Bun Cha (Grilled Pork with Rice Noodles)
Smoky, caramelised grilled pork patties and belly served in a warm, sweet-and-sour dipping broth with cold rice vermicelli and a heap of fresh herbs
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 20 min
- Serves
- 4 servings
- Level
- Medium
By Maya Chen
Method
- 01
Mix half the garlic and shallots with 2 tbsp fish sauce, 1 tbsp sugar and the pepper. Marinate the belly slices and the minced pork separately in this for 30 minutes.
- 02
Shape the minced pork into small flat patties.
- 03
Make the dipping broth: warm 250 ml water with 3 tbsp sugar and 4 tbsp fish sauce until the sugar dissolves, then take off the heat and add the lime juice, remaining garlic and the chilli. Taste — it should be a balanced sweet, sour and salty, gently warm rather than hot.
- 04
Quick-pickle the carrot and papaya in a little of the broth, or in a splash of vinegar and sugar, for 15 minutes.
- 05
Grill the belly slices and the patties over high heat (charcoal is ideal) until well caramelised and smoky at the edges, turning once.
- 06
Soak and cook the vermicelli per the packet, then drain and cool to room temperature.
- 07
Slide the hot grilled pork straight into the warm dipping broth along with the pickled vegetables.
- 08
Serve each diner a bowl of broth with the pork, a plate of cold noodles, and the herb plate. Eat by dipping noodles and herbs into the broth, picking up pork as you go.
Bun cha is the classic lunch of Hanoi, and a perfect study in the Vietnamese habit of serving components separately so the diner assembles each bite. Smoky grilled pork, a warm dipping broth, cold noodles and a plate of herbs all arrive at once and come together at the table.
Grilling for smoke
The heart of the dish is well-caramelised pork — both thin slices of belly and small minced patties. The marinade of fish sauce, sugar, garlic and shallot promotes deep browning, and high, direct heat does the rest. Charcoal is traditional and gives the best smoke, but a screaming-hot grill pan or broiler will caramelise the edges nearly as well. Do not crowd the pork; let it colour before turning.
The dipping broth and assembly
The warm dipping broth is the unifying element — fish sauce, sugar, lime, garlic and chilli diluted with water into something light enough to almost drink. The just-grilled pork goes straight in, along with quick-pickled vegetables. Diners then dip cold noodles and fresh herbs into the broth, picking up pork as they go. The contrast of hot and cold, smoky and sharp, is the whole pleasure of the dish.
