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.

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.

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.

In Da Lay commune (Da Teh district, Lam Dong province), the new homeland of the people from Hue today, it is hard to recognize the traces of the hardships from nearly half a century ago. The most recognizable feature in this rural area that carries "Hue far away" is the distinctive Hue accent, the conical hats of the elderly women glistening as they shield their kind smiles, and the lively mornings with loc and nam cakes. We arrived at the Da Lay market in the Central Highlands and felt as if we were back in Hue, enjoying street food and chatting at a corner of Dong Ba or An Cuu markets…