The announcement was made by Vice Chairman of People’s Committee of Thua Thien-Hue province at the yesterday's press conference in Hanoi.
The cuisine festival will feature Hue’s specialties while the tourism promotion will introduce tourism products and tours such as heritage tourism, cultural tourism and community tourism. The “Winter in Hue” programme will take place at 8pm from December 14-16 at the Hanoi Opera House.
Vietnam has about 3,000 dishes, of which more than 1,700 are Hue-style ones. Hue is best known for elegant royal cuisine. But there is far more to the former imperial city's food culture than what was served to the Nguyen dynasty in the 1800s.
One distinctive quality of Hue food is the harmonisation of yin and yang in each dish. For example, molluscs are always cooked with chilli, pepper, lemongrass and grapefruit leaves, "hot" spices that balance the "cool" features of the water-based creatures.
Various snack-like items, such as banh beo, banh nam, banh loc, banh canh and che, are a major part of the cuisine. Visitors can find these items at Hue restaurants in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Bun bo Hue, a local breakfast dish, is also popular around the country.
Recently, Vietnam's record book listed several Hue dishes on its list of the country's best foods: bun bo (beef noodles), com hen (rice with mussels), banh beo (rice cake with grilled shrimp), banh bot loc (dumplings with shrimp), banh khoai (fried rice crepes), ruoc (shrimp paste), me xung (sesame candy), che hat sen (sweet lotus seed pudding), tom chua (pickled shrimp), and thanh tra (a grapefruit variety that was served to the king).
