Lẩu Mắm

Mixed Vegetables and Fermented Fish Flavored Hot Pot


1 jar fermented Gourami (mắm sặc)
2 lbs pork neck bone
2/3 lb pork belly, sliced
1/2 lb small shrimp (shell-in)
2 Japanese Eggplants, cubed
15 small okras
2 cups string bean, cut into 3-inches length
2 cans coconut juice
3 stalks fresh lemongrass
1/2 T chopped lemongrass
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 shallots, minced
Vegetable oil, salt, rock sugar

Put pork bones in a pot, cover with water (about 3 quarts), bring to a boil over medium high heat, skim off foam, add some salt and lower heat, simmer for 2-3 hrs. Discard bones.

In a small pot, put fermented gourami (use a whole jar if it's a ready to use paste, 1/2-2/3 jar if it's not a ready to use paste), stalks of lemongrass (crush with side of your cleaver) and 2 cans coconut juice in, simmer over medium low heat until all become a muddy soup. Strain broth to discard bones (If using ready to use paste, just stir in and bring to a boil).

Put some oil in a skillet, add minced garlic, shallot and minced lemongrass in, stir until fragrent, add pork belly in, stir-fry, season with some fish sauce, sugar and pepper.

Add fermented fish broth to the soup pot (not all of it), bring back to boil. Taste and adjust by adding more fermented fish broth or adding rock sugar. Add shrimp, pork belly, okra, string bean and eggplant. Serve with cooked rice vermicelli (medium size) and mixed raw vegetables.
Raw Vegetables

Water Spinach (rau muống bào)
Banana Blossom (bắp chuối)
Water lily Stem (ngó súng)
Water Mimosa (rau nhút)

Bitter Leaf (rau đắng)
Beansprout (giá)
Chive (hẹ)
Herbs: Basil (húng quế), mint (húng nhũi), fish mint (dấp cá) ....

Bún Chả Cá

Fish Cake Noodle Soup


1 lb fish paste
1/4 lb shrimp paste
2 eggs
4 bamboo shoots (small)
3 tomatoes
1/2 pineapple
3 lbs pork neck bones
2 blue crabs or 1 fish head
1 bunch water dropwort (rau cần nước)
1 T red hot chili oil
Garlic, shallot, green onion, cilantro
Vegetable oil, salt, pepper, fish sauce, sugar

Place pork bones, blue crabs (or fish head if you are fish lover) and 3 shallots in large pot, add water, bring to a boil over high heat, skim off foam, lower the heat and let simmer for 2 hours. Add some salt and strain broth.

Fish Ball: 3/4 lb fish paste + 1/2 T sugar + 2 crushed green onions (just the white heads) + 1 egg white + 1 t fish sauce + pepper. Mix until smooth. Pluck a small piece of the paste and form the mixtures into balls, smooth them with oil. Deep fry.
Fish Cake: 1/4 lb fish paste + 1/4 lb shrimp paste + 1 egg white + 1 t cornstarch + 1 minced garlic + fish sauce, sugar and pepper to taste. Mix until smooth. Line some oil in a small baking pan, add this mixture in (1/2 inch thick) and steam for 10-15 minutes, remove. Beat 2 egg yolks evenly and pour on top of fish cake, bring back to steam for 5-10 more minutes.

Tomato: cut into 8 lengthwise
Bamboo Shoot: cut into 12 lengthwise
Pineapple: Slice 1/2 pineapple into 4 pieces lengthwise, remove core strip on top, slice into 1/2-1/3 inch pieces.

Stir fry bamboo shoot and pineapple with some garlic and season with some fish sauce and pepper. Add into the broth. Add fish balls into the broth. Bring to boil.
Stir fry tomato with some garlic and add into the broth. Add 1 T red hot chili oil.
Season the soup with salt, sugar, fish sauce, pepper to taste.

Put noodle in a bowl, top with a piece of fish cake, some water dropwort, ladle soup on top with tomato, bambooshoot, pineapple, fish balls. Top with chopped green onion and cilantro.
Option: a side dish of water dropwort, sliced shallot (raw), and green onion (white head).

