Top Must-try Vietnamese Dishes in Winter – Part 2: The Central

Banh Can

This dish is available in most of the South Central of Vietnam provinces. It is the combination of the rice floor with quail eggs and spring onion, sometimes, instead of the eggs, they put seafood, char sew or sausages inside. Watching the process of making “Banh Can” is quite interesting as it is cooked on the charcoal with special tiny circle terracotta cakes. When they are almost done, the cooker will flip the cakes so fast from one pan to another pan, make them become double-cakes as one cake alone looks too small.  People love this dish because it is small, lovely, and tasty with the grilled rice floor and colorful ingredients in the middle, dip in sweet, sour, and spicy sauce. "Banh Can" is usually served as a snack in the middle of morning or afternoon and in the winter day, it can give you a lot of energy through protein and gluten with some small cakes.

Banh Can with Quail Eggs

Bun Bo Hue

“Bun Bo Hue” (Hue beef rice vermicelli) can be considered a trending dish throughout Vietnam this year. You can find this dish in many cities in Vietnam now from small to big ones. On the other hand, as “Bun Bo Hue” was born in Hue, it is believed that you only can find the best of this dish in Hue. While traveling through the country, “Bun Bo Hue” is changed to suit the taste of different areas from North to South. The broth is a little bit salty in the North and sweeter to the South while other ingredients are also be changed somehow such as the fully-boiled blood pudding is put into “Bun Bo Hue” in the North and Central, in the South, they do not use it as a part of this dish.

Bun Bo Hue

Banh Canh

Vietnam owns many types of noodles and this is the one that is favored mostly in the Central and also the South. However, while people love the Southern “Banh Canh Cua” (“Banh Canh” with crab meat), the Central of Vietnam is famous for many types of “Banh Canh Ca” (“Banh Canh” with fish or fish cake). As Vietnam has a long coastline and the Central owns the richest sea area, there are many kinds of fish that can be a good ingredient to make different flavors of “Banh Canh” and each type of fish used shows the specialty of each province in the Central. In addition, the flour to make the noodle used in “Banh Canh” is changed due to different destinations’ styles, such as rice flour, starch, tapioca, etc.

Banh Canh Ca - Banh Canh with Fish

Sweet soup

This dish was mentioned in Part 1: The North of this series. However, in Central Vietnam, there is a province which is known for owning the best sweet soup in the country – Hue! It is believed that thanks to the Nguyen dynasty – which chose Hue to be the capital of Dai Viet (old name of Vietnam), the cuisine here was boosted fast and perfectly. To serve the royal family demands, many dishes were created and upgraded and the dessert was not the exception. As sweet soup is the traditional dessert dish, it was changed and also many versions of it were born in the ancient Hue citadel and the recipes are still kept in this destination up until now.

Che Hue - Hue Sweet Soup

If you come to Hue this winter, please do not forget to try the sweet soup here. There are hundreds of types of sweet soup to taste and they are not only some simple desserts but also have the history and culture of this country inside.

MinKJ

(Image source: Internet)