Once cooled sufficiently, we went out to walk around a different local neighborhood and have lunch. I had wanted to try banh u'o't (byung oo-ut), another Hue specialty. I talked to the hotel to get a taxi to take us to the neighborhood (the good brands of taxis are hard to find - it's easier to call them and have them pick you up; otherwise, if you take a different brand of taxi, while they use the meter, the meter doesn't measure distance accurately, so you wind up overpaying). When I told the hotel where I wanted to go, of course they asked why we wanted to go there, as it's not a common tourist destination (there's nothing to see there) - but I told them that I wanted to go for banh u'o't, and this place was recommended, the hotel staff said they knew of the place, but thought it was closed - so they recommended a different place which happened to be just a few doors down. I'm glad I asked, because it turned out they the first place actually was closed, and the place they recommended was down an alleyway - we probably would have never found it!
This place is huge - there's a whole inside, and covered outside seating. While locals do go there, they also see a lot of tourists - as we were finishing, a whole bus load of Vietnamese tourists arrived and sat at a huge table right near us (actually a bunch of tables pushed together into one long table).
Bun thit nu'o'ng (boon t-heet noo-omg). This should look very familiar as it seems like every Viet place in NY (and probably elsewhere) has it - it's basically the grilled beef noodle salad. Room temp rice noodles, cucumber, herbs (peppermint, mini thai basil, cilantro, fish mint) and pickled daikon. While it's really common in NY and elsewhere now, its origins are in central VN.
Banh u'o't thit nu'o'ng (buyng oo-ut t-heet noo-omb) - these are rice rolls made with grilled beef, herbs (mini thai basil, peppermint). This was awesome - we originally ordered two of these and one bun thit nu'o'ng, but it was so good my tapeworm made me order one more. Really cheap too... The whole lunch was probably about $3.
Fish sauce based dipping sauce with lots of garlic. More garlic, with the chilis, is provided in case there isn't enough in your sauce.
After lunch, we walked around the neighborhood and concluded that, just as the hotel had said, there was nothing to see there, so we headed back to the hotel to take a dip in the pool.