Bún Bò Xào

Lemongrass Beef Noodle Salad


1-1.5 lbs beef filet, sliced
1 yellow onion, cut lengthwise 1/3 inch thick
1 T minced lemongrass
1/4 t tumaric powder
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
Vegetable oil, fish sauce, salt, sugar, pepper.
8 red or green lettuce leaves, chopped
1/2 English cucumber, cut into thin strips
1 cup bean sprout
1/2 cup mint or basil
2 T scallion oil
2 T crushed toasted peanut
2 cups sweet and sour fish sauce
1 package rice noodle (small)

Marinate beef with some salt, sugar, pepper, lemongrass, tumaric powder, oil for 15-20 minutes.
Cook rice noodle as directed in the package.
Wash and prepare the vegetables.
Make fish sauce dressing, peanut, scallion oil.

Heat oil and add garlic to stir-fry until fragrant over medium high heat. Season with fish sauce to taste. Depend on how you like your onion cooked, you can add from the beginning or when the beef is partially cooked or you can stir-fry it seperately and mix in later.

Serve with rice noodle, vegetables and sweet and sour fish sauce.

Mì Quảng

Yellow Noodle

1.5 lbs pork bones
2/3 lb pork belly, sliced
12 head-on shrimps (size 36-40), remove shell but save the butter.
1/3 lb small shrimp (shell on)
1 can crushed pineapple
1 T red oil (or red hot chili oil)
8 shallots
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 T crisp-fried shallot
2 T roasted peanut
1 toasted sesame rice cracker
2 green onion, cut into 2-inches length.
4 green onion, chopped
5 sprigs cilantro, chopped
Vegetable oil, fish sauce, salt, pepper, rock sugar
Vegetable for noodle
1 pack of medium or large rice stick
1 t tumaric powder


The broth: Wash and put pork bones into a soup pot, cover with 2-3 quarts water, add 4 shallots and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Skim off foam, add 1 t sea salt, 1 small piece rock sugar. Lower heat and let it simmer for 2-3 hrs. Remove bones and shallot, add 1/2 T crisp-fried shallot and green onion (2-inches cut) in.
The sauce: (picture) Put 1 T oil in a small pot over medium high heat, add 4 minced shallot and 2 minced garlic in and stir-fry until fragrant. Add pork belly in, stir -fry until cooked. Add both shrimps in with its butter, stir-fry until it turns color. Add crushed pineapple in with its juice, season with salt, pepper. Add red oil and ladle broth over to cover the mixture. Season with fish sauce and 1 small piece of rock sugar.
The yellow noodle:
When cook the noodle add in 1 t tumaric powder and 1 T oil. Rinse and season with some sea salt and sugar.


To Serve:
Put some vegetable in the bottom, cover with yellow noodle, pour sauce on top, add some broth just enough to dress the noodle and vegetable because this is not a soup. Top some roasted peanut and sesame rice cracker, sprinkle some green onion and cilantro. Options: fresh queeze lime juice, sliced garlic (raw) and hot chili.

Mì Xào Giòn

Combination Crispy Noodle

1 bag fresh chow mein
oil to fry
12 shrimps, shelled and deveined
4 small cuttlefish (3-inches height)
1/2 lb pork loin, scliced
2 medium tomatoes, slice lengthwise 1/2 inch thick.
1/2 yellow onion, slice lengthwise 1/2 inch thick.
1/2 small cauliflower, cut into florettes
2 cups chinese flowering cabbage, cut into 3-inches length.
1 cup chinese celery, cut into 3-inches length.
1 can unpeeled straw mushrooms, cut in half.
1 can chicken broth
1 T oyster sauce
1/2 T corn starch, mix with some water
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 shallots, minced
Vegetable oil, soy sauce, salt, pepper, sugar

Step 1: Stir-fry each separately with oil, minced garlic and shallot, salt (or soyce sauce) and pepper. Set them aside.
- pork, shrimp, cuttlefish
- cauliflower, straw mushroom, chinese flowering cabbage
Step 2: Heat enough oil in a sauce pan to deep-fry noodle. When the oil is bubbling hot, add noodle in to deep fry until golden crisp. Transfer to plates.
Step 3: When about ready to serve, Heat a wok or pan over medium high heat, add some oil, minced garlic and shallot, yellow onion and stir-fry until fragrant. Add tomatoes, stir, add chinese celery, stir. Season some salt and pepper. Add everything in, pour in chicken broth and bring to boil. Add oyster sauce. Thicken the sauce with corn starch mix, use a spoon to add corn starch mix until the soup thicken enough. Season with soy sauce and sugar. Pour over the crispy noodle then serve.

