noodlepie

How to cook Cao Lau

Reader GNN very kindly took the time to translate an online Vietnamese verion of the Cao lau recipe. This dish, for those of you who don't know, is normally only found in Hoi An in central Vietnam. I have only ever encountered one (inferior) version in Saigon. This, I think, is quite possibly the first English language version of the recipe. If there is another one, I've yet to find it...

The cook who wrote this recipe is Cẩm Tuyết, a VN television chef. For English readers, just ignore the marks that are used in Vietnamese here. I include the marks because without them, they lose the meanings, and often confuse a lot of Vietnamese readers. So here it is:

Recipe: Cao Lầu

1. Water source: In Hội An (Faifo) and surroundings such as Cẩm Khê, there still remain old square wells that the Cham people dug from hundreds of years ago. Water from these wells is used for drinking and cooking, and it has a unique flavor. The most famous well is Well Bá Lễ.

2. Lye solution: Lye is made from ashes of trees. Different trees give different lye solutions. This particular lye solution that is used to make cao lầu's noodle is from "tro" tree grown in Cham Island nearby.

3. Rice: The rice to make cao lầu's noodle is of a local rice variety. The rice used is neither freshly harvested nor too aged. The rice is washed, soaked in Hội An's well water and lye solution. After that the soaked rice is ground into a thick paste, poured into cotton bags to drain excess water. The paste becomes dough, and is kneaded. The thin dough is briefly steamed, cut into strings, and steamed again until the noodle becomes completely cooked. The noodle is left in open air for its surface to dry. When used, the noodle is blanched briefly in hot water. Cao lầu's noodle has more texture and doesn't have a sour flavor of regular rice noodle.

4. Xá xíu (Translator: This is Vietnamese pronunciation of Chinese barbecue pork, char siu): About 500g lean pork butt, cut to about 5cm thick. Mixture: 5g Chinese five-spice powder + 1/2 teaspoon salt + 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper + 1 tablespoon minced garlic + 2 tablespoons soy sauce. Marinate the pork in the mixture for 40 minutes. Heat a small pot in low heat, add 2 tablespoons cooking oil, and pan fry the pork a little, then add boiling water to cover the meat. You can also use coconut juice instead of water. Simmer until the liquid is reduced to little remaining. The pork should now be tender. When used, slice it into thin pieces.

5. Stock: Cook 500g pork bones in 3 liters of water and 100 (typo error?) dried shallots. Simmer and skim the fat often until about 2.5 liters stock is left. Remove the bones and shallot from the stock. Season the stock with salt and MSG (Oriental food, of course!) to taste.

6. Pork rind: Select the thinnest pork skin, and remove all the fat. Cut the skin to small pieces of about 2 cm wide, and marinate for 30 minutes in the same kind of mixture you use to make xá xíu. Deep fry (in high heat?) the pork rind until crispy. Let the pork rind drain.

7. Herb: Húng lủi (Mentha aquatica L.; water mint), cut to short stems. Chive, minced. Cilantro also.

8. Presentation: Put noodle and water mint in a bowl. Place slices of xá xíu on top. Throw in some pork rind and minced chive. Pour just a litte of the stock into the bowl. Also throw in some cilantro on top. Put a dash of pepper.

9. New modifications: Some people now add dry shrimp, dry squid in the soup stock to add more flavor with a ratio of 10g dry squid or shrimp and 1/2 liter of water. Some also use chicken stock instead, but this gives different flavor. Some add more varieties of herb, minced. Uncooked bean sprout, roasted peanut, rice crackers that are broken in small pieces...are also used. Some even use (boiled) chicken meat cut into squares, sauteed shrimp. Some cao lầu noodle has a deep yellow color of tumeric, and is only seen in Saigon.

Translator note: Lye solution is widely used in Chinese yellow (wheat) noodle to make tougher texture.

Many thanks again to GNN. As usual, comments, tweaks etc. in the comment box.

technorati tags:recipe, cao, lau, Vietnamese food

Cao lau recipe

Has anyone got a recipe for Cao lau? Or can anyone point me to one in a book or online? I've had three or four enquiries and now I'm starting to wonder... Thanks.

Saigon Cao Lau

This is Cao Lau. A pork noodle dish, native of Hoi An town in Central Vietnam. I've blogged this dish before. The rendition above is the Saigon take. I find this at the "What? You want a table for six? You'll be bloody lucky" - Quan An Ngon Restaurant at 138 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia street in District 1. It's the first time I've seen this dish sold anywhere outside Hoi An. I don't know when Quan An Ngon added it to the menu. I can't remember seeing it on previous visits. Their take ain't that great. Quite bland and nowhere near as enjoyable as the one I blogged from Hoi An, see below. Looks quite a bit different too, no?

So, a request. Does anyone know of anywhere else in Vietnam, outside Hoi An, where you can score Cao lau? Good Cao lau? Here's NoStarwhere's take and The Rice Bowl's.

Cao Lau & Crispy Pancakes in Central Vietnam

I wound up in the central Vietnamese town of Hoi An last week. The town is a major draw on the heavily pounded, unimaginative tourist trail along the length of Vietnam's coast. For such a popular tourist hang, it's surprising to find a town bereft of gourmet grub. There are virtually no quality restaurants in town. Everybody serves the same tired menu and caters to the lowest, cheapest tourists that come to Vietnam. Like the shoddy, tenth rate tailoring the town has become infamous for, the food here is decidedly lacklustre.

There are two exceptions. The first is the dish above - Cao Lau. It's the best of the three local specialities that plague every restaurant billboard in town. The others being White Rose and Won Ton dumplings. This rendition of Cao Lau is from Fukien at 28 Tran Phu Street. It costs 6,000VD. It's a noodle, herb, beansprout and pork sliver dish. Hoi Anans (is there such a word?) will tell you the dish cannot be replicated outside of town because the water used in the dish must be drawn from a well in the nearby Ba Le well which is down an alley opposite 35 Phan Chau Trinh Street. The pork is fried in a marinade and then roasted for 1 hour. Chuck in some fish sauce, soy sauce, garlic, sugar, salt & pepper, thin crispy croutons add the noodles and herbs and you're done. Mix it up and dig in. It's simple, spice tinged and yummtastic.

Each chef adds his or her own amounts of each ingredient - that's the only discernible difference from one restaurant to another. Someone somewhere in this town with a bit of brains could easily make a bundle by opening up a high end, classy restaurant serving quality food, but it hasn't happened yet. My feeling is the restauranteurs here have gotten lazy. New blood and new ideas are what is needed.

The second food highlight (no photos for this joint, so just trust me) is Kimijan cafe at 30 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street run by Ms. Kim Lien, a French Viet Kieu who is one of the few folk in town who seems to know her grub. Very, very few people nip in here. I think it's the mosquito netting on the windows that puts people off as it doesn't allow them a look inside. But, it's definitely the best cafe/restaurant in town. Not on the menu, but she'll serve it if you ask, is an excellent Banh xeo. This version of the southern crispy pancake standard comes with a hefty herb side plate in which you will find six different leaves including a watercress type chap called cai con. It is found nowhere else in Vietnam. She also serves some stomach teasing French desserts. The Tarte tatin & Tart au citron meringue were both effortlessly eatable and had pieman loosening his belt buckle in appreciation. I didn't sample the three different scrummy crepes on offer, but I hear from reliable stomachs they are also quite exquisite.