According to many Hue-born people living and working in Da Nang, the Lan Restaurant located at 23 Thanh Thuy, Hai Chau District, is the best for serving Hue-style ‘com hen’ (rice with mussels).

A Hue-style bowl of 'com hen' (mussel rice) at the Lan Restaurant. Photo: H.L

Why is it that among dozens of restaurants selling ‘com hen’ in Da Nang, the Lan Restaurant is the most appreciated by Hue natives who are living far from home? That's because of the fragrance of shrimp paste and spiciness, and the freshness of mixed ingredients, all creating a rich, delicious taste that is hard to resist.

And one more interesting thing, the bowl of mussel rice served in the Lan Restaurant is quite small, just like "eat to enjoy" like the old kings. That is also the reason why visitors to the restaurant often enjoy 2 to 4 bowls of ‘com hen’ to soothe the craving at the tip of the tongue and fill their stomach if this is the main meal of the day.

Mrs. Chau Phuong Lan, the owner of the Lan Restaurant, said that she and her husband came to Da Nang from Hue in the early 90s.

At first, she only sold beef porridge and then added mussel vermicelli, mussel rice, mussel porridge to the menu and Hue beef vermicelli to the menu.

As a Hue native, Mrs. Lan said that this dish is the very simple and a low-priced specialty of Hue, the ancient citadel of Viet Nam. It has sweet-smelling flavours of rice, onion, and oil, as well as strange tastes of sweet, buttery, salty, sour, bitter, and peppery-hot. Different ingredients to make the dish include rice, fried mussels, oil, roasted peanuts, Hue herbs, bean sprouts, fish sauce, cilantro, star fruit, chili powder fried in oil, and cashew oil to color.

To create a delicious bowl of ‘com hen’, Mrs. Lan imports all ingredients from Hue City.

She noted said that the main factors that determines whether the dish is delicious or not are mussels, mussel juice, shrimp paste, chili powder, herbs and purple lemongrass all grown from the fields of Hue.

For an attractive bowl of ‘com hen’, she buys large mussel intestines from Tam Giang Lagoon which are considered as a gift for diners who love Hue food.

In an about 25m² neatly arranged space on Thanh Thuy Street, Mrs. Lan said that since the restaurant was open, she has never let anyone else in the kitchen because she is afraid that the taste of the dish will change.

According to Mrs. Lan, dishes such as mussel rice, mussel vermicelli to be delicious must accurately balance every bit of ingredients, because if you overdo it, you will make the dish lose its own rich flavor and inherent character.

Reporting by HUYNH LE - Translating by M.DUNG