When I'm in the south at the beach, the palate kicks in to seafood mode. Bun ca (fish noodle soup) becomes the standard bowl of comfort, replacing the meat-laden noodle dishes of the capital. The prevalence of bun ca vendors in Nha Trang is in proportion to pho operators in Hanoi - they ply their dish morning, noon and night, on the street, in small family-run eateries, in cracks in the wall, under tarps and umbrellas. The fishing fleet are working hard keeping the fish up to the 300,000 or so locals and the swelling tourist population around Tet.
Last year I was in raptures with one place. This year, I was a bit of a bun ca whore, dipping my sticks in at a few diffferent spots. This particular purveyor, located in a quiet suburban street about a kilometre from the beach, does a roaring trade. Hundreds of bowls are piled up by the soup pot, an optimistic twenty already portioned with noodles. They are ready for the rush at this joint.
The swimmer in the bowl is tuna, in large chunks of fillet with only one or two biggish bones to be dispensed with, if any. A fish cake, fried earlier and sliced into thin wedges, also goes under the clear broth. These cakes, at some bun ca stalls, can be had as a stand alone with sweet chili sauce (mam ot ngot, below middle). Other condiments on offer include fish sauce (nouc mam, left), fermented shrimp paste (mam tom, right) and bashed up fresh chili (ot bam, top right).
The soup comes to table with a plated mountain of shredded lettuce, bean sprouts and rau ram which is wetted in the soup and travels on the sticks into the cake-hole tangled with noodles and fish.
Looks nice, sounds nice, is nice!
Money for Fish
Two bowls of soup, iced tea, soya milk - 22,000VND (USD$1.35, AUD$1.75)
Loan Bun Ca
123 Ngo Gia Tu
Nha Trang
Yippee. So glad i found you. Am coming for my birthday to Vietnam, and LOVE to eat, especially vietnamese food. I will be reading you blog all the time. We're not coming until november, so I'm sure I'll have lots of good tips by then.
Posted by: Kestypes | 13 March 2007 at 05:58 PM