Dong Ba Market

An old Hue folk verse names four markets. Two are Đông Ba and Đập Đá. The other two are Gia Hội and the Dinh market. The verse says that these markets bustle, and that they also fall silent.

Those were the four famous markets of old Hue. Today Đông Ba is the biggest and busiest of those that remain.

Đông Ba Market is 125 years old, and its story is tied to the story of the old imperial capital itself. This is not a market made for tourists. It is where the people of Hue really shop, and it is lively from early morning on all 365 days of the year.

In the early 19th century, under Emperor Gia Long, a market already stood outside the Chính Đông Gate of the Citadel. In its middle was a two-story tiled communal house. Emperor Gia Long was the founder of the Nguyễn dynasty.

In 1887, Emperor Đồng Khánh had the market rebuilt and officially gave it the name Đông Ba. But the spot where it stands today dates only from 1899.

In 1899, Emperor Thành Thái renewed the city of Hue. In those same years the Trường Tiền Bridge was rising beside the river. He also laid out a street of the same name, and he moved the market to a new place by the Perfume River.

The bridge and the market came out of the same renewal of the city. They are two symbols of Hue, standing side by side on the Perfume River.

In 1968, bombs destroyed much of the market during Tết Mậu Thân, the Lunar New Year. A major restoration came only in 1987.

That was when the three-story central building was raised, the one the people of Hue call the bell tower. The market's present layout comes from then, with the bell tower at the center and a U-shaped row of buildings around it.

The market covers nearly 4.76 hectares. Inside, it is divided into zones: a food area for breakfast, an area for specialties to take home, an area for cloth and conical leaf hats, and an area for farm produce and fresh food.

In the breakfast area there is bún bò, the beef noodle soup of Hue. Its broth is strong, made with fermented shrimp paste and lemongrass, and that is what sets it apart from the bún bò of the south.

Bánh bèo are small round cakes of steamed rice, served with shrimp and dipped in sweet fish sauce. Bánh khoái is crisp, filled with shrimp, bean sprouts and meat. Bánh nậm and bánh lọc are wrapped in banana leaves. Cơm hến, a rice dish, is mixed with sesame, peanuts and fresh herbs.

In the area for specialties, three things stand out.

The first is mè xửng, the number one specialty of Hue to take home as a gift. Sesame flour, sugar and malt syrup are set into a firm, fragrant, sweet cake. There is a hard traditional kind and a newer, softer, chewy kind.

The second is tôm chua, the sour shrimp of Hue. Fresh shrimp are salted and cured for three to five days with ginger, galangal, garlic, chili and liquor. It is eaten with rice vermicelli, fresh herbs and boiled meat.

The third is the Hue conical leaf hat, a traditional handicraft. The kinds sold include the nón thơ and the nón Bài Thơ.

Outside the main gate on Trần Hưng Đạo Street, the Perfume River and the Trường Tiền Bridge lie right in front of you. It is one of the finest views in Hue. Đông Ba stands beside the river, the bridge crosses it, and the Phu Văn Lâu pavilion rises far off. Trade, transport and culture sit together in a single frame.

For people of Hue who live far from home, going back to Hue means going back to Đông Ba. The market is not only a place to buy and sell. It is memory and identity, the soul of everyday life in the old capital.

For 125 years, every early morning, the market has woken to the sweet smell of mè xửng and to the murmur of voices beside the Perfume River.