Viet World Kitchen

How Banh Cuon Rice Noodle Rolls are Made (+ video)

On my last day in Seattle, Eric Banh took me and my friend, vegetarian cookbook author Michael Natkin out to eat. We started at noon and I ended up eating 4 meals with Eric that day. (Then I flew to Portland and had a very late dinner with other friends.)

Eric is the chef and restaurateur behind the Monsoon restaurants and Ba Bar; he also owned Baguette Box up until a little while ago when he sold it. He and his sister, Sophie, operate modern Viet restaurants that are fun and sophisticated tributes to Vietnam’s food traditions. We met in 2005 when I dined at Monsoon after it had been favorably reviewed in Gourmet. Eric and I clicked while talking about elevating the status of Vietnamese food. We’ve been friends ever since. Every time one of my book releases, he and Sophie organize a special event at one of their restaurants to showcase my work.

We hang out and eat a lot when I’m in town. Right now, Eric is obsessed about freshly made bun round rice noodles and banh cuon steamed rice noodle rolls. For more info on bun check the bun primer post but what are banh cuon? They are thin rice sheets that can be stuffed with a meat and mushroom mixture (like bottom row in the photo above) or served unstuffed (top row in the photo) with slices of silky Viet sausage (goi or cha lua), nuoc cham dipping sauce, and sometimes bean sprouts and herbs (if you’re southern Vietnamese). If you've had fun noodles or think of banh pho noodles, banh cuon are thinner and not cut into noodles. 

Though the noodles are more expensive, Eric and Sophie offer it at Monsoon at a fair price to customers. On the weekends at Ba Bar, Mr. Chau mans a banh cuon station by the front door, chatting with customers as he steams and fills their orders.

Eric is advocating for stellar bun rice noodles and banh cuon steamed rice noodles rolls so that his customers can further appreciate Vietnamese cuisine.  He wanted to show me what Seattle had to offer.

Vietnamese Noodles 101: Banh Pho Flat Rice Noodles

For decades I thought that the flat rice noodles that went into pho noodle soup and stir-fries were only available in dried form. That’s how we bought them in the United States. About 15 years ago, those “banh pho” rice noodles (named such in Vietnamese because they go into pho noodle soup) started being sold fresh in Cryovac packages at Asian markets. My mom still bought the dried kind. Then one day, I asked her about fresh versus dried banh pho rice noodles and she responded, “They were always fresh in Vietnam. We had no dried banh pho when we lived there.”

Wait, had I been living a faux pho life all these years? No, child, the dried ones available here are good and convenient to keep on hand when you have a neighborhood noodle vendor around the corner.  Duh, like pho. Indeed, go to Vietnam today and you’ll find freshly made noodles sold at markets and used at noodle joints. In the U.S., fresh noodles aren’t as readily available, but there are dried noodles that cook up wonderfully.

Our conversation earlier this week on defining faux pho spurred me to continue my (occasional) series of posts of Vietnamese noodles. Also, a couple of days ago, I noticed a young woman struggle with trying to find banh pho noodles at an Asian market. She got flat noodles but they were made of mung bean starch. I hope this guide will help you buy and use this ubiquitous Vietnamese noodle.

My Rice Noodles with Chinese Chives, Shrimp and Pork recipe in LA Times top 10 for 2009

Last July I wrote a piece for the Los Angeles Times Food section on Vietnamese herbs. I'd been wanting to write that story for years to offer information on the wide range of herbs, as well as their culinary uses to a broad audience of cooks. Russ Parsons, the Food section editor, allowed me to let my geek out, and the resulting article was just what I envisioned. Today I learned that one of the recipes I'd submitted for the piece was selected for the LA Times's top 10 recipes of 2009.

It's for a simple rice noodle stir fry that employs lots of Chinese chives (he in Vietnamese), which are flat like a long blade of grass and have a mild garlicky flavor. I love that recipe as I grew up on it. In fact, one summer my family made it over and over as a Vietnamese neighbor had a bumper crop and kept bring by plastic bags of the chives. One time I ate so much of the garlicky, tangy noodles that I got a stomach ache.

The rice noodles with Chinese chives, shrimp and pork recipe originally was published in my book, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen as part of the giant noodles chapter. If you've got the book, check out the recipe on page 235. If you don't have the book, use the recipe posted at the Los Angeles Times Food section, Enjoy!

Relate information:

"Fresh Herbs at the Center of Vietnamese Cuisine" (Los Angeles Times, July 15, 2009)

Vietnamese Noodles 101: Banh Hoi Fine Rice Noodles

 

Bun round rice noodles come in various sizes but banh hoi rice noodles come in only one size – very thin. In fact, these delicate Vietnamese noodles are thinner and finer than Italian angel hair pasta. Banh hoi are instantly recognizable as the tiny rice noodles are cooked and presented as rectangular-shaped mats that resemble a thick later of gauzy white cheesecloth. Banh hoi are difficult to prepare and mostly purchased and used as a fresh noodle. Thus, they are pricey compared to other Vietnamese noodles and typically a Vietnamese special-event food (such as weddings and annual death anniversary celebrations). Everyone always grins extra big smiles when banh hoi are served because you know that you’re in for a treat.

I like to describe banh hoi as fine rice noodles so as to distinguish them from the larger bun rice noodles. The photo above shows one piece of the noodle mats compared to the entire mound of them in the package.

Vietnamese Noodles 101 – Bun Rice Noodles

Get your noggin around noodles! There are innumerable types of noodles in the Vietnamese repertoire. To help dispel confusion, I’m starting a short series on Vietnamese noodles, the various types, and how to enjoy them. Think of this as a mini glossary on Vietnamese noodles. The first one to tackle is bun – round rice noodles. These are one of the most commonly seen and eaten noodles. In fact, a Vietnamese kitchen would be incomplete without bun (how to pronounce bun). You’ve had them in rice paper rolls (goi cuon, aka summer rolls), bun salad bowls, and bun noodle soups. In Vietnam, they are always freshly prepared but abroad, freshly made bun are hard to find. We use mostly dried bun noodles in the States, and here is the low down on them:

What are bun noodles made of?
Basically rice and water but some elasticity is added by way of a bit of the older batch of dough. The soft dough is pushed through a perforated container into a pot of boiling water to cook, then fished out the water and rinsed quickly to cool. The result is chewy-soft. Dried bun noodles contain some tapioca starch to mimic the chewy texture.