Curry and noodles (bún cà ri)

Curry with noodle (bún cà ri), I suddenly remember this dish after posting a blog about bún (rice & white noodle), yeah we love curry so much so we create an excellent combination between our tradition noodle with curry, I just found one place "A Quay" at 126 Trần Bình Trọng street, they have duck or chicken curry with rice noodle, the soup is good, not too strong curry flavor, and if you add a bit chili, it's really nice! 35,000 VND per bowl!

Chicken curry with rice noodles at A Quay! 

Now about just curry as a dish, we have Indian curry, Japanese curry, Thai curry and Vietnamese curry... I try all of them, each curry has different taste, as far as I know tomato paste is important ingredient for Indian curry, while Japanese curry using onions to thicken the sauce, Thai curry always with lemongrass flavor and our Vietnamese mostly with coconut milk and a bit sweet!

Rice noodle - Bún

To be honest, I don't know how many kind of bún (white rice noodles) we have: big, small, straight, curving (bánh hỏi) ... and it would be more difficult to count how many dishes we have with this "bún"!

Rice noodle without soup: with pork and onion (bún thịt heo xào)

Rice noodle with soup: canh bún, similar to bún riêu but served with cooked water spinach

This white & made from rice noodles can be translated as rice vermicelli, but I keep call it in this blog as "bún". 
Bún can go with soup and without it!  


With soup: we have famous bún bò Huế (with pork in Hue style), popular for Vietnamese in the South - bún riêu (with crab, what I had today with friend), bún mắm (quite special with strong flavor soup), bún măng vịt (with duck and bamboo), bún mộc from Hà Nội (is it?), bún thang... and many many more, each province probably has different and special for that area dish...


Without soup we have bún chả giò ( with spring rolls), bún thịt nướng (with grilled pork), bún nem nướng (i didn't eat for very long!), bún chả Hà Nội (dish from Hanoi!), bún thịt xào (with stirred meat: beef or pork!)...

Nam Vang Noodle (hủ tiếu Nam Vang)

Along with Phở (Beef noodle) this's also my favorite, but I need to tell you it's more expensive than Phở because of a big shrimp they serve in it!
Talking about the name why they call Nam Vang, first of all - Nam Vang is Phnom Penh , so this noodle could be originated 100% from our neighbor - Cambodia!
Or maybe it was created by Cambodian chef during living in Vietnam! No idea! Someone said it was created in Cambodia by a Chinese! Maybe!

Hu tieu Nam Vang (with soup) 

Anyway nowadays this noodle became a part of our eating tradition, we can eat in the morning, afternoon or late at night! Whenever we feel we like to eat!

Noodle with beef meat balls (hủ tiếu bò viên)

Today I continue my very fresh blog about another noodle, also very popular in Vietnam and you also can find similar noodles in Thailand, Malaysia...I'm talking about Noodle with beef meat balls (Hủ tiếu bò viên)

Beef meat balls at Pho Le in Nguyen Trai

Noodle is very popular in Vietnam, wherever you go you can find noodle shops: from beef noodle (Phở Bò) to many different Chinese noodles or well-known Nam Vang noodle (Hu tieu Nam Vang - Nam Vang means Phnom Penh). I will talk about these noodles in another coming soon post! Just a curious fact that Beef Noodle (Phở Bò) can be served with Bò viên (beef balls), but Noodle with beef meat balls (Hủ tiếu bò viên) usually is selling not together with Beef noodle, because the soup base is pork not beef. 

Beef noodles (phở bò)

In 2005 I have been recommended to check a blog called "Noodlepie" by some English reporter living in Vietnam. He wrote about our street food. Reading his blog, I realized "Wow, so interesting, so many things that I never tried!"

And I never though that I will develop a food blog until today! Taking a break from business, and with support from a friend who is IT expert, I decided to start, to inspire myself by discovering those foods that we can easily find everywhere in Vietnam, on every street, in every corner!

I start my first food blog with a star "Beef Noodles"!

           Phở Minh in small alley on Pasteur street, right in the center of Saigon! 

          Phở Tàu Bay - one of my favorite beef noodles in Saigon! Open only in the morning!  

Beef noodles or as we call here "Phở bò" - one of the most popular and favorite street food for many many Vietnamese and foreigners. Nowadays it's easy to find Vietnamese beef noodles in the States or somewhere else outside Vietnam, but here the best! 

According to my friend, who is a big foodie, he said "There are three elements: beef, soup and noodles. Whenever we want to judge which Phở is the best, we should consider all these three!" He also said "no any Phở in Saigon can meet all three criteria!" 

Anyway we also divide into different groups: beef noodles in Northern style (Phở Tàu Bay, phở Dần), in Southern style (phở Hiền, phở Hòa), in Chinatown (phở Lệ)  and finally beef noodles by some overseas Vietnamese as Phở Hùng, Phở Ta!