For a portion of bun cha, you take a dish of rice vermicelli, a dish full of vegetables and a bowl of fish sauce flavoured with vinegar, sugar, hot chilly, garlic and pepper. Bun cha is just a noodle dish. It comes, as mentioned above, in three components: the green (veggies), the white (noodles), and the golden (broth).

 

The veggies. Let’s see. Red leaf lettuce. Green-leaf lettuce. Basil. And mint, and cilantro. The one that’s purple on one side and green on the other, and some type of shaved celery that’s all beautifully curled up. Also, triangular leaves called diep ca which have a delightful tangy and lemon taste to it. There are about four or five, maybe eight, other kinds of green leaves and herbs that normally accompany this meal. The noodles provide the white in this green environment. Noodles are noodles, but these are of the medium-thickness variety, and the whiteness attest to their freshness. Dated noodles turn a shade darker, and they stick together. At good bun cha places, the noodles should slide off each other easily.

 

The meat. Sweet, succulent bite-size pieces of pork, grilled on charcoal fire, called cha in Vietnamese. Some wrapped in la lot _ large, round and crinkled grape leaves with a delicate flavor. Some seasoned with garlic, black pepper and the slightest touch of chilly sauce. There are two kinds of cha (grilled pork), depending on the cutting of meat. If the pork is cut into small pieces it is called cha mieng (piece of grilled pork), but if it is minced prior to being shaped into small cubes it is named cha bam (minced grilled pork).

The broth. Just before you are served, the meat is dipped into the broth, which is made from some fish sauce, thinned with a mixture of sweetened vinegar, water and lime. It should be clear, with just a fragile swirl of oil from the grilled meat. No one ingredient should overwhelm another. A few slices of the thinnest pickled cucumber at the bottom of the broth provide a bittersweet taste.

And the delight. Just pick up a few strands of noodles, and a few of the green leaves, dip it in the broth. On the way back out, gracefully pick up a slice of the grilled pork and bring it all to your mouth. You should feel your tongue going all tangy and sweet at the same time. Relish the texture of the raw leaves, the smoothness of the noodle, the sweetness of the meat, and lemony taste of the broth. You are in paradise.

Thach Lam, a popular Vietnamese writer and one of Hanoi's best gourment, wrote the following about bun cha: " A whiff of the delicious smell of the grilling is enough to turn you into a poet. There is a wreath of blue smoke to suggest a veil of a small drop of fat falling on the embers evokes a sigh. The light flagging of the fan over the fire is reminiscent of the crackling of branches in motion... So much seduction!... The tenous strings of noodle lay curled in thin round layers ... Streaky pork is essential and skewer must be made of fresh bamboo...

 

The mixture of fish sauce and vinegar should not be too salty or too sour, and a few drops of lemon juice will enhance its flavour when the roasted meat, aromatic herbs and noodle are dipped into it... And what makes Hanoi bun cha very special is Lang mint, a special variety which grows only in the village of Lang on the city's outskirts.