Bánh Tằm Bì

Silk Worm Noodle


2 cups cooked large noodle (or pancit luglug)
1/2 cup porkskin mixture
1 cup lettuce
1 T mint, basil leaves
2 T steamed bean sprout
1 T cucumber, cut into thin strips
1/2 T shredded carrot
1/3 T scallion oil
1/4 T crushed roasted peanut

Arrange cooked noodle topped with scallion oil and crused peanut and all the ingredients in a plate. Mix noodle, porkskin mixture and vegetables and serve with coconut sauce and sweet and sour fish sauce. You can use a separate bowl to mix small portion at a time.



Coconut Sauce
Thicken coconut cream with some cornstartch over medium heat, add some chopped onion and season with a pinch of salt and sugar.

Hủ Tiếu Saté

Saté Flat Rice Noodle Soup


3 quarts chicken broth
2 lbs fresh flat rice noodle
12 cooked shrimps
1/2 lb fried fish cake, sliced
1/2 lb ground pork
1 shallot, minced
1 T roasted peanut, grounded
1 t tamarind powder
2 t saté sauce
1 T preserved cabbage
1 T vegetable oil
salt, pepper, sugar and fish sauce to taste
2 cups bean sprout
1/2 cup chopped green onion and cilantro

Heat oil and stir fry the shallot briefly, add ground pork and stir fry until cooked, about 3 minutes. Season pork with fish sauce and pepper. Set aside.
In a soup pot, add preserved cabbage and tamarind powder into 3 quarts of stock and bring it to a gentle boil. Add saté, sugar, salt and fish sauce to taste.
Put flat noodle in a bowl with bean sprout. Top with fish cake, shrimp and ground pork. Sprinkle chopped green onion and cilantro and roasted peanut. Pour hot soup over and serve.

Bún Suông

Shrimp Worm Noodle

2 lbs shrimp in shells
6 blue crabs
1/2 lb pork paste (giò sống)
3 quarts homemade chicken stock
2 shallots, minced
2 T hot chili oil
1 T vegetable oil
3 scallions, chopped (separate white heads)
10 sprigs cilantro, finely chopped
1 small piece of rock sugar
fish sauce, salt, pepper to taste
10 oz medium rice vermicelli

Add chicken stock in a large soup pot, bring to boil over high heat.
Blue crabs: Detach the shell from the body, scoop out the butter into a bowl. Remove and discard the apron and gills. Add crabs into the soup pot. Skim off any foam that rises to the top. Lower heat and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

Shell and devain shrimp, sprinkle salt over and let stand for 15 minutes, rinse and dry. Put shrimp, scallion (white heads), salt and pepper in a food processor. Process until the paste is fine and sticky. Add pork paste, mix well. Oil your fingers and make the shrimp worms out of the paste.

Add shrimp worms into the pot and cook for 3-5 minutes until the worms turn pink and float to the top. Add fish sauce, rock sugar, salt and pepper to taste.

In a small pan, add oil and fry shallot until fragrant, add crab butter in, stir well, add hot chili oil and cook for 2 minutes. Add this chili crab butter oil into the soup pot. Turn off heat.

Put rice vermicelli in boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. Turn off heat and let it sit for 2 more minutes. Rinse over water.

To serve: distribute salad greens, herbs, water spinach, banana blossom, bean sprouts into large bowl, noodle on top, ladle the hot broth amd shrimp worms over. Sprinkle with cilantro and scallion (green part). Add some fresh squeezed lime juice if preferred.

