Bún Thịt Nướng
Bún thịt nướng is most exciting for its perfect balance of contrasting flavors and elements: cold vermicelli noodles paired with the hot, charred pork; sour carrots and daikon alongside the sweetness that the marinade brings. “An explosion of flavors” might be a tired and worn-out cliché, but it’s very fitting for this dish.
In Vietnamese cooking, nướng means grilled, thịt refers to meat, and bún tells you that the dish is served with noodles. If we changed this to cơm thịt nướng, we would be talking about the same dish with rice instead of noodles.
Marinated Pork Ingredients:
1.5 lb. pork butt or shoulder, thinly sliced
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 shallots, minced
1 tbsp. ginger, minced
2 tbsp. lemongrass, minced
3 tbsp. fish sauce
1 tbsp. sugar
3 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. honey
4-6 skewers for grilling
Quick Pickle Carrots and Daikon:
½ cup carrots and daikon, julienned
1 cup water
4 tbsp. sugar
¼ cup white vinegar
1 tbsp. salt
Additional Ingredients:
nước mắm (refer to recipe here)
al dente vermicelli
¼ cup roasted peanuts, crushed
2 shallots, sliced
2 cucumbers, sliced
bean sprouts
butter crunch lettuce
Thai basil
mint
The Beta:
Combine all the ingredients for the marinade in a bowl, thoroughly mix in the thinly sliced pork, and then place in the fridge for at least a few hours (overnight is ideal).
Next, make your quick pickle carrots and daikon. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and place in the fridge until serving time.
If you don’t have a batch of nước mắm made up, you’ll want to prepare a small supply for this dish. Again, this can be made in bulk and utilized for up to a month. Most of the meals we eat are served with a small bowl of nước mắm for dipping, so we generally keep a jar in the fridge ready to go.
Bring a pot of water to boil for the vermicelli. While waiting for your water to boil, heat your cast iron on medium/high with a drizzle of olive oil, and then saute two sliced shallots until crispy. In a separate pan, roast the peanuts on medium heat until fragrant, stirring occasionally to prevent burning (about five minutes), then crush. Once your water is boiling, cook the vermicelli noodles until al dente, rinse, and then portion into individual bowls and let cool.
Once all the prep work is done (noodles cooked, nước mắm made, peanuts and shallots roasted, cucumbers sliced, carrots and daikon pickled), it’s time to grill the pork. Run the thinly sliced pork onto wooden skewers, and once your grill is ready, cook over an open flame until well done. Charred, crispy edges are encouraged, so make sure your fire is hot.
Plating: Add 1 to 1.5 skewers of pork to each bowl, using tongs or a fork to remove the skewer. Top with roasted peanuts and fried shallots, and then garnish with butter crunch lettuce, mint, Thai basil, bean sprouts, sliced cucumbers, and quick pickle carrots and daikon. Spoon 3-4 tbsp. of nước mắm over the top of each bowl, and serve.
Picking up bún thịt nướng on the street in Sài Gòn — we liked this place so much we came here two nights in a row.
The Beginning of Tiny Grill Adventures
On a lone trip to H Mart, I took a chance and bought a ten-dollar grill, on sale from fifteen. I was on the phone with Tommy when I saw the display of grills stacked neatly on a table with a sale sign—the perfect lure for a proper impulse buy.
“Hey, this grill is on sale for ten bucks.”
“Dude. Buy it.”
There was no hesitation. Honestly, I’d never been more confident about the ten dollars I was about to spend.
In Vietnam, we followed our noses to grills just like this for yams or corn or bánh mì. In Đà Lạt during the Tết (Vietnamese or Lunar New Year) we walked through a maze of Vietnamese tourists gathered around small plastic tables, all waiting for bánh tráng nướng being cooked on just such a contraption. For street food workers, light and compact is the way to go in Vietnam as everything must be packed on an old Honda scooter along with a passenger or two. Even with the ample space of a Honda C-RV, as in our case, this little grill has proven to be essential for cooking on the go.
To kick things off with the tiny grill, we made bún thịt nướng. This was the first dish I ate in Sài Gòn after bouncing from airport to airport for 24 hours with Amanda and her mom. For three exhausted and dirty travelers, this was just the rejuvenation we needed. We love bún thịt nướng so much that we’ve made it three times in the last month, including once during our Montana road trip (more on this adventure will come). The secret to the perfect pork?—a piping hot grill for those crispy, burnt edges.
A bowl of bún thịt nướng, the way we enjoy it, has a lot of components. It’s obvious by reading the steps in this recipe that there is a lot to do—arguably too much for one person to prepare if you’re planning to eat before midnight. Divide and conquer: It’s the only way. Plus, including more pairs of hands in the kitchen makes for a much more appreciated mealtime. Put one person in front of the cutting board, another at the stove, and if you can spare someone with back pain, place them at the hard work of manning the grill and drinking a cold beer (the back pain will be minimized here). If you have the luxury of planning your meals ahead of time, marinate your pork and make your quick pickle carrots a day in advance. Our house, and especially our kitchen, run on impulse and whim, but the thirty minutes or so of marinating we allowed for still did the trick.
A tip for skewering the pork: Working with longer strips, run the skewer through one end, then fold the pork and thread the skewer through the the strip until you get to the end. Check out this video from Luke Nguyen at about the 3.5 minute mark to see what we’re talking about (don’t miss his tip for preparing your skewers!).
A woman cooking bánh tráng nướng for Vietnamese tourists gathered in Đà Lạt for Tết. Due to its higher elevation and cooler temperatures, Đà Lạt is a popular destination for travelers who want to escape the heat.