Do the Bun Cha!
If you've only got two meals in Hanoi, swallow pho for breakfast and do the bun cha for lunch. You can then boast that you did the cuisine of the north for real!
While pho is available for breakfast, lunch and dinner, bun cha is a lunch munch only. A word of warning about the timing of lunch in Vietnam: it can be had from around 10.30 but there ain't much doing by one, particularly at popular local eating holes. Lunch is a smash and grab meal, wolfed down to maximise shuteye time. As Vietnam envelops development, the masses still insist on their post-lunch 40 winks! You can't even go to the bank in the capital between half eleven and one.
Half the Hanoi populace does the bun cha for lunch! Yesterday, I did too. Every road, street and tiny rabbit warren serves up bun cha somewhere along its length. Hand-fan powered plumes of smoke signal a bun cha cave's location.This dish is basically meat grilled over hot coals served in a dipping sauce with bun (vermicelli) and herb jungles as sidekicks.
The meat is porky pig, formed into little patties with the double breath-fresheners, garlic and shallots, as well as egg, fish sauce and sugar. A variation has the patties wrapped in la lot (wild betel leaf), a damn fine herby touch. Porky's belly is also exploited for this meal, sliced into a thick bacon-like cut, marinated in the fish sauce potion, caged up in the wire griller with the patties and fan-cooked to well-done, edged with crunchy charcoal! Bun cha is the great Viet barbie!
Herbs and noodles are dunked in the bowl of dipping sauce which now contains the meat feast, acting as a dressing for the greenery and a loosener for the vermicelli. This soup cum sauce consists of the usual suspects: fish sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, lime juice and water. Normally luke warm, it can be doctored to taste with chili, garlic and pepper tableside.
Because mot xuat (one serve) of barbeque soup is not quite sufficient - and because I'm a bit of a porky pig myself - I generally partake in a couple of spring rolls, a stack of which is a standard fixture in all good bun cha eateries. These crunchy numbers sometimes contain crab but yesterday's had pork, rehydrated tree ears(!), cellophane noodles, onion and bean shoots. Regarding taste and crunch factor, see picture above.
When in Hanoi.....do the bun cha!
Lunch Money
one serve bun cha, two spring rolls - 11,000VND (USD70c, AUD90c)
Bun Cha
20 Ta Hien (next to bia hoi corner)
wow it looks really good. think i'm going to look for some of that bun cha the next time i go to a vietnamese restaurant.
Posted by: gwenda | 21 September 2005 at 05:49 PM
My god. I think my stomach just punched me in the head. Bun cha it is for lunch tomorrow then...
Posted by: pieman | 21 September 2005 at 09:28 PM
Hey Gwenda and Pieman: Whenever you have your bun cha fixes, let me know how they stack up. I've got another fave little bun cha hole which I'm going to rant about sometime soon. It's a brilliant lunch - beats the hell out of a cheese and tomato sandwich!
Posted by: Sticky | 22 September 2005 at 09:33 AM
Check the categories on noodlepie for the southern take. I haven't had it in Hanoi for a very, very long time. It is absolutley my fave Vietnamese dish. I had three faves in Hanoi, i stuck them all in the Get stuffed guide: http://www.noodlepie.com/blog/2004/07/get_stuffed_han.html
One thing I was hoping you guys would check out is chicken alley, off Tran Hung dao street near the Train station end. Again I mention it in get stuffed, but I don't know whether it's still there or not - what with freaked out chicken paranoia yada, yada, yada...
Posted by: pieman | 05 October 2005 at 05:02 PM
There's a couple of chicken alleys that we know of, Pieman; the one you mention and another one off Nguyen Thai Hoc Street near the old Hanoi footy stadium. Have eaten but haven't blogged - will let you know the upshot soon. Cheers!
Posted by: Sticky | 15 October 2005 at 01:30 PM
Look forward to it... I seem to remember the only major difference betweent he two addresses is that on Nguyen Thia hoc they serve chicken with potatoes on skewers. The alleyway, it's just wings and some divine livers. Been a while, but was a big fave.
Posted by: pieman | 17 October 2005 at 10:51 PM
Pieman - Found another pocket of chicken action in Ngo Gach St, smack in the middle of the old quarter last night. Putting it together right now!
Posted by: Sticky | 17 October 2005 at 11:05 PM