We’re deep in the bowels of Hanoi’s Old Quarter, and we’re deep into our foodie tour. Hunger is now a thing of the distant past. After stuffing ourselves with Bún Chă at the last stop, no one can eat another bite. But we must. Who’s not going to try grilled sausages, Vietnamese style?
They’re called grilled pork skewers, (Nem Nướng), but they’re essentially sausages, Vietnamese style. They make their own sausage links, wrap them up with veggies and herbs, dunk ’em in a special dipping sauce, and they’re good to go.
Just like everyplace we’ve been to so far tonight, the cook works out in front for all to see, making everything from scratch.
It’s Sausage-Making Time
For these pork skewers, they prep the meat by mashing up ground pork with fish sauce, sugar, annatto seeds, salt, pepper, and shallots using a mortar and pestle. They add corn starch and baking powder to puff up the meat, and extra pork fat to make it extra good. OK. So this isn’t going to be the healthiest stop on the foodie tour. I’m OK with that.
Annatto seeds are also called achiote. It’s a spice described as having a nutty, smokey taste. It’s similar to paprika. They use annatto oil here for a little flavor boost.
The prepped meat will be shaped into miniature meatballs or cylinders and skewered on sticks. The final product looks like a sausage link popsicle.
Assembly
To eat Nem Nướng, grab a meat skewer and lay it in a rice paper wrapper. Pull out the stick. Put in some veggies, herbs, and rice noodles, then wrap it up. Dip one end into the dipping sauce and take a bite.
These rolls have their own, unique dipping sauce. The ingredients typically include garlic, peanut butter, liver paté, sugar, fish sauce, (of course), annatto oil, and chilis. Did you just read “liver pate and peanut butter?” You did.
Of course they were amazing. By this time in the tour, anything less that amazing would have been disappointing.
How They Do it Here
We’re starting to see how things work here now. Cooks prepare everything in plain view. They work on chopping blocks and use large wooden mortar and pestles. All ingredients are within the cook’s reach.
Into the mortar they go, and the grinding begins. Add another ingredient and grind some more. Repeat. Their arms must get tired. I wonder if they alternate between right and left?
When the food has been prepared and it’s time to eat, out come the veggies – typically pickled daikon and carrot. Next comes a basket of fresh herbs – probably more fresh herbs than you’ve ever seen in one place.
When we think of herbs, we probably think of the dried herbs in containers in the spice rack at home. You know – the same ones that have been in there for years. Herbs here are long and green and smell fresh. They were probably in a farmer’s herb garden yesterday.
Assemble everything together they way they show you, dip in sauce, and consume. Mmmm.
To be continued…
