National Dishes of the World

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Bún chả
Photo: stuart_spivack, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

main dish

Bún chả

Grilled pork patties and pork belly in a sweet-sour fish sauce dip, served with rice vermicelli and herbs.

Eaten in: Vietnam

Prep
30 min
Cooking
20 min
Resting
1 h
Total
1 h 50 min
Servings
4

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About the dish

Bún chả is Hanoi’s lunchtime dish: small patties of minced pork and slices of pork belly, marinated with fish sauce, shallot and caramel and grilled over charcoal until smoky. They are served in a bowl of light, sweet-sour nước chấm dipping sauce with slices of pickled green papaya or carrot, alongside a plate of fine bún rice noodles and a basket of lettuce, mint and perilla. Each mouthful of noodles and herbs is dipped into the sauce with the meat. At lunchtime smoke from street grills drifts over the Old Quarter, and in 2016 Anthony Bourdain took President Barack Obama there for a bowl.

Main ingredients

  • minced pork
  • pork belly
  • fish sauce
  • bún rice noodles
  • lime
  • garlic
  • herbs

Vietnam: A Hanoi speciality, now also served in other cities.

More: Wikipedia (en)

Recipe

Bún chả

https://foodmap.ominuvo.com/dish/bun-cha

Ingredients

4 servings

4 servings

Method

  1. Mix the shallots, half the garlic, 3 tbsp fish sauce, 2 tbsp sugar, the pepper and the oil; rub half of the marinade into the pork belly and mix the other half with the minced pork.

  2. Shape the mince into small flat patties and refrigerate everything for an hour.

  3. Make the dip: dissolve 3 tbsp sugar in the warm water, add 4 tbsp fish sauce, the lime juice, the rest of the garlic and the chilli, then the carrot and papaya slices.

  4. Cook the noodles according to the packet, rinse under cold water and drain.

  5. Grill the patties and belly over charcoal or under a hot oven grill for 3–4 minutes per side until browned and slightly charred.

  6. Put the hot meat into bowls of the dipping sauce and serve with the noodles and herbs – noodles and herbs are dipped into the sauce together with the meat.

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