Here is the translation of an article in the Thua Thien Hue Online Newspaper about the Hue Flavor Street Food Tour.
When coming to Hue, tourists can explore the poetic beauty of the ancient capital and learn about the local people’s customs, habits, and culture. These are reasons why the Hue Flavor Street Food Tour attracts many tourists, especially international travelers.
Interesting experience
It was lucky for me to participate in a Hue Flavor Street Food tour with a tourist group from the UK. The tour is held by Bach Van Tung Limited Company. After some minutes of riding around Hue by cyclo, we stopped at a famous beef noodle restaurant on Ly Thuong Kiet Street.
Some were curious about the table’s plentiful raw vegetable dish, chili, and garlic. They started tasting it with the local people. Angela, a beautiful girl, said with her happy face, ” That’s a great combination. It’s delicious until the last spoon!”
Tourists were interested not only in Hue beef noodles but also in the other dishes at each destination. According to Mrs. Vu, the representative of Bach Van Tung Limited Company, “Specific features of this tour are that visitors can enjoy Hue local food, study the history of Hue and the information about the ingredients cooked, and learn the culture of the locals. Besides, the guests can get a chance to take pictures of Hue’s daily life.”
While enjoying the Banh Khoai—Hue pancake, travelers explored its origin. This was a royal pancake that existed in Hue’s history, and now it has become a popular street food.
Another guest from London (England), Stephen Osborne, said with his compliments: “In England, we have eaten these dishes; however, they are better when we enjoy them at their birthplace like the locals, and understand the origin of these dishes.”
Ms. Lisa, Stephen’s partner, also shared: “This tour helped us have chances to get experience about what I have learnt from books. I’m so excited!”
After experiencing the Hue Flavor Street Food tour with the daughter for around 4 hours and enjoying about 15 different Hue dishes, Ms. Dorothy Elisa, an English man settling in Thailand, felt highly enthusiastic: “My daughter and I had a wonderful morning. We enjoyed many different foods and flavors of real Vietnamese cooking, to appreciate the importance of matching the right herbs with different meats and fish, and to learn about the beliefs surrounding the beneficial effects of certain herbs and spices. This is an experience not to be missed!”
Beginning from tourists’ desires
While many tourists come to Hue to visit heritage sites such as monuments, tombs, or pagodas with the classic itinerary, the Hue Flavor Street Food tour creates a different experience of Hue. Therefore, many guests choose this tour to explore Hue.
Many guests from the UK, France, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, the US, Taiwan, Spain, and Hong Kong have been happy to join this tour. Currently, many big travel companies have researched and booked this product for their customers.
As the founder and the main guide for this street food tour, Mr. Thom, with more than 10 years of experience in tourism, said that most visitors coming to Hue would like to study the culture of the local people deeply, so they enjoyed Hue cuisine very much. One time, guiding a group of visitors from Switzerland, after introducing the street food at the local stores, they wanted to taste it and decided to cancel their pre-ordered meals to enjoy Hue street food for the next meal.
Mr Thom has planned to run this tour for nearly 2 years. He had to research the food and street restaurants to ensure both criteria, as its name, Hue Flavor, and food safety for visitors. “Compared to other tourist products, the Hue Flavor Street Food tour requires a lot of factors. Tour guides must also be food lovers and have knowledge about the cuisine in general and Hue cuisine in particular to be able to share the real experience of Hue through the food.” Mr. Thom said.
By Hai Thuan – Thua Thien Hue Online
