Going to Eat Phu Yen's Braised Tuna Eyeball, the Delicacy That Went Viral 1.4 Million Times

ベトナム中部フーイエン省（Phú Yên、2025年7月の省再編で現ダクラク省の一部）の名物「マグロの目玉煮（mắt cá ngừ đại dương）」を外国人TikTokerが実食した動画が、140万回以上再生された。投稿したのは越在住のTikToker「Joe」（Vietjoe TV／フォロワー約12.9万人）。丼ほどもある目玉が皿にどんと載る見た目のインパクトと、口の中でとろける意外な旨さのギャップが受けた形だ。旅行者にとってこれは単なるゲテモノ動画ではない。ダナンやニャチャンほど知られないフーイエンを訪ねる動機になり、しかも一皿200〜300円で試せる。どの店が当たりかを見抜くコツは、Vietnam’s golden rule for spotting the shops where locals gatherapplies as is.

What got 1.4 million views

In the video, Joe took on three dishes. Alongside the star braised tuna eyeball, he ate a free-range chicken and herb hotpot, "lẩu gà lá é," and a jellyfish salad, "nộm sứa," one after another. The braised eyeball in particular has strong visual impact the moment it's set on the plate. The sight of a perfectly round eyeball steaming makes first-time foreigners catch their breath.

But one bite flips the verdict. Joe described the fatty, gelatinous texture as "soft, almost melting in your mouth," and said the aroma of ginger and Chinese herbs erases any off-smell. This "brace at the sight, betrayed by the taste" arc drew empathy in the comments. That it was posted by an account with over 2.5 million cumulative TikTok likes helped push the spread too.

How the eyeball called “the sea’s headlight” became a specialty

Phu Yen is one of Vietnam's leading tuna-landing areas, known locally as the “tuna capital.” It lands several thousand tons a year; the flesh goes to sashimi and export, but the large eyeballs left in the head were long an ingredient in local home cooking. A single eyeball weighs 100 to 300 grams—the big ones the size of a rice bowl—and locals call them “đèn pha” (sea headlights) for their look.

What elevated this into a tourist specialty is the refinement of how it's cooked. The raw eye is parboiled to remove any off-smell, then simmered in a clay pot for 20 to 30 minutes with medicinal ingredients like jujube, goji berries, and ginger. It's finished with a scatter of pepper and chopped shallot and served piping hot in the clay pot itself. In 2014 the Vietnam Records Association named it one of the country's ten representative delicacies. If you want to eat your way through central Vietnam,A Hue Food Crawl of Noodles and Rice-Flour Sweets You Can Do for 1,200 Yen a Daycombine it with these and the range of central-Vietnam flavors expands all at once.

Braised tuna eye by the numbers

Let's pin down the outline of this delicacy with figures we could confirm. The exchange rate is converted at 10,000 dong ≈ 60 yen.

How locals received it

Locals and travelers take this dish differently.

• At local eateries, the stewed eyeball is treated as a nourishing food “good for people who use their heads,” routinely ordered as a closer or a drinking snack.
• Many foreign tourists trying it for the first time flinch at the sight of a bowl-sized eyeball, then change their minds once they take a bite. The comments on Joe's video filled up with exactly this reaction.
• There are several shops in Tuy Hoa that feature braised eyeball as their signature, where local customers and tourists sit at the same tables. That specialization has advanced at all is itself evidence of demand.

In an era where delicacies decide the destination, a lens travelers can use

This small buzz holds three practical meanings for travelers.

First,A delicacy becomes the reason to choose the destination itself. Phu Yen is known at home as the setting of the film 'Yellow Flowers on the Green Grass,' but it has been a hard place to fit into a Japanese itinerary. When there's 'a dish you can only eat here,' a province you'd merely pass through becomes a place to stay. The simmered eye is a dish that embodies that pull.

Second,Consider the Social-Media Visual Impact and the Actual Taste Separatelythe lesson that you should. The tuna-eye stew is the top pick for video appeal, but the scary part is only the first instant; in reality it's just a rich delicacy simmered with Chinese herbs. The same structure applies to rice paper and fermented street-stall dishes. Shy away on the strength of looks alone and you narrow the pleasures of travel food yourself.

Third,The low price hurdle of 200–300 yen a dish. Even if you fail, your wallet barely feels it. If you know the going rate, you can quickly see through prices marked up for tourists. A specialty with such a low cost of trying is easy to fold into a travel plan.

The basics for actually going to eat it

The famous braised-eyeball shops are concentrated in Tuy Hoa. Here's a list of addresses and going prices.

Phu Yen works on its own, but linking it with Nha Trang (Khanh Hoa Province) to the south thickens a coastal itinerary. How to enjoy the bay isAn article reading the seaplane concept for Khanh Hoa's three baysis a helpful reference.

Summary: Three Things to Do Next

A dish with a rice-bowl-sized eye on the plate earned 1.4 million views on visual impact, but for travelers the value lies on the taste-and-affordability side. If you're putting Phu Yen on your itinerary, here's the order to move in. First, secure a domestic flight to Tuy Hoa; a connection from Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi is the basic route. Second, pick one tuna-eye-stew shop in the city and order with the going rate of 40,000–50,000 dong in mind. Third, order the surrounding specialties that appeared in Joe's video too — free-range chicken herb hot pot, jellyfish salad — and savor Phu Yen's seaside table in one sitting. The scary part is only the first instant, as you'll realize the moment you eat.

Sources

• A foreign TikToker’s eating video hits 1.4 million views (Kenh14)
• Phu Yen’s exotic tuna eye dish（VietnamNet）
• The going rate, shops, and how to eat stewed tuna eyeball (VinWonders)
• Tuy Hoa airport guide (Vietnam Locals)