{Saigon Snacks} Bun Cha Ha Noi!

It's one year today since we moved from Hanoi to Saigon, so I thought it only fitting that we celebrate the anniversary with a lunchtime reminder of our time up north.

Turn right down the alley next to the Pho 2000 store on Le Thanh Ton Street in District 1 and you'll find Bun Cha Ha Noi  - one of a handful of restaurants in Saigon totally devoted to serving the delicious northern dish. (See my previous post for a description of Bun Cha).

If you're not the adventurous type, and tend to steer away from roaside street eats (as we often do for fear of making our 4-years-olds sick!), the grungy appearance of this 2-storey restaurant may put you off. (And if the look of the restaurant doesn't make you head back the way you came, the pile of trash bags neatly stashed out front just might!) 

In fact, as we walked down the alley Rob's first comment to me was "Are you serious?".

Given Georgia and Mackenzie have been begging me to take them to a real Bun Cha restaurant since we left Hanoi there was no way I was going to turn back.

I must admit, I have eaten lunch at Bun Cha Ha Noi a few times with my colleagues so it was not like I dragged my family here without recommendation!

Owned by a friendly family from Hanoi, this is the real deal Bun Cha (not too sweet like the southerners tend to make it). They also specialise in crunchy Nem (deep fried spring rolls) and deep fried battered prawns. Each dish is 27,000 VND (that's about US$1.31 for a meal!).

Bun Cha Ha Noi - 26/1 Le Thanh Ton Street, District 1

Bun Cha Ha Noi

Ah....memories!

If you don't have a stomach of steel I suggest you avoid the greens!

Bun Cha Ha Noi's busy kitchen (that's the owner reading the newspaper!)

{Saigon Snacks} Bun Cha!

Last night I gave my housekeeper a copy of KOTO, a culinary journey through Vietnam - a cookbook written by Hanoi-based Australian chef Tracey Lister and her husband Andreas Pohl that introduces Vietnamese specialty dishes region by region.

All proceeds from this fabulous book go to KOTO, an Australian charity working to help Vietnamese street kids learn skills and find employment in hospitality.

I'm fast learning that there are many differences between the way the northerners and southerners prepare what I had thought were standard Vietnamese dishes and that some recipes, such as Bun Cha, my favourite street food in Hanoi, are ubiquitous in the north and rare in the south.

With that in mind I sat down with Thuy (my housekeeper) and showed her the KOTO cookbook pages with our favourite dishes from Hanoi. Bun Cha, Bo La Lot and Cha Ca were the three recipes I pointed out as our firm favourites from the north. Hint, hint - please cook these for my family!

Tonight when I walked in the door from work, I was greeted by the glorious smell of chargrilled pork. Bun Cha! Not as sweet, mind you, as smelling Bun Cha as it wafts around the streets of the Old Quarter in Hanoi, but it came close.



Homemade Bun Cha!



Bun Cha is pork grilled on a small charcoal burner served with bun (noodles) dipped in a salty and spicy broth-like sauce served with a range of vegetables such as coriander, shallots and bean sprouts. The pork is done in two ways - one a soft pork pattie, the other a slightly chewy pork belly piece. Absolutely delicious!

Apparently there are a small handul of eateries in Saigon that serve Bun Cha Hanoi style. I am yet to try them, but for the moment I am just happy that Thuy was good enough to reproduce the northern version at home!

PS - the roasted peanuts you may have spotted in the photo are not typically standard Bun Cha fare, not in Hanoi at least, but they were pretty damn good!