The first place to go is Đông Ba Market, which is a symbol of Hue's economy and culture and famous for its myriad goods and local specialties. "Đông Ba," which means "east," is the name for many Hue sites: a river, the first steel bridge across that river, a canal connecting Đông Ba Market with the city's busy river port, and a street. The original market outside the citadel's Chánh Đông Gate (also commonly called Đông Ba) burned in the summer of 1885. In 1887, King Đồng Khánh had the market rebuilt and named it Đông Ba. In 1889, King Thành Thái ordered the market moved to its current location at the juncture of the Hương River and the west bank of the Đông Ba Canal.
The market's convenient location keeps it crowded with shoppers buying everything from essential foods to high-class goods. Đông Ba Market also has traditional Hue crafts: Phú Cam conical hats, Hiền Lương scissors, bronze articles of the Đúc Guild, Phước Tích pottery, Bao La rattan and bamboo products, Kế Môn jewellery, Nam Thuận sweets, Tuần tea, Hương Cần mandarins, Lương Quán-Nguyệt Biều grapefruits, and Tịnh Tâm lotus. Common Hue dishes such as clam rice, beef noodles, shrimp cakes, pancakes, bean puddings, sour shrimps, and Mỹ Lợi shredded lean meat are also available.
Cau candy, which is the opaque white of a freshly cut areca nut, is a market speciality. The candy's coating is very sweet, while its centre has a delicate, lingering sweetness. As the Lunar New Year approaches, local residents visit Đông Ba Market to buy special cakes made from beans, rice powder, and other ingredients. Hue residents traditionally place these square cakes, which are wrapped in five-coloured paper, on their family ancestral altars. When tasted, the small cakes seem to melt in the mouth.
Hue is growing fast. New markets keep appearing. Of particular notice is the small, mobile, and ubiquitous "squatting market," which is none other than a woman with a shoulder yoke she uses to tote two baskets of wares. These days, one never needs to go far to shop. Still, Đông Ba remains the most important market in Central Viet Nam, with 2,540 registered traders and hundreds of mobile vendors selling every ingredient that the best Hue chef could possibly want.