Backstreet Bun Cha!

Whenever we go to a new country, we always try to find a way to cook some local dishes and get a feel for the food. In Thailand we went to an awesome cooking school that was really slick. In Hanoi, we thought we would do the same thing as there are numerous cooking schools available. But then we noticed that Backstreet Academy offered a cooking Hanoian food class. Since we are big Backstreet supporters, we thought it would be nice if we could support a local who is trying to make a living.

So off we went to our cooking class…located in a clothing store?? Yes, that’s right, we were brought into a clothing store to do our cooking. We were totally puzzled. We thought maybe they were doing a “before we start class, how about you take a look at my cousin’s clothing shop – we’ll give you good price”. But actually, they led us to the back of the store – and through a connecting back door, was the home of our cooking teacher.

Mrs. Hong is a cleaning lady by day and someone who loves to cook at all other times.  Backstreet offered her a chance to share her passion for cooking local dishes with tourists and she was totally game. She couldn’t speak a word of English, but we had wonderful facilitators who translated for us and made sure everyone was included in the fun.

Mrs. Hong’s home was a lovely traditional Vietnamese place that she shares with her inlaws and relatives. The entire extended family lives in the same building and they all share their cooking equipment – including their stove tops!

We pre-selected a local dish called Bun Cha. It is famous throughout Hanoi and absolutely delicious! The meal is made up of roasted pork, noodles, and deep fried spring rolls.

Mrs. Hong had already gone to the market early in the morning, so all of our ingredients were fresh and ready for us to prepare. This is not your typical cooking school – we didn’t have a recipe – we would have to observe, learn and memorize!

Veggies for Bun Cha

Fresh prawns for the spring rolls

Pork belly and minced pork

Fresh greens including cilantro, basil, mint and marjoram

We started with making the marinade for the pork belly. It was a carmel type sauce with, water, oil, fish sauce, brown sugar, garlic, onions and salt – we noticed that Vietnamese cooking includes a lot of sugar! The onions and garlic were sautéed first and then the liquids were added. The girls then cut the pork belly as thinly as possible. Mrs. Hong said the thinner the tastier the meat. Once it was all chopped, it was added to the marinade, green onions were added and then put aside.

Making the carmel sauce for the marinade

Slicing the pork thin

Even thinner if you can!

Add the green onions

Pork mixed with marinade and green onions.

Then we started to work on the spring rolls. We were making 2 types – pork and pork with shrimp. Both of these are what’s commonly offered in most of the Hanoian restaurants.

The girls got to work on cutting and chopping the necessary ingredients including white and green onions, mushrooms.  Then we took the part of the minced pork and mixed it with glass noodles, grated carrots and papaya, as well as sprouts. Finally – to keep it all connected, we cracked and egg and mixed it all together.

Chopping the ingredients

Grating the carrots

Mixing it all together

ready to roll!

While this was happening, Mrs. Hong was showing us how to make beautiful flowers with carrots and papayas. Fruit and vegetable carving is expected in all Vietnamese cooking and women are often judged by how beautiful their meals are presented. In all of the marketplaces, there are all kinds of gadgets and tools to help with making flowered veggies….I think I would cut my fingers off if I tried:)

Veggie carving

Grating the flowers

Looks beautiful!

Back to rolling spring rolls! We all had a go at it, and since we already learned some tricks in our Thai cooking class –we were able to make some really nice ones! For some of them, we added shrimp to them…they were rolled a little wider.

Rolling the rolls

Lots of spring rolls!

Then, it was time to deep fry them…I prefer the fresh spring rolls – but hey – I wasn’t going to mess with traditional cooking and let Mrs. Hong know that deep frying wasn’t good for our health!

Deep fried rolls

Mik using the chopsticks

Ta Daa!

Anyways, after the spring rolls, we took the rest of the minced pork and mixed it with green and sweet onions and spices and then formed them into little patties. We put them into grills and did the same for the sliced pork.

Patties and pork ready for grilling!

The idea was to then use coals and barbeque the meat. We see this happening on all of the streets around Hanoi…all of these women are out on the streets, sitting on their little chairs and barbequing pork patties. So Mrs. Hong first heated up the coals on her stove top and then transferred them to her portable barbeque. One thing we’ve noticed about Hanoi is the incredible humidity and sadly the coals were too wet to get started. All we were able to get was a lot of smoke.

Trying to get the coals lit.

Fanning the flames.

Plan B – Mrs. Hong pulled out her ethanol cooker and got to work.

Ethanol cooker

BBQ!

Cooking the pork!

Meanwhile, we prepared the greens for the meal which included cilantro, mint, marjoram and other local greens sold in the market. Once we had washed the greens and gave them a final salt bath…we were ready to sit down and feast!

All of the food tasted fabulous! The way to eat bun cha is to put some noodles in your bowl, add some roasted park slices and patties, some of the greens, and then the sauce with the carrots and papaya. When you mix it all together, the taste combination is divine!

The table is set!

Bun Cha!

For dessert, Mrs. Hong surprised us with a yummy treat. She took lychee fruit and boiled them in water. Then she stuffed the lychees with lotus nuts. The dish is served in the lychee water. It was refreshing and very delicious. We were told that in the spring, they use fresh lotus nuts which give it a different flavour.

Mrs. Hong was an amazing cook and we learned so much working in her kitchen. It was a great way to really experience how much work a local person puts into prepping a regular meal for their family. Lots of labour required – but so worth it in the end! We really enjoyed this Backstreet experience – we will do more for sure in the future!

P.S. I found some similar recipes on the Internet if you want to try and make it yourself!

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/vietnamese-bun-cha-with-sticky-spicy-tofu/

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Bun-Cha-Vietnamese-Pork-Meatball-Noodle-Salad

http://www.palomamotorbiketours.com/what-you-need-to-know/make-bun-cha-ha-noigrilled-pork-noodle.html

P.P.S. Oliver was here as well – just taking a lot of the pics and taste testing!