Vegetable platter
2 cups chopped green salad
1 cup herbs (perilla, spearmint)
1 cup bean sprounts, rinsed and drained
1 cup shredded banana blossom
2 cups shredded water spinach
lime wedges, hot chili pepper

Canh Bún

Tofu and Blood Noodle Soup

1 block firm tofu
1/2 lb cooked pork blood, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 blue crabs
10 oz frozen Oceanic crab (or 1 can of crab paste)
2 cups boiled water spinach
3 green onions
2.5 quarts water
Vegetable oil to fry
10 oz large rice vermicelli
salt, pepper, fish sauce, shrimp paste to taste

blue crab: detach shell and remove apron and gill
In a medium stock pot, add water and blue crabs in, bring to a boil. Add Frozen Oceanic crab meat in, turn heat down to medium. Cook for 10 minutes. Add fish sauce, 1 T shrimp paste, salt and pepper to taste. Continue simmering.

Heat oil in a medium pan over medium-low heat.
Cut tofu into small thin triangles. Fry both sides until lightly brown.

Add fried tofu into the pot.

Put rice vermicelli in boiling water and cook for 5 minutes. Turn off heat and let it sit for 3 more minutes. Rinse over water. Drain.

Add rice vermicelli in the pot.
Add cooked pork blood in.

Cut green onions into 2-inches length, fry until golden brown, add to the broth.

Serve hot with cooked water spinach, red hot chili sauce and some fresh squeezed lime juice.

Hủ Tiếu Bà Năm Sa Đéc

Sa Dec-Style Tossed Noodle
Hủ Tiếu Sa Đéc Khô


3 lb pork neck bones
3 baby dried squids
1 medium white daikon, cut into 2 inches cubes
1/2 lb pork loin, cooked and thinly sliced
1 lb ground pork
1 T fine dried shrimp, soaked in warm water for 1 hr, washed and drained
16 medium tiger shrimp, cooked and shelled
8 crab claws, cooked and cracked
2 cups tomato sauce
1 onion, chopped
1 T crisp fried shallot
8 small shrimp in shell, salt and pepper
8 wonton skins
tempura mix
2 bags of fresh rice sticks
bean sprouts, chinese celery, chives
lemon, chile
vegetable oil
fish sauce, salt, pepper, rock sugar to taste

Place pork bones in a medium souppot. Add water to cover and bring to a boil. Cook for 3 minutes. Drain. Rinse the pot and the bones.

Return the bones to the pot,add dried baby squids and 3 quarts of water. Bring to a boil, skim off foam. Add white daikon, continue skimming until the foam ceases to rise. Lower the heat and simmer for 2 hrs. Add fish sauce, salt, and some rock sugar to taste.

Mix the tempura as directed in the box, add raw shrimp with shell in. Prepare a frying pan with enough frying oil over medium high heat, when the oil is ready (bubbling but not smoking), take each wonton skin and dip into the tempura mixture, transfer to the frying pan, place 1 shrimp in the center. Deep fry each side until nicely brown and cooked. Remove and drain with papper towel.

Add 2 T vegetable oil on a medium pan over high heat, add onion. Stir fry until the onion is translucent about 3 minutes. Add dried fine shrimp, continue to cook for a few minutes, add ground pork, stir well. Add tomato sauce and bring to boil, laddle some soup in if needed. Add fish sauce and pepper to taste.

Blanch rice stick in boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Drain and run through cold water, toss some vegetable oil in.

To serve: Place cooked rice sticks in a bowl, spoon enough tomato pork shrimp sauce to mix on top. Add pork loin slices, cooked shrimps, crab claw, and a shrimp chip. Spinkle chive and crisp fried shallot on top. Serve hot with soup, bean sprout, chinese celery, chile pepper on a side. Squeeze in some fresh lemon juice if desired.

Noodle Soup Style(Hủ Tiếu Nước)
No tomato sauce, just laddle the hot soup over the noodle.

Hủ Tiếu Nam Vang

Nam Vang-Style Noodle Soup


2 lbs pork bones
3 lbs pork neck bones
4 baby dried squids
5 pieces of dried herbaceous sugar cane (mía lau)
1 medium white daikon, cut into 2-3 inches cubes
1 lb pork loin
1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 lb pork liver
24 medium tiger shrimps in shell
12 quail eggs
3 bags of fresh rice sticks
2 cups chinese celery, washed and cut into 3-inches length
1 cup chive, washed and cut into 3-inches length
1 lb bean sprouts, wahsed
10 cloves garlic, minced
5 shallots, minced
3 lemons
2 red hot chile pepper
rice vinegar
1 can coconut soda
vegetable oil
fish sauce, salt, pepper, rock sugar to taste


Place pork bones in a large stockpot. Add water to cover and bring to a boil. Cook for 3 minutes. Drain. Rinse the pot and the bones.

