Recipe: Vietnamese rice vermicelli bowl with fried spring rolls | Bun cha gio

If you’ve been following the trend my blog’s been taking, you may have noticed I’ll post my travel vlogs with the hubs, followed by casual reviews of places at which we ate or visited, followed by a recipe or two inspired by the trip.I’m always asked in interviews, “What’s your favorite dish to cook?”My answer, which I assume is disappointing to audiences but is the truth, is that I don’t have one particular dish I love cooking. I love variety, and I love learning, so it only makes sense that I’m constantly tinkering with new ingredients, techniques, dishes, or cuisines in my own kitchen.While I do get some culinary inspiration from the foods I grew up eating as cooked by my mama, aunts, and grandma, most of the mother figures I had in my life are no longer with me, so my primary source of inspiration now comes from new experiences, whether in the form of foods I eat at restaurants, from other cooks, when I travel. I take these experiences and memories back home with me and recreate, tweak, or fuse them with other foods to come up with my own version.With that being said, I recently posted the vlog of eating rice vermicelli with grilled pork and spring rolls in Saigon at Bun Thit Nuong Chi Thong, and here is my simple offering to you.I left the thit nuong—or grilled pork—out of this dish. I know you may be disappointed, but it’s a lot of work to make the fish sauce dressing, grilled pork, and the spring rolls from scratch, and then have to prep all the things that go into a vermicelli bowl before assembling. Maybe experienced Vietnamese mamas can do it with their eyes closed, but hey, I’m a busy woman.So sorry, but I’ll leave the lemongrass grilled pork for another post. ((Besides, I need something to get you to come back to my blog, right?)I absolutely love Vietnamese spring rolls because they remind me of my mama, and they’re on my list of foods I’d want to eat as part of my last meal. I often make plenty to freeze since they can be a bit laborious. Fry some up to add to your vermicelli bowl…or just to eat while standing alone in your kitchen at midnight in reverence for the home cookin’ of all the mamas past and present.Rice vermicelli bowls, with their cooled noodles and cold, crisp uncooked veggies, are refreshing, especially for the very end of summer when you’re swearing at the heat. They’re one of my favorite things to eat in Saigon because it’s just so dang hot there. There’s a contrast of flavors, textures, and temperature which, in my opinion, are keys to interesting, rave-worthy foods. I’ve included my standard veggies below, but you can make the bowl your own and add whatever fresh veg you like.

Recipe: Rice Vermicelli Bowl with Fried Spring Rolls

Notes: Called bun cha gio in Vietnamese, this bowl is a great way to get kids to eat more vegetables and introduce newbies to Vietnamese food.

Ingredients

For the pickled veg:
1. 1/2 c rice vinegar
2. 6 tbsp granulated sugar
3. 2 tbsp kosher salt
4. 1 carrot, peeled & julienned
5. 1/2 daikon radish, peeled & julienned

For the bowl:

6. 2 stalks scallion, thinly sliced
7. 1 head green leaf lettuce, shredded
8. 1 c mung bean sprouts
9. 1 (14 ozs) pkg rice vermicelli (bun)—I grew up with and like Pagoda rice vermicelli brand but the Three Ladies brand is good too
10. 1 cucumber; peeled & seeded if desired, cut batonnet
11. 6 to 8 fried spring rolls, cut into bite-sized pieces
12. 1.5 c fish dipping sauce

For garnishing:

13. mint leaves, chiffonaded
14. Thai basil leaves, chifonnaded
15. culantro or cilantro, chopped
16. roasted peanuts, crushed

Instructions

1. Pickle veg: In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar, sugar, and salt until dissolved. Add carrots and daikon, turning to coat. Cover and chill for 30 to 45m.
2. Make scallion oil: In a small skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil and sauté scallion until tender.
3. Divide lettuce, bean sprouts, vermicelli, and cucumber into bowls. Top with spring rolls, and the pickled carrots & daikon (I love, and thus load up, on this stuff, but a good guideline is about 2 ozs of pickled things—that’s what they’re literally called in Vietnamese—per bowl). Garnish with herbs and peanuts. Serve with fish dipping sauce on the side.

Active time: 40m (not including making the spring rolls and fish dipping sauce)
Total time: 2h 40m
Yields: 4 to 6 servings