I was quite surprised to learn that milk sweet soup is a dessert originating from Hue, not a new snack from Saigon - where dairy ingredients are quite popular in delicious dishes for young people.

Thua Thien Hue is a region with many dishes honored in the “Journey to find the cultural value of typical Vietnamese cuisine” including Hue beef noodles, tapioca dumplings stuffed with roasted pork sweet soup, mussel rice, tapioca dumplings, mixed vegetarian fig salad, vegetarian rice steamed in lotus leaf.

Thua Thien Hue has the most dishes honored in Phase I of the project, including Hue beef noodle soup, tapioca dumpling stuffed with roasted pork sweet soup, mussel rice, tapioca dumplings, vegetarian fig salad, and vegetarian steamed rice wrapped in lotus leaf.

These are 6 of 121 Vietnamese culinary dishes that have just been honored by the Vietnam Cuisine Culture Association (VCCA) as typical national dishes in phase I of a project titled "Building and Developing Vietnamese Culinary Culture into a National Brand Name”. All of these 6 dishes, including: Hue beef noodle soup, glutinous rice dumplings stuffed with roasted pork in sweet soup, mussel rice, banh loc (glutinous rice dumplings), vegetarian fig salad, and lotus-leaf-wrapped steamed rice; all are close to the gardens and paddy fields of the land.

Visitors to Hue in the summer season are greeted with the sight of fragrant lotus blossoms adorning Tinh Tam Lake, their white petals fluttering like delicate butterflies in the breeze. The gentle and refreshing fragrance of lotus permeates the surroundings, and a passing encounter with this scene instantly uplifts one's spirits.

The special offerings at Trach Pho Shrine (Phong Hoa Commune, Phong Dien District on February 12-13th of the Lunar Calendar every year), including a pair of sea bass and a tray of yam sweet soup, helped us connect ancient Southeast Asian cultural symbols together to clearly see the unique values condensed in the belief of worshiping the Thien Y A Na Goddess.

Hue is considered the land of sweet soups with more than 50 kinds. Through the hands of Hue women, many kinds of fruits, seeds and tubers are processed into delicious and appealing sweet soup dishes. Among Hue sweet soup dishes, khoai mai sweet soup is a precious type that is very suitable for the early days of spring.

From skillful and talented hands, the women of the Ancient Capital knew how to delicately blend the properties and flavors of ingredients into medicinal sweet soups, which have the effect of promoting health.

How delicious, how sweet! How they tug at our heartstrings! That is the feeling of the poet Vo Que in the concluding sentences of the introduction to the publication "The flavor of Hue cakes, steamed sticky rice and sweet soups" by Tran Nguyen Khanh Phong and Vu Thi My Ngoc. The book has just been licensed to be published by Thuan Hoa Publishing House at the end of October 2021.