Growing up, my dad would always take me to a Vietnamese restaurant called Thanh Vi, right across the street from his grocery store. I pretty much grew up in the restaurant's corner booth. While most people's first experience with Vietnamese noodle soup is pho, my dad introduced me to Vietnamese cuisine with a hot bowl of bun bo hue - thick, rice noodles and beef in a spicy broth. Bun bo hue literally translates to "noodle beef Hue" with Hue being the location that invented it. I was a picky eater growing up, but I instantly loved bun bo hue when I first had it (except for the giant pig's foot) and would order nothing else whenever we ate Vietnamese food.
So when planning my trip to Vietnam, I knew I HAD TO stop by Hue to get an authentic bowl from the source. After a couple of days in Hoi An, Dong took the four of us to Hue to do a little sight seeing. Hue is known for their historical monuments (such as palaces and tombs) as well as a beautiful river walk with lit up bridge, so we did some sight seeing to soak in the city. The sights were all beautiful, but to my crazily focused mind, it was just time filler between bowls of bun bo hue.
Stopping for some views on our way to Hue.
More beautiful views.
Giant Buddha in Danang.
Some temples in Hue.
River walk with a beautiful view of the bridge.
To mess with me, Dong took us to eat our first meal at a restaurant that didn't serve bun bo hue. It was okay though because it was a delicious meal, and I thought that the anticipation would only add flavor to my noodle soup. Our first meal was called ba do, which consisted of a bunch of small, light dishes. It was really tasty, and a great chance to sample a lot of different dishes in one meal. (Side note because I'm mainly focusing on bun bo hue: Dong also took us to a restaurant near the end of our time in Hue that served a famous omelette type dish, that was really delicious. Think of a really crispy omelette, filled with vegetables, pork and shrimp.)
Rice noodles with crispy shrimp.
Deep fried dough with rice noodles and crispy shrimp.
Rice noodles with shrimp wrapped in banana leaves.
Roasted pork on sugar cane.
Vietnamese omelette.
Alas, after more palace hopping, it was dinner time. My heart was racing at the thought of seeing that (now) beautful pig's food floating in spicy broth surrounded by noodles and beef. We finally found a restaurant to our liking (there are literally hundreds of bun bo hue shops around the city, so picking on was tough). We sat down and I was like a puppy on Christmas morning about to get his braces off. When the noodles got placed in front of me, I was in a feverish sweat and I couldn't wait to take my first bite. I spooned up a big helping of broth, some beef, chopsticked up some noodles, took one ginormous bite and...it was pretty good.
Can't wait to dig in!
Soooooo pretty good.
Disappointed is probably too strong a word, but I'm guessing my expectations were too high for any earthly bowl of noodles to meet (think of the episode of "How I met your Mother" where Marshall looks for the perfect burger). The noodles were tasty, but I think I might've been asking too much from a pig's foot in broth.
There's probably some sort of life lesson in here about re-capturing one's youth through mimicking past nostalgic moments, but really it's just a blog post about my favorite noodle soup. It wasn't as amazing as I thought it would be, but it was still a tasty bowl of noodles eaten with good friends while discovering a beautiful city. What more could I really ask for?
when did Bob go to Vietnam and how did he get on your lunch table!?!?!!
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