Mussel Rice in Perfume river

Travelling to Hue, visitors not only enjoy the stunning view of the Perfume river (Huong River) but also have chance to enjoy one of the best Vietnamese foods there. It is well known as Com Hen Song Huong (Mussel Rice in Huong River).

This dish is the very simple and a low-priced specialty of Hue, the ancient citadel of Viet Nam. It is a complicated recipe that includes sweet, buttery, salty, sour, bitter and spicy flavors. A serving of this special kind of food offers simplicity and deliciousness.

It has sweet-smelling flavours of rice, onion, and oil, as well as strange tastes of sweet, buttery, salty, sour, bitter, and peppery-hot. Visitors have to arrive to Hen river-islet in the Huong River to have the original of this food. However, travellers can find the dish on some streets in Hue City.

It requires 15 different raw materials to prepare the dish, including mussels, oil, peanuts, white sesame, dry pancake, salted shredded meat, chilli sauce, banana flower, banana trunk, spicy vegetables, peppermint, salad, etc.

This dish is always attractive to many customers since it is tasty and, at the same time, economical to anybody. What makes this simple kind of food popular is revealed in the great endeavor to adopt and process its main ingredient – mussel. Mussels are a sea species, which must be soaked in water for a long while before being processed.

Accordingly, people often say that mussel cooked rice somehow expresses the strenuous work of the maker.

It is very popular everywhere in Hue and these days, elsewhere in Hue restaurants in Viet Nam. More favourably, it is a low-priced specialty you can eat in luxurious restaurants in Hue or even by venturing to mobile shops on the streets.

“Visiting Hue you could not miss Mussel Rice in Huong River, or else you have not come to Hue ever,” is the most common remark to visitors.

Source: Nhandan