I sometimes worry that I publish too many pork recipes but hey, pork equals meat in the Vietnamese kitchen! Despite all the shaking beef (thit bo luc lac) and beef pho noodle soup that you've eaten, it's pork that rules. It's cheap and tasty meat, affordable to most Vietnamese cooks. And, you can do a zillion things with pork. The photo above is from my trip to Australia, where I went to Cabramatta -- their Little Saigon. The man is doing a morning delivery to a local Vietnamese butcher shop. (Where'd the head go???)
One of my go-to Vietnamese preparations of pork is to marinate pork steaks (photo below) with lemongrass and grill them. Sliced up, the steaks are great bun rice noodles, tucked into a banh mi sandwich, and punches up a bowl of fluffy rice.
This morning, I discovered that CHOW.com enjoys the thit heo nuong xa as much as I do. There was a call for people to name their top 5 best recipes for 2009. My little Vietnamese restaurant-style grilled lemongrass pork recipe was among the writer's top 5 picks. When it's too cold now to cook outdoors, use a stovetop cast-iron grill. The timing will be a little longer.
What a nice way to wrap up 2009! Enjoy.
Ok convinced, saving the recipe and making it soon.
Posted by: Jessica Lee Binder | January 01, 2010 at 07:56 AM
waow thanks
Posted by: 18oyun.org | January 02, 2010 at 09:02 AM
This recipe is delicious, easy, and awesome!! I'm thinking of making it tonight for my sister in law and her (very picky) 4 year old daughter who have never had Vietnamese food.
Posted by: Alice | January 02, 2010 at 05:25 PM
Thanks for the recipe Andrea, but that is a very disturbing image to introduce this topic!
Posted by: Thuy | January 05, 2010 at 05:15 AM
Great recipe and site! I look forward to this site in my downtime alot. You can never have too many pork recipes and like you said its the meat in Vietnam.
Posted by: Huy | January 06, 2010 at 07:47 AM
Made this last week. Now my favorite pork recipe. Gonna try it on chicken next.
Posted by: Jesse | January 12, 2010 at 07:49 PM
I made these for a friend in the lead-up to Christmas; she asked for the recipe and they had it as their Christmas day dinner. We eat it about once every two weeks now, cooked on a tiny charcoal grill outside ;)
Posted by: Zoe | January 21, 2010 at 04:18 PM
Looks delicious!
Posted by: E cig | February 04, 2010 at 02:05 PM
We made these the other night, very tasty I must say. I have not had the opportunity to eat much Vietnamese food but I certainly will now. I cooked this on a Landmann Black Dog grill - http://www.landmann-usa.com
Posted by: Richard | July 24, 2010 at 10:27 AM
Lost a bet. Have to cook something Vietnamese tonight. You saved my life and I found a new treasure. Great blog.
Posted by: Charlie | July 26, 2010 at 01:06 PM