Display and introduce mussel rice and mussel vermicelli dishes

No in-depth food tours yet

In early 2025, youtuber Hai Sapa TV traveled to explore Hue cuisine. Many videos posted by this youtuber have high views and interactions because culinary experiences such as "eating Dong Ba market" are enjoyed by viewers. Many people share that the journey to Hue is not only to explore the landscape and culture but also to explore the cuisine, which is also a difference.

“From the reviews shared by youtubers and tiktokers, I came to try Hue cuisine. For an out-of-towner like me, it can be really confusing to find delicious restaurants and Hue cuisine if you only search for general information online,” said Nguyen Ngoc Tan, a tourist from Bac Giang.

Mr. Tran Thanh Tu, Vice President of the Travel Association, Director of Tu Tran Trading & Tourism Company Limited, said that in addition to sightseeing tourism products that incorporate culinary, in reality there is still no specialized culinary tour. Some units have built tourism products for foreign visitors in the form of cooking classes combined with tours, forms of experience while working and eating, watching and eating, but to have a real food tour program, there is much to hear but no sight.

Tourists in Phuoc Tich ancient village guide and introduce about banh quai vac

Looking for the question of why there are no Hue food tour programs or products, even long-time tourism workers such as Ms. Duong Thi Cong Ly, Vice President of the Travel Association, Director of the Vietnam - Hanoi Tourism Joint Stock Company Branch in Hue, also expressed concern. Ms. Ly said that during the Lunar New Year of At Ty, when she returned to her husband's hometown, she discovered a very delicious cake, made by the elderly in the hometown, but only found out about it until now. After asking around, she realized that behind it was an interesting story with many experiences that when she put herself in the role of a tourist, she felt very fascinated.

The story of the female director of the travel agency branch led me to the reason why many businesses have not paid much attention to these tourism products or have not done it well. According to Ms. Ly, that is partly because this tourism product is quite selective of customers. On the other hand, building these tours is quite a lot of work, the tour price is high, it requires a lot of time for customers to experience, while the time customers spend in Hue is not long enough. In addition, the communication factor is still not effective. Some units think that food tours are just going and eating, but in fact there are many good stories and ideas from food tours. The above reasons combined have caused food tours to not yet be born, mainly there are only self-sufficient food tours for tourists.

If it's attractive, customers will come.

Talking about food tours, Vice President of the Vietnam Culinary Culture Association Le Tan is very enthusiastic. He affirmed: “No one disputes the Hue culinary brand. Everyone wants to come to Hue to eat Hue dishes, but there is no Hue food tour because the market is not familiar with it and still needs the hand of travel businesses to build products.”

Instructions for making Phu The cake

According to Mr. Tan, Hue has many culinary styles, such as aristocratic cuisine, which is the dishes that the royal family used in the past, folk cuisine, street food, vegetarian cuisine, macrobiotic dishes... Every culinary style of Hue is very unique, but to build a tourism product, it is necessary to exploit the story and the experience factor. Typically, from the story of Vu Lan festival, it is possible to build a vegetarian culinary tourism product. "In the context of Hue building and positioning the brand Hue - Culinary Capital, building food tours is the right direction to elevate culinary culture and develop tourism. The important thing is the way to do it and need ideas from travel businesses. It is possible to apply the 4 festival seasons associated with related culinary ideas", Mr. Tan suggested.

Ms. Duong Thi Cong Ly believes that we must find ways to bring stories into experiences and create attractive tours so that customers will come. For example, when experiencing Hue beef noodle soup, we don't just take customers to a delicious restaurant to eat and then introduce them, but we can take them to the noodle factory and tell stories about the journey of Hue beef noodle soup from the recipe, the way of making it, and the history. Besides providing knowledge, we need to create experiences for customers. "Why does Hue beef noodle soup use lemongrass and shrimp paste instead of star anise and cinnamon like pho? Why is there a combination of ingredients associated with the philosophy of yin and yang in cuisine... Many interesting stories will make people realize that culinary tours are not about enjoying food but about learning and experiencing interesting things," Ms. Ly shared.

The Department of Tourism has been digitizing 3D cuisine and implementing many solutions to promote and enhance Hue culinary culture. In addition to doing a good job of promoting, it is time to have stronger incentives to research and work with travel agencies to form Hue food tour products, creating unique and different products that make visitors miss the "taste" of Hue and want to come to Hue.

Huynh Phuc