47: A tale of two bánh cuốn
Tale #2
Welcome to the second instalment of my little dining out project. Its purpose is to get more acquainted with Vietnamese cuisine while I have the privilege of living in Vietnam. A tale of two… will see me try the same dish at two different restaurants. Trying something once is great, but two tries, hopefully in quick succession, should offer me (just slightly) more insight into the dish and my palate. I am a recovering picky eater, and I still feel like I’m on a journey of understanding what my more mature palate is.
Whether it’s a dish I’ve had before or one that is brand new, my hope is that the small comparison will help me better understand the dish, what variations might exist, and what I generally think of it. I want to become less ignorant when writing about Vietnamese food and a less ignorant resident of Vietnam.
Convenience is going to be a big factor in which dishes and restaurants I include in the project, such as if it’s close enough for me to walk to, and I’ll definitely be prioritizing eating at the restaurant rather than delivery. But delivery is such a way of life here that I don’t really think it would be a big deal if I went with it sometimes.
As for format, my thought was to consider both plates (or bowls) as fairly as I can. A friend commented how scientific the first tale read, and I can see how I did try to remove my personality to keep it about the food. I also think that my love of cooking colours this, in that I’m almost trying to dissect each dish to better understand how it was made. I’m looking at the dish like a cook rather than just a diner. Please do offer feedback if you like or don’t like how I’m writing about the food.
So, bánh cuốn. Only now do I see it as funny that I would choose another dish associated with Northern Vietnam when I live in the South. Especially as I know people from Hanoi who won’t eat dishes like phở or bánh cuốn in Saigon because they think it’s nothing like it “should be.” But that doesn’t respect that, in most cases, it’s not trying to be a facsimile or authentic, it is its own authentically, southern thing. And a white, middle-aged girl from Canada knows she should tread very lightly when it comes to discourse on authenticity.
Shops and expectations
I chose both spots because I pass them all the time on walks close to home. More importantly, they are open in the evening. Traditionally, bánh cuốn is considered a breakfast dish (here’s another Andrea Nguyen primer), so I’m sure there are people out there that think that no bánh cuốn spot worth visiting in Vietnam is open past 10 a.m. I am not a morning person. I am not a breakfast time person. I am 100% okay with missing out on the best tasting x, y, or z because of that. So praise jeebus that there are restaurants across the world that know that people like to eat any food at any time of day.
I also chose both spots because of the curious fact that they always have customers but their Google reviews are very mid. I understand that there’s no accounting for taste, but I thought it might actually be more interesting to try two regular neighbourhood spots than to go in search of the two “best” places in Saigon. The food might not be spectacular, but if a restaurant can pay the bills and stay open, they must be doing something right.
I’ve brought up before, though, that it seems clear to me that Vietnamese customers can base a lot of their rating on price; cleanliness; pace of service; and motorbike parking. Things to consider, for sure, but when reading the reviews and seeing an absence much in the way of food tasting bad meant I wasn’t really concerned about the lack of stars.
Still, I went in thinking I might be disappointed. Especially as I have had bánh cuốn from one of the purported best places in the city. I’ve also ordered it for delivery before. I’d say I was familiar enough with the dish to know if an order was great or terrible.
Order
From what I have seen, a standard plate in Saigon will be three to four rolls of the thin, rice flour crepes—the term I’ll use even though it’s more like a giant circular rice noodle—stuffed with a mix of ground pork, shallots, and wood ear mushrooms. They are then topped with fried shallots and come with a side of steamed bean sprouts and fresh herbs (one of my spots included cucumbers, too). The pork roll chả lụa is also a standard addition. From there, the extras are either to your liking or based on the particular plate of bánh cuốn you ordered. Commonly seen additions are nem chua, a fermented pork roll, and fried fritters. The fritters I’ve seen on offer are either shrimp, bánh tôm, and less frequently, mung bean, bánh đậu.
At both Bánh Cuốn 1 (BC1) and Bánh Cuốn 2 (BC2), I ordered a plate with the rolls, chả lụa, and bánh tôm. In addition to only pork, BC2 offered fillings of shrimp or a shrimp-pork mix; I stayed with pork only. BC2 also offered two sizes, and I went with the large. Also also! BC2 has squid fritters, chả mực, as an addition, and I got one because I like them.
Crepes
From what I’ve gathered, the thinner the crepe the better for maximum silkiness. But, of course, not so thin that they break when rolled. I would say that BC1’s were thinner, but this meant little to me. I’m apathetic to the softness of rice batters usually, especially with noodles. But with bánh cuốn, if I have one of those half rolls on my spoon, I want to be able to maybe take a bite with no resistance. A thicker crepe might offer some tug, which could mess with the integrity of the roll. BC1’s thinness win meant little because BC2’s offered no resistance either.
The noticeable difference between the two roll styles was that BC1’s were pudgier with more filling. I’m going to say overfilled. You can either dunk the rolls in the fish sauce or you can spoon it over; I tend to switch between the two. But when I would dunk at BC1, the pudginess meant that filling inevitably fell out, either into the sauce or onto the plate. This did not happen as much at BC2 with their slender and just a touch longer rolls. The nature of the BC beast means that you will lose some regardless. Or maybe it’s just the nature of the how-Rhirhi-eats beast.
