If one had to pick a single food that is emblematic of Hue, it would be bún bò (rice noodle soup with beef). Hue residents prefer to buy their bún bò from street vendors rather than in restaurants. Street vendors carry bún (soft, thin white noodles) and (bò) slices of beef in two bamboo baskets hanging from poles balanced across their shoulders.
People eat noodles on the sidewalks, squatting on small stools next to a pot of boiling broth. The intense fragrance rising from the pot seems to beckon others to eat as well. One joy of buying from street vendors is that they ladle out soup for only from 4,000 to 5,000 VND a bowl ($0.25 - $0.31).
Most Hue street vendors come from villages such as Thily An, Phat Lat, and Van Van outside the city. Each household in these villages has one or two street vendors. Selling rice noodle soup is both a way of earning a living and of carrying on a family and village culinary tradition. Vendors sell to regular customers, usually in small side streets or alleys. When lunchtime is over, they stop selling and go shopping for the next day's ingredients.
Street vendors carry one pot of broth they can set on a portable charcoal stove. Another container holds additional ingredients such as stewed pork legs, grilled ground pork, beef and pork tendon, grilled crab, pig and duck blood, and thin slices of beef.
On the other side of the bamboo pole is a pot of fresh rice noodles and seasonings such as onions, scallions, chilli peppers, fish sauce, bean sprouts, banana flowers, and diced lettuce. The baskets also contain bowls, spoons, chopsticks, a basin for washing, napkins, toothpicks, a pot of green ginger tea, and a few stools. Truly, this is a moveable feast.
Bún bò Huế is completely unpretentious. Its charm lies solely in its fragrance. According to the women who sell rice noodles at Bến Ngự Market, the broth must be clear with a balance between the salty and sweet flavours that come from stewed beef, pork, and chicken bones and not from any added MSG.
Vendors tailor each bowl to the customer's desires. In the winter, customers sit next to the red-hot stove and the boiling broth, warming their hands over their steaming bowls, slurping the broth, clipping the noodles with their chopsticks, and biting into pieces of meat. Even connoisseurs dedicated to the cuisines of Hà Nội and Hồ Chí Minh City admit to a love for bún bò Huế, which is sold all over the country. However, nowhere is this dish more popular or more tasty than in Huế.