With a popularly-unsophisticated style, Bun of Ha Noi, Hanoi traditional food, becomes a special cuisine which whoever is far from home also remembers the taste of homeland. Specially, when foreigners from all over the world, at least once time, can come and enjoy this traditional food, all of them are impressed by this unforgettable taste. Ha Noi has approximately plus-minus 15 kinds of Bun. However, when it is mentioned, one of the most popular Bun is firstly said that it is Bun Cha. It has no clear origin, no one can know when and where it comes from. And an ancestor of this food has ever written before. We just know that it is an age-old dish and has appeared every street in Ha Noi.
To find a good place where there has the best Bun Cha, let’s follow to a local guide of the food walking tour and they will help you enjoy your journey in the best way.
Moreover, Bun Cha is not only appreciated by local people and visitors but is also people working in the media and literature. For example, It is refered in the creations of many renowned writers and poets, we can tell to Thach Lam, Vu Bang, etc.
Bun cha is divided into two kinds, there are Cha Bam and Cha Mieng. Cha Bam is made from lean porks which is minced and moulded like patties of smally-minced meat, added some spices, such as chilli, salt, vegetative oil (or animal oil), sugar, drying onion and others spices. It depends on the fresh levels of the pork, after mixing all the spices together, if it is a little drying you can add a little oil to this dish in such a way that those slices of meat can easily adhesive. Its size is about 2-3 centimeters. If wanting more attractive, we can wrap it in banana leaves. The difference between Cha Bam va Cha Mieng is Cha Mieng usually uses fewer and thinner cuts of pork side than Cha Bam. Finally, they will be baked on the smaller fire or charcoal which helps the meat be ripe enough and rise the fascinating scent.
Noodle which is an important part of this traditional food can’t be lacked. It also is not a kind of normal noodle, there is chosen carefully. The noodle is so-called enough standard must be white, thin noodles; and come from Phu Do village where it is called a famous place creating the top of noodles. Afterwards, the way of mixing sauce is also an excellent art and made the comparison as “the soul” of this cuisine. Nuoc mam- a kind of Vietnamese spice, is chosen must be really good; then, add garlic, lemon, vinegar, sugar, chilli,… so as to be just enough savoured. It is said that the dish is an art and person who makes a delicious sauce is a wonderful chef. The good sauce can make eaters enjoy all scents of Bun Cha, and can be unforgettable. What’s more, in the sauce bowl, it is added to some slices of young papaya that has mixed with a little salt and preserved in vinegar before.
Finally, Bun Cha food will be decreased its specially-rich taste if it is short of salad: perilla, salad, eryngium, coriander,… etc. All of them help Bun Cha more and more delicious and attractive. Whoever, at least one time, enjoyed this Hanoi traditional food, want to come back secondly.
Nowaday, Bun Cha has become an indispensable part of Ha Noi people’s life. It is so habitual and close; has bold cultures of locality. Bun Cha is changed in order to fit each area and each person’s habit in Viet Nam, but, with Ha Noi people it has a special scent which only they have.
We can easily find Bun Cha on most of the streets in Ha Noi, but, to find the best Bun Cha, let’s ask for Hanoi street food four, a good local guide will show you many interesting places and the best-known food in Ha Noi- not only Bun Cha.