Bún bò Huế

The finished product

Bun bo hue is my favourite childhood dish. I and the neighbour kids used to religiously go to this bun bo hue stall at the market every day during the summer holidays. A bowl set us back a mere 3000 dong back then. Last time I went home, the stall was still there but the food was disappointing. The bowl was small and there was hardly any meat. I guess I’m used to the big bowl we get in Australia. We also had Bun Bo Hue in Hue but were not impressed. It could have been a tourist trap restaurant but the bun bo was so different from what we had been accustomed to. The bun was thin, there wasn’t any sliced meat, only big chunk of pork hogs which I’m not a big fan of.

Having said that, a good bowl of Bun Bo Hue is harder to come across in Melbourne than Pho. Our top choices would be Co Do and Ninh Kieu in Richmond, and Dong Ba in Footscray. While the bowl at Dong Ba is slightly too oily for my taste, Ninh Kieu offers the deepest, most flavourful version of all.

True that it uses mainly beef stock but what sets it apart from its more famous cousin Pho is the liberal use of lemongrass, the spiciness of sate and the deep flavour of Hue shrimp paste. Making Bun Bo Hue does require a fair amount of ingredients and some plan-aheads. I attempted to make this dish a few times before but was too lazy so some steps were skipped and the stock never came out as good as at the shop. 

Ingredients: (yields about 9 bowls)

• For the stock:

1/2 kg of beef bones
1 kg of beef shin
1 large pork hock
4 stalks of lemongrass
1 onion
1 knob of ginger
Mam ruoc Hue (Hue shrimp paste)

• Garnishing

Rice noodles (Bun Bo Hue type which is round and a bit bigger than the normal bun)
Spring onion
Coriander
Lettuce (could be cos lettuce, shredded water spinach, shredded banana blossom)
Vietnamese mint
Chilli
Lemon

• Sate ( you could buy this in a jar from vietnamese grocery)

1 stalk of lemongrass
2 shallots
3 cloves of garlic
dried + fresh chilli
annatto seed or powder

Bún

Chilli Saté

Shrimp Paste

Method

• The stock

Mix 2 table spoons of mam ruoc with 1 cup of water. Use a glass or small container. Cover and let it sit overnight.
Parboil the bones, beef shin and pork hock for 5 mins. Discard the water and wash the meat and bones thoroughly.
Chargrill onion and ginger until brown. Peel the onion.
Bruise the lemongrass.
Add the meats, bones, onion, ginger, lemongrass, clear part of the mam ruoc to a large stock pot and add about 5 litres of cold water.
Add 2 tbpspn of salt
Bring to the boil and start skimming the scum.
Lower to simmer.
After an hour, remove the pork hock and submerge in a bowl of cold water.
After another half an hour remove the beef shin and submerge in water. Continue to simmer the stock for another hour or two.

• Sate

Chop lemongrass, shallot, garlic and chilli.
In a small saucepan, add 2 tbsp of veg oil. When the oil is hot, add the lemongrass and stir for 2 mins.
Add shallot and garlic and stir for another 2 mins
Add chilli and quickly stir for another 30 sec and add it to the stock

• Assemble

Slice the pork and beef thinly.
Cook the noodle and run it through cold water to prevent further cooking.
In a bowl, add the noodle, some meat, garnish and ladle the stock.

What could go wrong?

• I was lazy so the first few times, I only prepared the mam a few hours prior to cooking and there wasn’t enough time which made it impossible to separate the clear part from the mam.
• The meats do need to cool down completely before slicing. I made the mistake of slicing it right after taking out of the stock and they ended up falling apart instead.
• If you follow the recipe, the stock is only slightly seasoned. You will need to add more fish sauce later to taste.
• Southerners usually add a small piece of rock sugar to the stock but I didn’t think it’s needed.