Place dried sugar canes in the bottom of the pot, return the bones to the pot, add 6 quarts of water. Bring to a boil, skim off foam. Add white daikon, continue skimming until the foam ceases to rise. Lower the heat and simmer for 2-3 hrs. Add fish sauce, salt, and some rock sugar to taste.

Meanwhile, cook pork liver, shrimp, pork loin and quail egg.

Pork liver: cook in salted boiling water+ 1 T vinegar for 15 minutes. Cool, thinly slice, set aside.
Pork loin: cook in coconut juice (or soda) then pan fry or oven broil until golden brown. Cool, thinly slice, set aside.
Ground pork: salt and pepper to taste. Laddle hot soup over, mix well, microwave for 1 more minute to cook. Set aside.
Cook shrimp and quail egg, remove shells. Set aside.

Crisp fried garlic and shallot: 5 cloves minced garlic + 5 minced shallots + vegetable oil : stir-fry until fragrant and golden brown.

garlic vinegar: 5 clove minced garlic + 2 T rice vinegar, set aside.

Blanch rice stick in boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Drain and run through cold water, toss some vegetable oil in.

To serve: Place cooked rice sticks in a bowl, top with pork loin, pork liver, ground pork, shrimp quail egg, chive, crisp fried garlic and shallot. Laddle hot soup over. Ground some fresh pepper. Add some soy sauce and garlic vinegar. Serve hot with chinese celery and bean sprout on a side, fresh squeeze lemon juice and hot chile pepper.

Tossed style (Hủ Tiếu Khô): Toss noodle with black soy sauce dressing, serve soup seperately.

Black soy sauce dressing: 1 cup black soy sauce + 1/2 cup vegetable oil + 2 T soup + 1 t sugar + 1 T crisp fried garlic mix well, bring to a boil. Remove from heat.


My Tho-Style Noodle Soup
Hủ Tiếu Mỹ Tho
Same as Nam Vang style but no soy sauce and garlic vinegar added.

Bánh Canh Cua

Dungeness Crab Noodle Soup

2 dungeness crabs
8 pork hock slices
4 packages of frozen tapioca strips
2 T hot chili oil
3 quarts homemade chicken stock
Green onion, cilantro : chopped
1 onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
vegetable oil
fish sauce, salt, pepper to taste

Boil 1 up of water in a large soup pot, drop live crabs in, cover and let stand for 1 minute. Drain and refresh the crabs in cold water.
Detach the shell from the body, scoop out the butter into a bowl. Remove and discard the apron and gills. Quarter the crabs: Lay the crab on a cutting board and place heavy cleaver, blage edge down, across center of the crab body. Firmly strike the top of the cleaver to split the crab in half. Cut each half crosswise into 2 pieces, leave claw and legs attached to body (or you can detach claws and legs or anyway you want). Crack the claws and legs with the flat side of a heave cleaver.

Heat oil in a soup pot over high heat, add onion and stir-fry until fragrant. Add the crabs and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add fish sauce, pepper to taste. Pour in chicken broth, bring to boil, skim off foam. Add salt, fish sauce to taste.

In a small pan, heat 1 T oil over high heat, add garlic and stir until fragrant. Add crab's butter, hot chili oil in. Cook for 3 minutes and transfer to the soup pot.

Cook the ham hocks in a seperate pot until fork penetrate easily. Remove and transfer to the crab soup.

Add tapioca strips in before serve. Sprinkle with green onion and cilantro.

