More than just providing accommodation, Ms. Dinh Thi Phuong Thy (born in 1991, Kim Long Ward) brings visitors closer to local culture through everyday experiences such as making conical hats, making traditional Hue cakes, preparing Hue-style meals, and making lotus tea...

For over 20 years working as an ao-dai designer, Tran Thien Khanh has brought the images and spirit of Hue to numerous stages near and far. Yet in ‘Huong Ky Uc’ (Fragrance of Memories), he chooses not to portray Hue through grand symbols, but through the hands of his mother, baskets of loc cakes, and the simple, familiar memories of childhood.

With over 300 different variations of designs, Nerikiri requires creativity, meticulousness, and skillful craftsmanship from the confectioner.

Combining artistic expression with refined sculpting skills, Nguyen Thi Quynh Nhu, a pastry chef born in 1995, is creating vivid “blooming flowers” on each of her cakes.

The excited chatter of children in the corner of the house does not make Mrs Ton Nu Minh Trang miss a beat as she gently shakes the tray of cakes. She smiles knowingly: “They’ll break everything if they rush around! Making phuc linh cakes can’t be hurried or done carelessly!”

By 3 a.m., Le Thi Thu Trang’s bakery is already blazing. Batch after batch of traditional cakes and preserves from My Loi Village (Vinh Loc Commune) emerge from the oven, their rich aroma filling the air in time for the Tet (Lunar New Year) market.

Behind each little cake were care, creativity, and gentle skills, helping children fall in love with the family kitchen and feel proud of Hue’s culinary culture.

In Hue, the traditional Lunar New Year “Tet” does not arrive with fanfare. It begins quietly in the kitchen, from a pot of banh tet (a cylindrical sticky rice cake with mung beans and pork) glowing over the fire, from the warm scent of ginger, from a jar of mixed pickled vegetables. Just by looking at these dishes, people in Hue know that Tet is very near.

On the morning of December 4, at Hue One Food manufacturing plant (No.1 Nguyen Van Tuyet Street, Thuan An Ward, Hue City), Hue One Food Joint Stock Company held a ceremony to release a 40-foot container, carrying about 19 tons of traditional Hue cakes, for official export to the U.S market.

The recent export of 18 tons of Hue specialty cakes (including nam cakes (flat rice flour cakes with shrimp topping), loc cakes (tapioca dumplings), and it cakes (glutinous flour round cakes)) to the USA by Hue One Food and Kinh Do Specialty Joint Stock Company, Thuan An, holds significant meaning, acting as a special cultural ambassador of Hue to the world, with the value of cassava plant.

On the morning of August 22, in Hue City, Kinh Do Specialty Joint Stock Company in cooperation with Hue One Food Joint Stock Company held a ceremony of shipping the first container of Hue cakes to the U.S. market.

Already a familiar face among startup CEOs in Hue, this time I met with Ngo Duc Vuong - Director of Hue One Food Company, whose flagship product has been dubbed “Hue Pizza” - the Thuan An pressed rice cake. We chatted over coffee in Grand Prairie, Texas, as he continued his mission of spreading the story of Hue’s entrepreneurial journey through the pressed rice cake and promoting Hue culture in the U.S market.