Vietnamese people regard Hue cuisine as the best one in the country. In Hue, there are two cuisine styles - Hue traditional cuisine and the “Royal” cuisine.

Hue culinary tradition pays much attention to aestheticism and harmony among the ingredients, way of decoration and colors of the food so as to create a gastronomic work of art. The dishes created must create a feast for the eyes as well as good for the health.

Most dishes are accompanied with a kind of sauce which is specified for each dish. A typical example of basic Hue food is clam rice (Cơm hến), which is a mixture of cold rice and boiled clam and other ingredients. This dish is simple yet delicious and tasty. If you enjoy the dish at the first time, you may not be familiar with its taste, however, from the second, the third time, you may realize the special taste of the dish.

A more complicated Hue’s daily meal os likely to include rice and three other common dishes: fish boiled with fish sauce and fines herbs, boiled spinach with prawn sauce and a bowl of soup containing small prawns and tamarind.

Formal meals for special occasions or for welcoming guests are more elaborate, usually includes five or more dishes. 

Hue is a major Buddhism center so it is also well-known for vegetarian food. However, vegetarian food in Hue is different from that in Western countries. The chefs always aim at replicating the taste of such dishes as toast pork cooked with fish sauce, chicken salad, beefsteak, grilled meat roll and so on. It’s a fascinating concept which is really different from that of foreign vegetarians who are mostly motivated by health or ethical concerns.

In dining, Hue people appreciate three criteria: cheap, delicious and especially, good-looking.

Hue people have much experience in choosing ingredients. The first is choosing ingredients depending on the season since each season has its own ingredients. The second is reasonable price but still ensure the meal’s quality. The third is choosing ingredient suitable for specific people. They choose ingredients which are suitable for the elderly, the youth, babies or pregnant women. 

In order to create a perfect dish, Hue people also pay much attention to the preparation steps, cooking utensils as well as decoration style. It is not only the good ingredients that make a perfect dish, but it also depend on people who make the dish, the way they prepare, the way they cook, and the way the decorate the dish as well.