Hen Xao Xuc Banh Trang — the Easiest Way Into Hue's Clam Dishes
Same clam, same island, but this is the easy one. Anyone who has not got on with com hen should start here.
This page is translated from Vietnamese. Prices and opening hours are checked against Vietnamese sources — see the Vietnamese version for the most recent update.
Hến xào xúc bánh tráng is the most approachable of Hue’s three clam dishes. The clams are stir-fried dry and scooped up with a piece of grilled rice paper, eaten with your hands.
One clam, three ways
Hue makes three dishes from the same ingredient, and picking the wrong order is why many people decide they do not like Hue clams:
- Cơm hến — tossed with cold rice, raw shrimp paste, very hot. The hardest.
- Bún hến — noodles instead of rice, gentler.
- Hến xào xúc bánh tráng — stir-fried dry, no rice and no noodles, eaten like a snack. The easiest.
If you have never eaten Hue clams, start with this one and work up to cơm hến.
How it is made
The clams are boiled, the meat picked out, then stir-fried with shallot, garlic, Vietnamese coriander, chilli and Hue shrimp paste. Stir-fried dry, with no liquid left.
The shrimp paste is what holds the flavour together. Take it out and what remains is clams fried with shallot — fragrant but flat, and no longer a Hue dish. That is the common ground with cơm hến; the difference is that here the paste is cooked in the pan rather than added raw.
The rice paper is grilled over coals until crisp and puffed, then broken into pieces for scooping.
Where the clams come from
The best come from Cồn Hến, the small islet in the Perfume River right beside the city. The clams there are tiny, no bigger than a chopstick tip, and sweet.
Raking, sorting and boiling clams at Cồn Hến has been the trade of a whole riverside neighbourhood since around the eighteenth century.
How to eat it
Break off a piece of rice paper, scoop up a load of clams and eat the whole thing — no chopsticks, no picking up one clam at a time.
Eat while the clams are still hot and the rice paper still crisp. Left too long, the clams cool and turn fishy and the rice paper goes limp.
This is drinking food rather than a filling dish. In Hue people order it with beer or rice wine in the late afternoon.
Where to eat it
Cồn Hến is the most authentic — cross the bridge and there are a few long-established stalls on the islet.
Plenty of places in the city sell it too, usually alongside all three clam dishes, so ordering all three in one sitting is easy.
Making it at home
This is the easiest of the three because you do not need the clam broth for pouring.
If you cannot get Cồn Hến clams, small clams or cockles will do at a push — but the shrimp paste has to be proper strong Hue paste, not a diluted version.
Other Hue dishes worth trying
Cơm hến · bún bò Huế · bánh bèo, nậm, lọc · bánh khoái · chè Huế.
Specialties used in this dish
Mắm tôm chua Nhựt Hoàng loại 1 – hũ 500g Whole shrimp fermented naturally, gently sour and full-flavoured — the dipping sauce that belongs to a central Vietnamese table. 75.000₫ 
Mắm nêm Nhựt Hoàng – hũ 500g Mắm nêm in a jar, thicker than the bottle — easier to spoon out and blend to your own taste. 60.000₫ Prices are in Vietnamese đồng.
Food
- Bun Bo Hue — the Shrimp Paste Is What Gives the Broth Its DepthBones for sweetness, lemongrass and chilli for aroma. That thick, lingering depth behind every spoonful — that is the shrimp paste.
- Com Hen — the Poor Man's Dish, Served With Cold RiceCold rice, clams the size of a chopstick tip, and chilli heat that stops most first-timers. This is the hardest dish in Hue to get on with.
- Banh Beo, Nam, Loc and Ram It — the Hue Cake Set, Eaten TogetherNobody orders just one. People in Hue order the whole set, a few of each — and each one comes with its own dipping sauce.