This is food dish that I hear a lot of people talk about but I have never bothered to try it. If you like/liked Anthony Bordain you may recall that he famously went into a run-of-the-mill Vietnamese restaurant with Barrack Obama. The restaurant in question specialized in Bun Cha.
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I'm sure they tried to make it seem as organic as possible for the show but you can be guaranteed that place was locked down tight with security and that everyone in the place was probably placed there rather than just happened to be eating there when the President of the United States turns up unannounced (which I'm sure it wasn't.)
Anyway, that wasn't enough to get me to try Bun Cha over the past 4 years because try as I may, I simply do not care for Vietnamese food. I'm not trying to bash the entire cuisine of a whole country but honestly, after living in Thailand for over a decade I'm afraid that I expect quite a lot from my food items because every Thai dish is basically a flavor explosion and that is why it is one of the most famous countries for food of any country in the world. Vietnam is just kind of "meh" in comparison.
It was only because a German friend of mine absolutely insisted that I try Bun Cha at a specific restaurant that just happens to be within walking distance of my condo that I finally gave in and went over there today. I took my dog with me and if they were to happen to not let us sit outside I was going to leave. That's my litmus test of a place.
So this is Bun Cha. There's a lot of different ways to make it but from what I can tell what makes it special is the sauce that comes in that bowl in the top right. You are meant (I think) to take portions of what is in front of you and put it in that bowl, let it marinate a bit, then pull it out of there. They give you plenty of ground garlic and chili to season it to your liking but it does have a unique almost a bit sour taste to it on its own. I opted to air on the side of caution and used only 1/4 of the chili but later resorted to 1/2.
here you can see that I have a very curious observer sitting opposite me
The noodles themselves are very sticky and without the sauce to separate them I think you would be forced to eat them all at once. They are also rather tasteless, as is the case with rice noodles, on their own. For me the flavor overall was kind of nice, but honestly not nice enough for me to be like "oh man I can't wait to go back to the Bun Cha place!"
Nadi got some of the bits of I think it was chicken, it might have been pork, that was piled on top of the noodles at first. I didn't put her bits into the sauce because I honestly have no idea what is in there. She is allergic to a lot of things and most of them I am unaware of, so I don't often roll the dice on what sort of human food I am going to pass her way. For the most part she just sat there looking like a dog that hasn't been fed in weeks even though the opposite is the case.
The owner, who also has a dog, came over to speak to me briefly and was regaling Nadi with praise for being so well behaved. I knew he had a dog as I have seen him walking around the neighborhood with it. His dog is an absolutely wild, untrained, hobo-like animal so it comes as no surprise that he would be amazed that on command my dog will sit calmly on a chair and make no effort to go anywhere or even put hands on the table. Training folks.... that is what makes a good dog. But in the restaurant owner's case I will give him a little credit because his dog is a French Bulldog and they are notorious for being difficult to train.
The dish comes covered with something that looks like hair but thankfully isn't and is rather tasteless. I think it is just for decoration. I do enjoy the deep fried onion and garlic that is all over the top though, and I ate all of that.
Overall I would say that this dish is a good value. This particular place is in a tourist part of town, which is where I live and it was still only 80k VND which is about $3.20. I think that's a good value. Would I go back? Well, I guess so. At the same time though I wasn't converted to the Bun Cha lover enthusiast that my German friend is.
Is the hair thingy on top dried pork?
Bun Cha can be very good or meh depending on the pork. If it's grilled to crispy perfection it tastes sooo good but if it's just cooked pork ... Meh. Oh and the herbs are important, if they just serve lettuce instead of perilla (I think that's the English name xD) it's also meh. The herbs give the dish so much more flavor.
But my Bun Cha experiences are just based on a Vietnamese shopping center I have in my neighborhood here in Germany xD
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It definitely looks interesting. I think I would try it once just to say I did. I really miss our local Thai place that closed down a year or two ago. It was so delicious and probably not even close to how good the food is over in Thailand.
Every dish looks so delicious. Looking at those photos makes me really want to try and taste it too. 🤗
I think I can recall that episode with Obama and Bourdain. Wonder if they chatted about their mate Epstein because Bourdain was a chef on the island. I think I would have been tempted to try it out, but it does not look exactly special. Sometimes things don't meet the expectations I guess.
yeah it doesn't look special... the sauce is the only thing that separates it from being 30 other things but then again, that's the case with pasta as well. Didn't know Bordain was associated with Epstein but hell, probably everyone famous was associated with him in some capacity.
I was reading some stuff he other day that stated he was murdered and did not commit suicide. Something about a gay politician/senator and he witnessed something he should not have seen. Yes it seems everyone and heir dog who was famous knew Epstein. Apparently Bourdain was their chef for special events.
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