Several well-known Vietnamese writers and musicians are among the many Hue visitors who have been captivated by the local cuisine. Nguyen Tuan (1910-1987), a celebrated author who wrote many articles on Vietnamese food, visited Hue in 1986. Being a gourmet and notoriously difficult to please, he brought with him from Ha Noi a bottle of his favourite rice wine made in Vân Village. Nguyen Tuan had many Hue friends whom he wanted to toast. He soon ran out of wine. His Hue friends offered him wine from Chuồn Village. Nguyen Than tasted it and became an immediate convert.
During his stay in Hue, Nguyen Tuan tried many local dishes. He wrote an article about cơm muối (salted rice), expressing his amazement at this specialty. He also enjoyed eating nem lụi (spring rolls), sliced pork with fermented shrimp, and sliced green bananas. After Nguyen Tuan returned to Ha Noi, his Hue friends often brought him these foods whenever they travelled to the capital. Nguyen Tuan reserved the gifts of fermented shrimp for his closest friends.
Like Nguyen Tuan, the composer Van Cao (1923-1995) also appreciated Chuồn Village's liquor, which he found superior to imported vodka. Once, when he was a patient in Hue National Hospital, Van Cao asked his friend, poet Nguyen Trong Tao, to smuggle him some Chuồn wine. When provincial leaders and the hospital manager came to visit, they found Van Cao savoring a cup of this delicacy.
After Van Cao recovered from his illness, he visited Chuồn Village with Nguyen Trong Tao and another Hue poet, Vo Que. They went fishing with villagers in the Tam Giang Lagoon, roasted the fish they caught, washed their catch down with the local wine, and recited poetry all night.
Poet Hoang Cam normally prefers talking and reciting poems to eating and drinking. One of the rare occasions when he agreed to feast with fellow revellers was at a small party with photographer Nguyen Dinh Toan and an airline hostess whom he had just met on a flight from Ha Noi to Hue. Urged by Toan, Hoang Cam tried a 10 spring roll. To the others' surprise, he continued eating one spring roll after another, even preparing more for his friends.
"I never imagined that anything other than poetry could affect me so!" he said.