Bún Thang

Rice Vermicelli Soup with Assorted Toppings

2 lbs chicken bones
1 chicken half-breast
1 duck leg portion with thigh attaching
3 dried baby squids
2 eggs
2 salted eggs, hard boiled
4 ounces Vietnamese lean pork sausage (giò lụa), julienned
1/2 lb head-on shrimp
1 cup Vietnamese corriander leaves, thinly sliced
1 cup Vietnamese pickled daikon (dưa món, củ cải dầm)
few drops of belostomatid essence (dầu cà cuống)
10 oz fine rice vermicelli
2.5 quarts cold water
1/2 T vegetable oil
3 T fish sauce
salt,sugar, pepper to taste

Beat together the eggs, 1/4 t fish sauce, 1 T water, pepper to taste in a bowl. Add oil into a non-stick omelet pan over medium high heat until hot. Pour in half of the egg mixture and tilt the pan to spread evenly over the bottom. Cook until the egg set, about 30 seconds, turn and cook on the other side for another 15 seconds. Remove the egg pancake to a cutting board and repeat with the remaining egg mixture. Allow to cool and cut into thin strips.

Shell and devein the shrimps but leave the butter (viscera). Pan fry over medium heat with some salt and pepper until cooked, about 3 minutes. Pound the cooked shrimp until flossed. Pan dry a little more over low heat, the shrimp floss will be nice and fluff.

Put chicken bones + dried baby squids+ duck + chicken breast into a large pot, cover with water, bring to a boil over high heat, skim off foam. Lower the heat and let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the chicken breast. Set aside. Simmer for 5 more minutes, remove the duck meat. Set aside. Continue to simmer the broth for another hour. Discard the bones and squids, strain broth if you wish, add salt, sugar and fish sauce to taste.

Shred the chicken breast by hand.
Slice the duck meat into thin strips.
Cut hard boiled salted eggs into 1/2-inch slices crosswise.

Put rice vermicelli in boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. Turn off heat and let it sit for 2 more minutes. Rinse over water.

Place noodle in a bowl, top with lean pork sausage, egg strip, chicken, duck, shrimp and salted egg. Sprinkle some Vietnamese coriander leaves on top. Ladle the hot broth over, drop some belostomatid essence, ground some black pepper. Serve with some daikon radish pickle on the side.

Bún Nem Bì

Pork Skin and Sour Ham Noodle Salad










1/2 lb pork skin mixtures
1/2 lb fried ham
6 pieces sour ham
2-3 cups cooked rice noodle
2 cups red leaf lettuce, chopped
1 cup bean sprout
1 cucumber, Julianed
1 cup beefsteak leaf (Perilla)
3 T roasted peanuts (crushed)
8 stalks green onion, diced
1 T vegetable oil
2 cups sweet and sour fish sauce dressing

You can buy pork skin mixture (bì), fried ham (chả chiên), sour ham (nem chua) in any Vietnamese Fastfood (sandwich) store.

Rice Noodle (sold in most Asian super market). Put rice noodle in boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes. Turn off heat and let it sit for 1-2 more minutes. Rinse over water.

Sweet and sour fish sauce
1/4 cup fish sauce + 1 cup hot water+ 1/2 cup sugar + 1/2 cup vinegar + 1 T minced garlic. Mix well. Add shredded carrot and chilli sauce(optional)

Put Green Onion + 1 T oil in microwave and cook for 1 minute.

Place lettuce + bean sprout + cucumber + beefsteak leaf + rice noodle in a serving salad bowl then top with pork skin mixture, sour ham, fried ham, green onion, roasted peanut, add sweet and sour fish sauce and mix well.

Bún Mọc

Pork Ball Noodle Soup








2 lbs pork bones
1 lb pork rib
1/2 cup of dried shrimps (optional)
3 quarts cold water
2 lbs seasoned pork paste
1 yellow onion
2.5 ounces wooden ear mushroom (pre-sliced)
10 oz fine rice vermicelli
5 stalks green onion, shreded 3-inches length
15 sprigs cilantro, diced
fish sauce, salt and pepper to taste


Place pork bones + ribs + 1t salt in a large pot, add water and bring to boil. Drain and wash the bones thoroughly. Put the bones back in the pot + (dried shrimp) + onion, add water and bring back to boil over high heat, skim off foam, lower the heat and let simmer for 2 hours. Strain broth with a double layer of cheesecloth, add fish sauce to taste.

