Central: Fish Cake Soup & Hue-style Soups

How unique are the fish cake soup and Hue-style soups from the South Central?

Nam Pho Cake Soup

Rewind to the 1960s. In the afternoon, along the banks of Huong River, the road from Nam Pho village to Hue was a colorful stream of áo dài (Vietnamese traditional dress) worn by the women with overflowing bamboo baskets. They hawked a mouthwatering snack: Nam Pho cake soup. Why the afternoon? Because in the morning they had to wait for fishing boats from the lagoons near Hue to buy the unmissable ingredients for their soups: fresh-caught shrimps and crabs.

How do the Nam Pho make their mouthwatering soup? They start by smashing boiled shrimps in a stone mortar, releasing their sweet and salty aroma. Then they add some raw pork paste, and season it with shallot cloves, garlic, pepper and fish sauce. The result is a savory and spicy paste that they shape into tiny balls, and drop in a broth thickened by tapioca flour. To finish, they sprinkle shiny orange tomalley and crab meat on top of this thick “pistil” – that’s what Nam Pho villagers call this delicious concoction.

Watch out, Mrs. Dư is “on fire”! She throws some fresh shallot heads into the pot and gives it a vigorous stir. She grabs the pot off the stove and places it on a rattan basket. Don’t be fooled by her wrinkles – she’s over 80, but still a master of her craft. Her family has been making Nam Pho cake soup for four generations, ever since her great-grandma started the legacy. 

Back in the day, Mrs. Dư would roam around Hue with her soup, charming and satisfying many customers. Now being older, she likes to run a snug shop near Nam Pho’s guardian temple, where she serves her scrumptious soup to loyal customers.

Mrs. Du’s son is hard at work making the dough in a double boiler. He mixes rice flour, tapioca starch and water in a pot over another pot of bubbling water, stirring the mixture like a madman until it turns into a smooth and stretchy dough. He then wraps some dough around a wooden pestle and flicks thin strands of dough to fall into boiling water. The noodles emerge round, white and slippery, the size of chopsticks. They are eager to dive into a savory broth which hugs them in a warm embrace. 

Is the pot of Nam Pho cake soup done? Not quite! Mrs. Du is busy slicing a few green chili peppers for a fish sauce dipping. Nam Pho soup without a bowl of chili fish sauce is a crime. She grabs a bowl and ladles out the white noodle, adding a spoonful of orange shrimp filling on top.

Nam Pho cake soup is a visual and gustatory delight. The noodles resemble white blossoms with orange stamens, bobbing in a thick and velvety broth. The broth carries the essence of shrimp and the fragrance of acestes fermented sauce, a delicacy of Hue. The noodles are soft and bouncy, but they do not overstay their welcome in your mouth. They glide down your throat with grace, leaving a warm and silky sensation. The shrimp paste is more refined, enticing your tongue to savor its sweetness and freshness. 

This humble dish captured the fancy of a noble poet – the Highness Nguyen Phuc Ung Binh, who was a scion of the Nguyen dynasty and a connoisseur of words.

After Mr. Ung Binh hung up his pen, he settled in Tay Thuong village, a stone’s throw away from Nam Pho village. His daughter, the poetess Ton Nu Hy Khuong, recalled that whenever he had visitors, he would summon a Nam Pho cake soup hawker into his abode for a midday snack. He would then request his daughter to sing the Hue song he penned about Nam Pho cake soup, as a prelude to the feast: 

“Come, have a bowl of Nam Pho cake soup, 

It’s wholesome, tasty and aromatic 

It will make you feel breezy and heroic 

It beats any ginseng or wine that’s exotic 

I beckon the Nam Pho soup seller with a gentle tone 

I inquire about her name and her zone 

And the secrets of her culinary skill 

How she stirs the noodles and makes the pistil.”

(“Nam Pho cake soup”, thivien.net)

The final verse of the song made me tip my hat in awe. He must have grilled the Nam Pho soup maker on how to prepare the dish, to know that the dough needs to be stirred, not kneaded, and the orange bit is called a “pistil”.

Hue Cake Soup

Nam Pho cake soup is a signature dish of Nam Pho village, but the original Hue cake soup has a different twist, according to Mrs. Hoang Thi Kim Cuc, a culinary expert at Dong Khanh girl school since the 1940s. 

Ms. Cuc would slice the flat dough into thin ribbons on a chopping board. She called the rice flour soup as “shrimp and crab porridge”, and the tapioca flour soup as “tapioca porridge”. She never mixed the two flours like Nam Pho soup. In her recipe, she fried crab meat, shrimp, and pork, then added crab roe for a golden touch. She poured water in and brought it to a boil, then dropped the dough ribbons and simmered them until they were done. She always warned “don’t make it too thick” (Cooking Hue food (1943), HCM General Publishing House, pp. 232 – 233)

It was a pleasure for me to savor the shrimp crab porridge, made in the way Ms. Cuc described, once or twice. The broth was slightly milky and redolent of fried shallots and shrimp. I bit slowly some pieces of shrimp and crab, then leisurely chewed on the noodles, and washed them down with some broth. The rich and warm flavors lingered in my mouth, trickled down my throat, my stomach, and finally reached my heart. That’s when I realized why this dish was called “porridge” and not “soup” or “cake”. It was a true comfort food, as “porridge” means in Vietnamese culture. 

