Hue's tôm chua (fermented shrimps) is a specialty that can be found nowhere else. Local women known for their skill, intelligence, and hard work create attractive dishes from fermented ingredients: small fish, pork, bean curd, and especially shrimps. Connoisseurs of Hue cuisine consider fermented shrimps to be a refined, high-class dish. The twentieth century writer Nguyễn Tuân likened the dish to a fragrant flower just beginning to blossom. He would open a new jar of tôm chua only in the company of close friends.
High-quality tôm chua is made using shrimps from a single location: the brackish water of Tam Giang Lagoon outside of Hue. Chefs remove the heads and tails from fresh shrimps and soak them in rice alcohol until the shrimps become "drunk." They then dry the shrimps and mix them with bamboo shoots and salt and add fragrant sticky rice. They place this mixture in tightly sealed ceramic jars for fermentation that lasts one week in summer or a month in winter. After fermentation is complete, they add spices such as galingale, garlic, sliced chillies, and sugar.
Local residents typically eat fermented shrimps with boiled pork, lettuce, sliced green bananas, figs, and star fruit. They also serve tam chua with rice pancakes (bánh cuốn) and grilled potatoes, spinach, basil, rice noodles, boiled pork, and fish sauce.
Many Hue enterprises produce tôm chua. Families also prepare the dish according to their preferred tastes. One person making delicious fermented shrimps in Hue is Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Hường, who operates a small shop in Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai Street, Vĩnh Lợi Ward. According to Mrs. Hường, authentic tôm chua should be pinkish, not red. One should check the production date since fermented shrimps must be consumed within a limited period of time.