Soak mushroom in warm water for 30 minutes, drain and mix well with seasoned pork paste. Pluck a small piece of the paste and form the mixtures into balls, smooth them with water. Add the pork balls into the broth for a few minutes, when the balls are floated, remove and set them aside.

Put rice vermicelli in boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. Turn off heat and let it sit for 2 more minutes. Rinse over water.

To serve: Place pork balls in medium bowl, ladle the hot broth over, sprinkle shreded onion and chopped cilantro on top, ground some black pepper over. Dip noodle into the hot soup.

Bún Măng Vịt

Duck and Bamboo Shoot Noodle Soup


1/2 duck (or 4 legs)
2 lbs chicken bones
3 quarts cold water
1/2 package dried bamboo shoot
1 T vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, minced
3 shallots, thinly sliced
1 onion
1 piece of ginger
10 oz fine rice vermicelli
3 stalks green onion, chopped
1 cup Vietnamese coriander leaves, chopped
1 T crisp-fried shallot
lime, hot chilli pepper
fish sauce, sugar, salt, pepper to taste
1/2 cup ginger fish sauce

Place duck, chicken bones, onion, ginger in a large pot, add water bring to boil over high heat, skim off foam. Reduce heat to medium low, add 1 t sea salt, 1/2 t sugar and cook for 20-25 minutes. Remove duck from broth and cool off in iced water. Cut into bite-size pieces. Strain broth with a double layer of cheesecloth, bring back to boil, add fish sauce to taste.

Soak dried bamboo shoot in warm water a night before, tear into strips, boil and drain (3-4 times). Heat wok, add oil and garlic, shallot. Stir until fragant, add bamboo shoot and stir fry for 5 minutes. Fish sauce and pepper to taste.

Put rice vermicelli in boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. Turn off heat and let it sit for 3 more minutes. Rinse over water.

To serve: Put rice vermicelli in a bowl, top with duck meat, bamboo shoot, crisp-fried shallot, coriander leaves, green onion. Pour the hot broth over, sprinkle with fresh ground pepper. Serve with ginger fish sauce, a lime wedge and hot chilli pepper.

Bún Gỏi Dà

Spring Noodle Soup



2 lb pork bones
3 quarts cold water
1/2 cup dried shrimp
5 T hoisin sauce
2 T tamarind paste
2 T fine shrimp paste
2 T fish sauce or to taste
salt to taste
3 shallots
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 T vegetable oil
3 red hot chili pepper
1/3 cup roasted peanuts, crushed
1/2 lb fresh pork ham, cooked and thinly sliced
20 medium shrimps, cooked, remove shells
10 oz fine rice vermicelli
2 cups chopped green salad
1 cups bean sprounts, rinsed and drained
2 cups shredded banana blossom
1/2 cups chive, cut into 3-inches length


Place pork bones, dried shrimp and shallots in large pot, add water, bring to a boil over high heat, skim off foam, lower the heat and let simmer for 2 hours. Add tamarind paste, shrimp paste, fish sauce, bring back to boil. Strain broth with a double layer of cheesecloth. Add 2 T hoisin sauce into strained broth and let it simmer.

Put rice vermicelli in boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. Turn off heat and let it sit for 3 more minutes. Rinse over water.

In a small pan, add oil and cook garlic until fragrant, add 3 T hoisin sauce, 1 T broth, stir well until cooked, about 2-3 mins.

To serve: distribute salad greens, banana blossom, bean sprouts into large bowls, noodle on top, place shrimps, pork, and chive on top, ladle the hot broth over.
Add peanut, garlic hoisin sauce, hot chili pepper as desired.

Miến Gà

chicken half breast
1/2 lb chicken liver, cooked, thinly sliced
5 small packs cellophane noodles, soaked in warm water
2 shallots, thinly slices
1 T. fish sauce
2 green onion, diced
6 sprigs cilantro, diced
salt and pepper to taste.

Put 5 cups water in a medium pot, place chicken breast with bones intact in, bring to boil. Skim off scums, and turn heat to medium cook for 20 mins, remove chicken, sliced.
Fry shallot in a seperate pan until golden brown, add to the stock pot. Add fish sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Add noodle in and bring back to boil. Serve immediately with chicken breast and liver. Sprinkle green onion and cilantro on top.