Grilled Pork with Vermicelli Noodles (Bun Thit Nuong)

Pronounced boon-thit-naug (rhyms with long), this dish as is as standard in Vietnamese homes as hot dogs are in America, only healthier!  What you basically have in this dish is thinly sliced grilled pork on top of rice noodles, along with a few vegetables and a special sauce that combine to create a medley of wonderful flavors. This dish takes time in the preparation: the marinade (ideally overnight), and chopping of the vegetables/making the sauce, but provided you do that ahead of time, assembly goes super fast.  What that dials down to is about 10 minutes to cook the meal and then assemble the dish.  The noodles can be done in advance or cooked at the same time as the meat.  Traditionally, the noodles are served at room temperature. 

There's a backstory to this dish and recipe: When my husband was in graduate school, he had a friend from Vietnam who recommended a restaurant to us in Southwest Portland, Oregon. Being the food-adventurous twenty-somethings that we were, we gladly embarked on trying out a new food and restaurant. We instantly fell in love with this particular dish, although most folks we know who like Vietnamese food always get pho, not necessarily because it is a better dish, but because it is more of a known entity. We, however, never seem to break away and order something different at the numerous Vietnamese restaurants we have tried in several states. To date, Pho Hung in Portland, is unbeatable: the best tasting, the best balance of meat and noodles, best sauce, and affordable--I will tell you that even if the price went up I would pay it because their's is so good, so it is a bonus that it is a good deal.

Naturally, as time went on, we grew weary of not getting our fix, and weary of trying new places that just didn't match up.  Plus, we were spending our eating out money and getting disappointed every time we searched for an equal tasting dish to Pho Hung when we moved out of state.  The story goes that my husband insisted I start making it.  What did I know about Vietnamese food or the needed ingredients?  While a fair American cook, I was little nervous to make this dish.  Every native that we spoke to swore that it was the easiest thing, so eventually I just got the guts to approach a Vietnamese woman one day in a Vietnamese market in Phoenix.  She spoke very little English, but once I was able to communicate that I was looking for the ingredients to make this--not just the basics, but how SHE made it, and what brands she used, I was almost home free.  She led me isle by isle, walked me up to the butcher and pointed out what type of meat and what thickness, etc. 

I did pull recipes off-line for the sauce, but I was regularly disappointed.  The first mistake I made was to go with a Chinese fish sauce, thinking all fish sauces were the same before I spoke with the lady in the grocery store.  The Chinese fish sauce was WAY too salty, and not the right flavor.  In fact, my husband and I vow to this day that the Chinese fish sause left a permanent stink in our fridge.  Once I got at a recommended Vietnamese brand, I was okay. 

Here is the recipe that I tinkered with to my liking and one that I use regularly; it passed muster!  If you want to do this right, go to your local Asian market or Vietnamese market and pick out the correct brands/types.  You can always tinker later with different brands if you want, but I recommend starting out with these.  While it might seems like you are spending a lot up front, consider that these sauce/marinade ingredients will last you quite a while.  I can usually make the dish over 5 or more times before having to get more.  Amortized over time, this dish is really affordable and cost effective. 

Grilled Pork with Vermicelli Noodles
(Bun Thit Nuong)

Ingredients:
Serves 6
(Print this Recipe)

For the Pork:
1/2 of a pork picnic roast (4 lbs. each half; most roasts are in the 7-8 lb. range) or a small pork butt roast, cut off the bone and sliced as thin as deli ham for a sandwich.  Any grocery meat department will do this for you.  The meat will be marbled and have stringy fat.  This is what you want!  Buying lean pork will actually hurt you in this case, because lean pork will be tough and chewy.  The marbled fat/string bits melt off in the cooking of the pork and leave behind a tender, moist tasty morsel, and we all know there is nothing worse than dry pork!  You also want long, wide pieces(not to be confused with thick), where possible, as this is easier to cook on the wire rack and marinade than small little pieces.

