Canh bun, can do

We continue to carve our way through the street cuisine of Nguyen Binh Khiem Street in District 1 today. I just can't seem to pass a stall by without poking my snout in to see what's cooking. I spotted this seller a few weeks ago. I thought she was selling Bun mam. I checked out her goods and sure enough, her bumper mobile vat was brimfull with lovely, whiffy Bun mam. Mid Me da quaff the other day, I spy her wheeling her wares southbound on the one way (northbound) Nguyen Binh Khiem Street. Me da quaffed, I follow her scent and find the stall fired up and ready to go just south of the entrance to Saigon zoo. She tells me she sells at this spot between 11am and 2pm most days.

However, there's no Bun mam today. Her vat's bubbling with Canh bun. We've had this once before over at the food-mungus Ben Thanh market food hall. I'll be honest and say I'm a bit miffed not to find her flogging god's own soup today, but her Canh bun looks promising. She tells me I'm the first customer today. Well, I'm hungry. In the vat above there's fried tofu, huyet (conjealed blood) and a huge hunk of minced river crab. She hacks a piece off the big lump for each serving. The noodles are heated in the small vat.

Then she adds the pre-cooked rau muong (morning glory) which you can see in the shot above. In go the condiments of your choice - minced red chilli and mam tom (Shrimp paste - Mr. Whiffy) are the main ones. I think the two other pots contain soy sauce and nuoc mam (fish sauce), but I didn't check thoroughly enough, and the photo below is a bit crap, sorry.

She ladles in the broth, with blood and tofu, although she'll leave the blood out if that's not your thing. Lastly, she unravels a banana leaf to reveal a spamstick which she chucks in. That's Canh bun.

It's looks remarkably similar to Bun rieu. The tomatoes in a Bun rieu are replaced by rau muong in Canh bun . The bun is also thicker, but if you throw in all the condiments the two soups do taste kinda similar. Although Canh bun maybe isn't quite as pungent as Bun rieu. This was very enjoyable, very filling and there was plenty of it. Costs 5,000VD and I recommend it if you're in the 'hood.

I know a lot of these stalls look like shit, but don't let that put you off. Looks are very deceiving in Vietnam. Street food served from carts like this isn't life threatening. It's usually good, as in this case. And very often, it's superb.

Comments

[Ms. Nguyen]

Thank you for hitting a significant note about street food in Vietnam. Tourists are often put off by the shitty look of the cart or the way the merchants look...but the food they sell, in my opinion, are much better than the one they have in the actual restaurant styles. Granted that not all street food are well-prepared and sometimes, not sanitized by the Western standards, but I believe that is the origin of Vietnamese eateries and culinary traditions; with people pushing carts or stalls around their neighborhoods. And that is exactly what I look forward to every time I go back to Vietnam.

[Ms. Nguyen]

By the way, you can eat congealed blood? I love those stuff but some Vietnamese are disgusted by the look of it, let alone Westerners. I salute you!!!

[raspberry sour]

is 'morning glory' their real name (green veg with cruchy tubes above)?? i used to eat it regularly in taiwan- they fry it with lots of oil and garlic. very tasty. but i was never able to find out the name; i don't even know what it's called in mandarin, let alone english. so thanks, i'm very excited to see it posted here.

[pieman]

Actually Ms Nguyen I get a bit tired of hearing about 'Western standards' when much of 'western' food is processed beyond belief and taste. Give me freshly prepared food from an Asian street cart any day. Given the choice, I prefer 'Eastern standards', but I'm quite partial to French standards. It's the tourist's loss if they don't have a crack at something. I can understand it being a bit intimidating and all, but if you're a foodie,it's the best place to start looking for good local food.

I don't mind the blood, can't eat all of it.

Raspberry sour, I think it's called morning glory. Have heard it called water spinach and other things. I'm not absolutely sure.

[Reid]

Hi Noodlepie,

OMG...that looks so good right now. I love the variety of soups and noodle dishes that you can get in Vietnam, it's rare to find many of them in the restaurants here. But then again, I guess it's because these people specialize.

[NotAvailable]

pieman, once again, you caught on my appetite.. too much that i decide to cook Canh bun tomorrow. Really love the taste of morning glory in that tasty broth.

[pieman]

These people do specialise Reid, but even so getting a real tasty Vietnamese soup overseas must be tough. NotAvailable, enjoy cooking:)

[Keff]

The "rau muong" veggie you mentioned above is called
"ong choi" in Chinese (not sure if that's Mandarin or Cantonese) and is also serve in most
Chinese restaurant.

[ckchu]

Keff, you got it right "ong choi" is Cantonese. It is called Kangkong in Malaysia and the equivalent of it in English, I think is water convulvus. there are 2 types in malaysia. we called it the chinese kangkong and the malay kangkong. the chinese ones grow on dry land and the malay ones in the water. It is normally cooked with shrimp paste or belacan in Malaysia and is available in malay as well as chinese restaurants here.

[ckchu]

Congealed blood according to the older chinese generation is supposed to be good for "cleansing the lungs"

[Martin]

Go for it pieman - I'm delighted to have found your site as I'm married to a delightful Vietnamese lady who is into cooking in a big way (in fact she started work with the Sydney Hilton just today!). I'll be filing all your stuff for follow-up on our next visit "back home" (we live in Australia but my wife's family is in Saigon and we try to visit at least once a year).

[pieman]

Nice one ;)

mmm...i'm so hungry looking at these canh bun. i love canh bun. i wanna go back to vietnam again so i can visit these stalls. yummy!