- I ate Hue beef noodle soup for the first time around 1980, when I went on a business trip to the South through Hue station. The dish was so greasy, so spicy that it made my eyes water, I'm still afraid of it...

- The original Hue beef noodle flavor comes with crab cakes and crispy fat. Some people do not like to eat authentic Hue beef noodle because it is too sweet, but they like Hue beef noodle cooked in Hanoi which has a very light taste and is not too salty...

- In the 2000s, at the corner of Nguyen Hong - Huynh Thuc Khang, there was a Hue beef noodle shop, selling banh loc, mussels with rice paper, boiled pork rice with sour shrimp, pig's blood served with spicy bamboo shoots.... The whole family spoke Hue accent. The shop hung many pictures of Hue, played Trinh music... Thanks to that shop, I love Hue until now, every year I go to Hue for a whole week. But now I don't know where that shop has gone...

That is the regretful comment of women who have eaten authentic Hue beef noodle soup and Hue beef noodle soup in Hanoi.

Culinary expert Vu Thi Tuyet Nhung (Admin of Hanoi Old Taste) also sadly remembers the Hue beef noodle shop more than 30 years ago on the corner of Lang Ha - Lang street named Ngu Binh.

Back then, the beautiful, charming Hue-born owner with gentle, deep black eyes was one of the first Hue beef noodle shop owners to set up shop in Hanoi, bringing a new breakfast flavor to the people of the capital. After the rent became too high, the Ngu Binh restaurant, which had been established for nearly 20 years, had to move to an unknown location.

Also about 30 years ago at the intersection of Huynh Thuc Khang and Nguyen Hong streets, there was a pretty good Hue beef noodle shop. The owner's daughter was disabled in one leg, but her chubby face and smiling face were very lovable.

The pot for cooking the broth there is quite special. It is a hand-carved aluminum pot shaped like a huge grapefruit - like the aluminum pots of the ladies selling snakehead fish noodle soup on the streets of Hanoi in the past. The flavor of Hue beef noodle soup is quite delicious, sweet, and spicy enough. The accompanying vegetables are fresh and flavorful. When there were a lot of customers, the owner raised the rent so high that the restaurant moved away, leaving behind regrets for many Hanoians.

Bun bo Hue entered the Hanoi market as lightly as the voice of Hue girls, gradually conquering the stomachs of customers who are picky about food. Bun bo Hue is now on par with dozens of famous long-standing noodle dishes such as bun thang, bun moc, bun bung, bun mang, bun dau, bun long, bun cha, bun nem... of Hanoi.

Now Hanoi has about fifty Hue beef noodle shops scattered throughout the old and new inner city districts. Quite famous is the Hue beef noodle shop o Xuan with two sales points, one is the old one on Tue Tinh street and the new one is on Trung Hoa. Hue beef noodle shop o Hien also has two stores on To Hieu street and Trung Kinh street. Hue beef noodle shop o Uong has two restaurants on Lac Long Quan street on this side of the Red River and Co Linh street on the other side of the Red River. Another Hue beef noodle shop on Nguyen Huu Huan street is also quite famous and delicious.

Hue women are skillful, capable and very good at developing their business careers in the capital. They have flexibly turned Hue beef noodle soup into a breakfast dish that suits the taste of many sophisticated diners in Hanoi. Whenever Hanoi has a long, drizzling rain like the endless rains in Hue, lying down listening to Trinh's music album, surfing through some songs like Hue Thuong, Hue Buon... I just want to brave the rain and rush to a Hue beef noodle shop to order a hot, spicy bowl to dispel my sadness.

Cook Hue beef noodle soup at home

Ms. Vu Thi Tuyet Nhung once went on a field trip, experienced Hue beef noodle soup and introduced Hue beef noodle soup in the "Ha Thanh specialties" section of Hanoi Television, and was told by the owner of Ngu Binh restaurant with a sweet, clear Hue accent about the special broth for Hue beef noodle soup.

Accordingly, the Hue beef noodle soup is made from bone broth, lemongrass, sugar, shrimp paste, annatto seeds, and chili. When simmering the bones, you must be careful, skim off the foam frequently, and watch the pot of broth to keep it at a simmer; if it boils too much, the broth will be cloudy. The shrimp paste must be filtered carefully to avoid removing all the sand.

A bowl of thick noodles, sweet and spicy broth, with the aroma of shrimp paste and lemongrass. Crispy pig's feet. Fragrant beef. Soft pig's blood. A plate of mixed vegetables with bright red banana flowers, clear white banana stems, pure white bean sprouts, Vietnamese mint, and green mint, all with very attractive flavors and colors.

The way to cook Hue beef noodle soup was known to Hanoi women through the pages of cookbooks by famous female teachers from the Central and Southern regions such as Hoang Thi Cuc, Trieu Thi Choi… but at that time the country was facing difficulties so it could not be practiced. The ingredients for cooking Hue beef noodle soup are easy to find in Hanoi, but the shrimp paste dish was not available in the North due to the war that divided the two regions.

Housewives from the Central region replaced shrimp paste with shrimp paste – but the smell of shrimp paste was rancid and could not compare to the smooth, fragrant, sweet shrimp paste of Hue. It was not until the liberation of the South and the connection of transportation that shrimp paste was available to cook Hue beef noodle soup in Hanoi.

There are some successful Hue beef noodle shops owned by Hanoians, such as Ms. Huong's Hue beef noodle shop on Lang street, Ms. Trinh's shop on Nghia Tan street... They learned the craft from experienced Hue women and built their own brands. Any specialty brought to Hanoi is adjusted to suit the tastes and preferences of Hanoians. Hue beef noodle dishes cooked in Hanoi therefore have less sugar and fish sauce, so the flavor is lighter and less salty - and that is also one of the reasons why Hue beef noodle dishes stand firm among dozens of famous noodle dishes in the heart of Hanoi.

How is authentic Hue beef noodle soup different from Hue beef noodle soup cooked in Hanoi?

Once, Ms. Vu Thi Tuyet Nhung talked to Ms. Thanh - the owner of a Hue beef noodle shop because she found the dish here a bit sweet, but the meat was fragrant, especially the thinly sliced ​​pig's feet that were still intact, both meat and bone, neat and skillful. Ms. Thanh honestly said that it was a cutting and slicing machine. Before, even though it was sharp, the pieces of meat were still soft and broken. Cutting about ten kilos of pig's feet a day was already too much for the hands. Now that there are machines, women have a lot more free time.

Ms. Thanh shares the differences between Hue beef noodle soup and Hue beef noodle soup cooked in Hanoi. These are:

- In Hue, the water in the beef noodle pot is only simmering. In Hanoi, the water in the noodle pot must be boiling.

- Hue people eat sweeter and blander food. Hanoi people eat richer and less sweet food.

- The bowl of noodles in Hue is smaller, the pieces of meat and sausage are also smaller. The bowl of noodles in Hanoi is bigger, the pieces of meat and sausage are also bigger .

But wherever we sell, we have to cater to the tastes of the customers there. When my sister Thanh's relatives in Hue came to visit, they said, "Cooking like this is not the right Hue style"!