For the Pork Marinade:
1/4 c. oyster sauce
1/4 c. fish sauce (Three Crab brand)
1/4 c. honey
3/4 c. yellow or red onion, grated
4 cloves of fresh garlic, minced
1 1/3 c. vegetable oil

For the Sauce:
1/4 c. plus 2 Tbs. white granulated sugar
2/3 c. warm water
2 Tbs. FRESH lime juice (trust me on this; the bottled variety will make it nasty!)
1/4 c. Fish sauce (Three Crab brand)
2 Tbs. grated carrots
1 Tbs. grated pickled daikon raddish (optional, but makes it a whole lot better; sold at the refridgerated section at Asian markets.  Sometimes you buy the whole raddish and grate it yourself if they don't sell it already grated with carrots in the refridgerated section.)

Noodles:
1 small, or 1/2 large Vietnamese Vermicelli rice noodles

Vegetables/Toppings to Prepare:
1 head of romaine lettuce, washed, dried, and sliced really thin
1/2 cucumber, cut into long, thin, square strips *This shape is the only way to go. Otherwise, you end up with a mouth full of cucumber and it's just not conducive to the dish.
1/2 carrot, grated
1/4 cup mint leaves, chopped
1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
1 cup bean sprouts
1/4 cup scallions (little green onions--the while and some of the green part), chopped
1/4 dry roasted UNSALTED peanuts, chopped up in a food processor

Directions:

1.  *Rinse and dry your thinly sliced pork.  Place in a gallon ziplock bag.
(*Sometimes in the slicing you can get dust from the bone if your butcher cut around a bone-in roast and that stuff isn't nice to crunch down on.  Besides, never a bad things to clean your food first!)

2.  Prepare the marinade by mixing together all the marinade ingredients, and dump into the ziplock bag holding your sliced pork.  Place in the fridge until ready to use.  Ideally, marinade a few hours or overnight.  I have used the pork right away in a pinch, but the flavor just isn't as great.

3. When you are ready to cook the pork, preheat your oven to broil, or bake at 500 degrees.  (You can also use a true grill, but for those of us wanting this during winter with a few feet of snow outside, I use my oven and it turns out great!)  Prep a rimmed cookie sheet by lining it with foil (this allows for easy clean-up) and place a wire baking rack in/on the cookie sheet.  Now take your marinaded pork and lay it out on the rack.  The marinade can be on the pork; doesn't need to be wiped off.

4.  Place the pork in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until browned and slightly crispy on the edges.  It might even look slightly burned because of the marinade, but as long as it is just around the edges you will be fine.  This is due to the brown sugar and oyster sauce carmelizing on the meat.  When you remove the meat from the oven and allow it to cool a minute, move it to a cutting board and chop it into bite-sized pieces.  Place them in a bowl for assembly.

5.  While the meat is cooking, bring a quart of water to a boil and follow the directions on the noodle package for cooking directions.  Most Vietnamese noodles will direct you to bring the water to boil, place the noodles in the water and TURN OFF the burner/remove from heat and allow the noodles to sit in the water for 8 minutes before draining.  If you make the mistake of actually continuing to boil the noodles, they will absolutely disinigrate, and/or get the nastiest texture ever and fall apart on you when you drain them.  Once the noodles are done, drain/rinse with cool water, and place in a large bowl for assembly.

6.  Before or during cook, prep your various vegetables and place in bowls for assembly.



Clockwise: Peanuts, scallions, cilantro, and mint

 7.  Before of during cooking, prepare your sauce by combining all sauce ingredients in a bowl.

8.  When you are ready to assemble this dish, use large bowls to assemble into/eat out of.  Assembly goes in this order for each person you are serving/bowl preparing, from the bottom to the top of the bowl:

1 c. Lettuce (very bottom of bowl underneath the noodles)
1/2 c. Bean sprouts
A handful of noodles, about 2 cups
6-8 Cucumber strips, placed off to the side of the bowl on the noodles
1 Tbs. grated carrot, placed off to the side of the bowl on the noodles
1 Tbs. Mint (in the center)
A pinch of Cilantro, or more to taste (in the center)
1 tsp. Scallions (sprinkled around)
2 tsp. Peanuts, chopped (sprinkled or served in the center with the mint and cilantro)
1/4-1/2 c. grilled pork pieces, placed off to the side of the bowl on the noodles
Serve a 1/2 cup of sauce on the side with each bowl and to allow each person to put it on themselves.

Enjoy!!!!