The Hue cuisine is well known throughout the country and has indeed enriched the culinary art of Vietnam. As Vietnam’s former imperial capital , the city of Hue has two kinds of cuisine: one for aristocrat and the other for common people. One of the dishes for common ones specially enjoyed by most of the locals and tourists alike is mussel rice.

Two main ingredients of this popular food are mussels and cool rice. Mussels after being discharged impurities are boiled and drained off for flesh. The flesh is then stir-fried with Chinese vermicelli, dried bamboo shoots and chopped lean pork. The broth obtained after boiling the mussels is seasoned with ginger for fragrant taste. Then processed mussels and cool rice are put into a bowl and watered with the broth. There are also such supplement as chilli sauce, red pepper, fish sauce, girdle cake, crushed peanut, roasted sesame, and various raw vegetable to help enhance the flavor of the food. All these ingredients combine together creating the unique sweet and spicy taste for the mussel rice which has now became the local speciality that tourists always hunt for once visiting Hue city.