Vietnamese Grilled Beef and Vermicelli

Also known as Bún bò Nam Bộ, this is a delicious dish we often would get somewhere in Chinatown and bring home for supper. The more common type is with grilled pork, but we happened to have beef on hand. As usual, SO had the good idea for this. I started off with the Canadian Living version that SO emailed me, but as usual we didn't have some of the ingredients and/or I didn't like something about the method. But changing things up is how you discover and invent, right? Well, when it works out it is good. 

There is a fair amount of prep involved here, but the cooking part is very quick. Our expectations were fairly low this first time I tried it, but wow it turned out really great. I think the key to this was the marinating of the meat. The sauce, called Nuoc Cham, is also important, but more so for the balance between acidity and the fish sauce. The little carrots you see, pickled or otherwise, I think are more for decoration. Huh, probably wrong there.

Grilled Beef and Vermicelli. The regular portion on the
right, and the slightly deconstructed version for the
fussier little guy in the family.

We didn't end up plating this in an entirely authentic manner; there is no lettuce leaves, no carrot, the beef was fast-fry instead of thicker pork, it was pan fried instead of grilled, etc.  But nonetheless, it was delicious. At least according to me and SO. Not so much according to SSO.

Next Time:  will grill some pork

Me: 10/10
SO: 10.5/10
SSO: 2/10