Ms. Cuc uses the word “cháo bột” (flour porridge) for savory porridge soup like Quang Tri locals, but calls the vegetarian version “cháo bánh canh” (porridge cake soup) (cited book, p. 296). The reason is clear: she cooks noodles apart and then pour the vegetarian filling on top of the soup like Nam Pho style. Is Nam Pho village the first place to create the word “bánh canh” (cake soup)?

Another unique and tasty dish in Hue you might want to try is lizardfish cake soup. Don’t be fooled by the name, this is not some exotic reptile soup, but a delicacy made from a common sea fish that thrives in the Thuan An estuary. The lizardfish is prized for its flavor, but it also has a downside: it is full of bones. Luckily, some diligent women in Thuan An town have mastered the art of deboning the fish and turning the meat into a smooth paste. 

The soup is a treat for the sight and taste buds, with the golden hue of annatto oil, tender noodles of rice or wheat, and rich toppings of rib meat, pork skin, quail eggs, blood puddings, and of course, the crispy and succulent lizardfish cakes – the star of the show.

What makes this fish cake soup even more special is the way it is sold: by running hawkers. These are women who wear conical hats and carry heavy bamboo baskets, filled with the soup and its ingredients. They walk, or sometimes run, along the quiet roads or the busy streets, looking for customers. Sometimes they call out with raspy voices, bearing the weight of time: “Who wants cake soup?”

Fish Cake Soup

The coastal area is a paradise for fish lovers, with an abundance of scrumptious, fresh and affordable fish. And from this bounty of nature, the delectable fish cake soup was born: the broth is simmered from fish heads and bones, extracting every bit of flavor, while the fish meat is transformed into fish paste for various types of fish cakes: fried, steamed and boiled. Each one has its own texture and taste, creating a symphony of sensations in your mouth.

The bowl of fish cake soup is a delight for the senses, with a clear broth that fills the air with the fragrant aroma of shallots and fish. The rice noodle is a delicate cloud of white, cradling fried fish cake that crackles between your teeth, steamed fish cakes that burst with flavor, and little fish balls that pop with juiciness. The soup warms your mouth with the spice of black pepper, but the coastal locals love more heat and spoon in some red minced chili, as if they longed to see crimson sails dotting the blue sea and white sand.

Fish cake soup’s noodles are mostly made of rice flour. The dough is rolled into thin layers and cut into long strips. Immersed in broth for a while, the noodles soak up the smell of fish and scallions, releasing a tantalizing sea aroma. Some shops use machine-made noodles, which are softer and thinner than hand-made ones. These are too fragile for the broth, so they only get a brief dip and come out in a hurry, losing the rich sea taste of the hand-made ones.

Good thing is, fish cake soup shops now have something enticing: dipping sauces. Not just one but three types. Bright red chili is boiled and chopped, bursting with chili flavor. Hue-style green chili in fish sauce looks innocent but is wickedly spicy. Finally, the sweet and spicy sauce, thick like malt. Just pick up a piece of fish cake, dip in the sauce and pop it in your mouth. The fish cake is chewy but soft, and has a little bit of everything: salty, sweet, spicy, and sour. It makes your tongue swoon and your teeth dance.

But wait, where is the famous coastal land of fish cake soup? It stretches from Binh Dinh to Vung Tau, along the sea. And each province’s fish cake soup has its own twist. Binh Dinh pairs it with grilled rice paper for some crunch. Phu Yen tops it with a lot of chives for some freshness. Khanh Hoa adds boneless fish meat called cá dầm for some extra protein. Ninh Thuan serves it with fish spring rolls for some variety. Binh Thuan dips bread in the soup broth for some comfort. And Vung Tau uses deep-fried dough sticks for some indulgence.

Fish cake soup is a dish for everyone, no matter how rich or poor. Its sellers are women of steel, who brave the sun and rain to make a living. They care about their customers who are not rich, so they strive to keep the price as affordable as they can, like Mrs. Hai Xi, a vendor in Phan Thiet, said: “I’m used to selling it as cheap as possible, a higher price makes me blush.” The price of a regular bowl of fish cake soup is always lower than a bowl of phở or other noodle types.

From the North to the Central of Vietnam, bánh canh (cake soup) has come a long way and made friends with different delicious ingredients. Minced meat, perch, crab, shrimp, and fish cakes are among those that joined its adventure. What other interesting companions will it find when going south? The secret will be revealed in the next episode.

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