced that a number of locals had been issued medals for being ‘American killers’. Lovely! We didn’t go into the tunnels, but I’m kind of glad that we didn’t, as a) it cost a lot more b) it was sweltering hot – not the time to be in a tunnel that’s only 60cm by 80cm… assuming we could even fit! (Oh yeah, that and we didn’t want to get killed by undiscovered land mines. “Please stay to the path everybody”…. eaaaargh!)

Just as a side note, I had an awesome dinner at a Thai restaurant last night. Actually, the dinner part was kind of boring (pork satay, yawn), BUT it was the starter that I shared with Emma that was awesome. It was called ‘Eight Flavour Cashew’, and we had no idea what that meant so we ordered it. (It only cost the equivalent of about $1.80…) And when it came – wow! It was a MASSIVE stack of lightly fried cashews, surrounded by eight little piles of condiments – diced ginger, chives, shallots, chilli, lime, peanuts, lemongrass and little fried shrimps. We got a big spoon and a little spoon each, and you scoop up the cashews with the big spoon and add condiments to them with the little spoon! It was DELICIOUS! My favourite was a mix of lime and shallots. They’re big on lime here. And I think I’m kind of getting big on lime! Mmmm. Lime.

And that pretty much brings us up to date. Emma set off for the airport a couple of hours ago; since then I have made a trip to the (highly bureaucratic and inefficient) post office to send some of my summer stuff home (it’s going by sea mail so it won’t get to Brisbane for 2 to 3 months…!) and after I’m done here I might wander about and find lunch before making my own pilgrimage to the airport for my 9pm flight. Exciting! My next stop is Rome, where I assume I will freeze my butt off. After that it’s Germany for a short visit to a friend in Cologne, and then from there to the lovely UK to do what I gotta do, and to catch up with some of my favourite people. More excitement!

I hope all’s well with all of you and that the world is treating you well. For those of you at work… my most sincere condolences.

Huge love and hugs to you all,

Tara. 🙂 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Once again, revisiting these emails has jogged my memory. I hope this keeps happening – it’s nice to recall things about my trip that I didn’t even know I’d forgotten! In Hoi An, I remember dozens of Tintin T-shirts and all kinds of tourist tat with the words “Same Same But Different” on it; I remember looking for the marketplace in Hue and finding a stinky, empty place scattered with chicken feathers instead; and I remember people fishing in the moat in Hue, glancing at me sheepishly when I noticed them. I wonder now if it was illegal.

I also, somehow, managed to forget our fabulous, crazy taxi driver from Da Nang train station to Hoi An. He had a teeny-tiny little car, but he managed to crush me, Emma, two French girls and all our luggage into it. As soon as we set off, he punched ‘play’ on his CD player, and an Abba and Boney M mix CD came blaring out at ear-bleeding volume! He was very keen for us to know that he knew all of the words in ‘English’, and for the whole 45-minute drive we were treated to his unique renditions of Rasputin (or “La-la-Laspooteee”, as he put it) and Dancing Queen. The funniest thing, though, was that the CD was obviously a pirate, and each track finished at exactly 2 minutes. Thus, he would be halfway through belting out a chorus and then everything (including him) would go deadly silent for exactly 2 seconds before the next track started. He knew everything by heart. I wonder if he even knew how the songs really ended! He stopped somewhere outside Hoi An and tried to force us to stay at his friend’s hotel, and the French girls got into a panic; they had already booked somewhere in the Old Town but for some reason were allowing themselves to be convinced otherwise. They spoke no English and the taxi driver spoke no French so I had to interpret as best I could. We hadn’t booked anywhere, but we knew where we wanted to stay, and I could feel that we were nowhere near the centre of town – the buildings were too sparse. Eventually I had to shout at the taxi driver, yank the French girls down into their seats and hold down our bags, which he had started to unload, and I explained in no uncertain terms that he was getting no money at all until he had dropped us off at our agreed destinations. The singing stopped right there and then, I can tell you! He huffily agreed and begrudgingly drove us into Hoi An proper, which was a 10-minute drive away. Cheeky bastard!

I also remember more about an amazing restaurant we went to in Hue, but I think that deserves its own post, so I might leave that to another time. Until then, thanks for stopping by!

Tara.

If you’d like to see more photos from this part of the Vietnam 2005 trip, please click here.

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