Camp Vietnamese Grilled Pork with Rice Noodles, Bún Thịt Nướng

There’s power in food. One bite of something and it can transport you straight back into a single moment in time. It could be the smell, or the faint taste of something very familiar during the after taste. Whatever that trigger is, Karissa and I usually find ourselves holding onto it for a fleeting moments.

Bún thịt nướng, or Vietnamese grilled pork with rice noodles, is one of those bites of food. One slurp later and we’re sounded by an overwhelming cacophony of scooter horns, the endless put-puts of two-strokes, the smell of grilled meats in the air, the constant, but friendly, yelling of street vendors trying to peddle whatever morsel of food they’re offering, and the sizzle marinated pork as it cooks over hot coals on a dark, yet, seemingly, Robert Rauschenberg inspired, alley way lined with plastic stools and tables.

It’s a simple dish. Grilled pork, rice noodles, a leafy salad mix of some kind, mint, sweet fish sauce, and crushed roasted peanuts. We’ve had countless versions of this dish around the States, but we’ve never had an out-of-body experience like when we first ate one in the country of Vietnam itself. So, here we are in the middle the Utah, trying to recreate a fleeting moment we experienced in a far away land across an ocean. It wasn’t a perfect recreation, but after the first slurp, we were right back in the land of a billion scooters. The fish sauce soaked peanuts at the bottom of the bowl deserved a full bottoms-up food-lover salute.

Food is powerful, indeed.

INGREDIENTS

SERVES 4

Prep time: 10 min, 30 minutes (minimum) for marinade
Cooking time: 15 min

Pork Marinade:

• 1lb pork shoulder, or loin

• 2 tbsp fish sauce

• 1 tbsp sugar

• 3 cloves of garlic

• 1 tbps salt

• 1 tsp pepper

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

• 2 tbsp (optional) lemon grass

Nước Chấm, Sweet Fish Sauce:

• 1/2 fish sauce

• 1/2 cup lime juice

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 cup water

• fresh red serrano pepper, chili flakes, or chili paste

Everything Else:

• vermicelli rice noodles

• spring salad mix

• mint leaves

• (optional) perilla leaves

• cucumber

• green onions

• (optional) pickled carrots

• crushed roasted peanuts

DIRECTIONS:

Let’s start with the pork marinade. Start by slicing the shoulder, or loin, into as thin of slices as you can. Don’t be too precise. There’s nothing scientific here. Each slice should be thin enough to be enjoyable. Place your in sliced meat in a medium sized bowl. Throw in the fish sauce, garlic, sugar, salt, pepper, lemon grass on top and mix together. Set aside for a minimum of 30 minutes to let the seasoning marinate into the pork.

Next, bring a pot of water to boil and carefully throw in the rice noodles. Cook until just past al-dente. You don’t want them to be fully cooked, or they’ll be too soft, and start to disintegrate. If you have a colander, pour out the noodles and rinse them with cold water until the water is clear and the noodles are no longer too hot to touch. Set aside.

Mix together the fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, water, and spice of your choice. Taste it once everything is incorporated. Add more sweetness, saltiness, or acidity to you preference. I consider my fish sauce to be a combination of the sweet from southern Vietnam, and the savory intensity that comes from the central region of the country.

Time to cook the meat. In a cast iron or non-stick skillet, put in 2-3 table spoons of oil. When the oil starts shimmering, it’s time to cook. Saute the meat. Juices will start to come out from the meat. Keep cooking until the juices have evaporated and the pan starts sizzling. You want to caramelize the sugars from the marinade. This cannot be done if there’s juice in the pan. Caramelization is not only pretty, but gives the meat some texture and a wonderful depth of flavor!

Place the noodles, spring mix, herbs, pickled carrots, sliced cucumbers, meat, and crushed peanuts into bowls to serve. Ladle in fish sauce to your own taste. I, personally, like a lake at the bottom of my bowls. There’s incredible amount of enjoyment to slurp up the fish sauce soaked peanuts at the end.