Hue colors in bowls of sweet soup

Hue sweet soup is very rich. In any region of Vietnam, people process beans to make sweet soup. Black beans, green beans, all beans can be used to make sweet soup. But Hue also has red bean sweet soup, broad bean sweet soup, and royal bean sweet soup. The pure white broad beans are soaked in clear sweet soup. Red beans and royal beans at first glance seem to be whole beans, but add a little coconut milk and a spoonful of shaved ice and you have a delicious dish that is plump and crumbly; or green beans are processed and beaten until they are golden yellow.

Hue has more than just bean sweet soup. In the morning, there is lotus seed sweet soup. Hue lotus seeds are not big, but each lotus seed is rich and fragrant with the scent of heaven and earth. Hue people only sell boiled lotus, not longan-wrapped lotus sweet soup. Hue families only cook it for the offering and then eat it. Or in big hotels, buffets sometimes have longan-wrapped lotus seed sweet soup, but in such luxurious places, the dish loses the flavor of the ancient capital.

Hue also has several types of sweet potato desserts. Purple taro dessert like the long dress of Dong Khanh female students is the most typical, the most Hue. Then sweet potato dessert, purple potato dessert, corn dessert… Dice fruit, mix a few types, soak in sugar water, when enjoying add shaved ice, also called dessert. Fruit dessert: dragon fruit, watermelon, pineapple, jackfruit… each season has its own fruits, the fruits of heaven and earth are all present in a glass of Hue fruit dessert. The sweetness of sugar and the coolness of fresh fruit go together and complete the taste.

Looking at the sweet soup stalls of the ladies and women, layer upon layer, going all over the capital, you can see that just by opening the stall, you are entering a world of sweet and fragrant flavors. Visiting any sweet soup stall, whether on the street or in the alley, looking at the menu makes you dizzy. There is a sweet soup shop right at Thuong Tu gate, so they came up with a way to please customers, to please the curiosity of visitors from near and far who want to enjoy many flavors.

The seller displayed the trays of sweet soup. At a glance, there were ten kinds of sweet soup arranged on a pretty tray. The tray of sweet soup looked like a work of art with all the colors, and was fragrant like a bush of night flowers. Each sweet soup was put into a bowl. Each bowl had only two spoons. That's all, no more. If you were in a hurry, one bite would be enough to finish the bowl of sweet soup. But in Hue, who would eat or drink in such a hurry? Take your time and enjoy. Besides, the cuisine of the Imperial City is all about quality, not quantity. Yet, after tasting all the sweet soup on the tray, it was enough to skip the meal.

In Hue, there is a village behind the Imperial City, called Doc So village. The women and girls of that village make a living by selling sweets on shoulder poles. Of course, there are also sweets stalls passed down from grandmothers, mothers, and children. Every afternoon, the women gather at Tay Loc market, chatting after a long day of walking tiredly with the sweets on their shoulders all over Hue city. All joys and sorrows eventually return to the story of good or bad business. The women's lives are spread out on the roads they have passed down thousands of times, on their shoulders that have endured the rain and sun.

One sunny afternoon, I sat on the side of the road with royal poinciana flowers, lifted a cup of tea and whispered a few stories:

"Why waste it?

Yes, so sweet.

If it's sweet, ask me to add more ice. A bowl of sweet soup is the result of people's efforts to grow beans and sugarcane. If you waste it like that, you're letting them down!"

The cup of sweet soup becomes heavy in the golden summer afternoon of Hue!

Heritage Magazine