Filling
Aside from the very obvious difference between the bánh tôm, the filling for me was the biggest differentiating feature. I’ve been racking my brain in the time since I ate these to find a word to describe the texture of BC1’s filling. The flavour between the two was similar and very much tasty, but the texture was noticeably different. What I’ve landed on with BC1 is that the filling was fluffier. All of the mushroom, pork, and shallot bits were slightly larger than at BC2, and the pudgier roll meant they weren’t quite as compact. But I’m betting my life that there was an additional ingredient. Some of the bits didn’t look like pork to me and with the fluffy texture, I wondered if maybe they were like potato. I’ve searched Vietnamese-language recipes as best I can, and I have seen some where it seems like taro or cassava might be added. This could be the fluffy addition? BUT Google translate is not always your friend, and although the crepes are traditionally made with 100% rice flour, sometimes other flours like tapioca (which might be translated as simply cassava) are added for more tensibility and easier crepe making. A no-no to purists. BC2 actually promotes that their batter is 100% rice flour.
So, the fluffy bit could have just been pork1. But I didn’t love it. The texture of BC2’s reminded me more of other bánh cuốn I’ve had.
Chả lụa
Again, texture. I find the taste of chả lụa pleasant and mild, the latter making it necessary for fish sauce dunks. The taste at both was too similar for me to notice a difference. But they didn’t eat the same. BC1’s slice was thinner and more rubbery, with the skin needing more bite force to get through. I much preferred the thicker, softer slices at BC2.
Nước chấm
A surefire way to know you’re at a bánh cuốn spot is the pitcher of the fish-sauce-based dipping sauce, nước chấm, on the table. It is a crucial and copious component that brings all of the plate’s other ones together in salty-sweet harmony. How sweet a restaurant seasons theirs is always fodder for Google reviews (at all restaurants), and I think it’s a good idea to taste first before pouring with abandon. BC1 only offered chiles to add, but BC2 offered chiles, garlic, and calamansi. I added all three at BC2, but it didn’t go far enough to tame the much sweeter nước chấm there. Judicious pours were better than dunks. This was actually when I appreciated that BC2 included cucumbers with the veg, as a few slivers in a mouthful helped to balance sweetness.
Bánh tôm
I’ve had bánh tôm multiple times—they’re often served at bún chả spots, too—and every one I’ve had has been made in a completely different manner than the rest. Some are made with batons of sweet potatoes, some are carefully shaped, some look like a muffin. I think the only requirement to be called bánh tôm is that shrimp and batter are fried together, then it’s do as you please to make that happen.
Frying to order should not be expected, as ultimately that would slow down getting your food to you, which is undesirable for many here. Both of mine were room temperature. A hot, crispy fritter would have been nicer, of course, but it doesn’t really bother me. The biggest issue for me is that the part of the fritter that is only pure batter dries out a lot after frying, causing a not great tough but brittle texture—likely due to our humidity here. But as everything gets dipped in sauce, anyway, rough edges do smooth out.
Despite its lonely-shrimp looks, the fritter from BC2 was just fine. The shrimp was good, and the taste of the batter was okay; it broke off easily for dunks. But I did prefer BC1’s fritter because the batter was thicker and the shrimp was larger. Something about it reminded me of a hushpuppy.
Takeaways
One blasphemous thing I’ve said in the past is that I’d love to order bánh cuốn for delivery and then place the pork-mushroom filling, the sprouts, and the herbs over a bowl of rice. A drizzle of the nước chấm, and I think it would taste amazing. Because I love all of that minus the crepes. But I think I have a greater appreciation for the them now and their ability to be a good vehicle for the delicious filling. When I go to Hanoi, I definitely want to try some there, especially as I know the meat and nước chấm can be served bún chả style, even with grilled pork included.
A standard order is too small for me, so getting the large at BC2 helped it feel like a meal. I also know that as a breakfast item or even a morning snack, it’s not meant to be hearty. Like with many dishes that use them, the fried shallots are the most underrated player, and I’ll say that BC2’s had a better, stronger shallot flavour, however that worked.
For delivery once I ordered bánh cuốn trứng, which sees either an egg spread across the crepe before the pork filling is added, or a crepe is folded around an egg, hopefully to present the diner with a runny yolk. I want to have the first style again, as I liked how the egg added more structure to the roll and made it more substantial for satiety.
Now, do I think the mid Google reviews are valid? I think maybe with BC1 more than BC2. While I was there, BC2 was doing very swift delivery business. When I looked on Grab, their reviews there are better than the ones on Google. I’m not surprised.
What I was thinking about with both is that they have “good enough” and “good for here” vibes. In that, if you’re craving bánh cuốn, each might just be a good enough neighbourhood option to assuage it. And for those that hold the dish to a Northern standard, they are okay for us here in the South.
Even though BC1 has more of a family restaurant vibe, BC2 is where I’d go again. Because I liked the texture of their filling more, that their rolls were more slender, and that I could order a portion more appropriate to my appetite. Some folks care about easy bike parking; some like me with a figurative hollow leg care about not leaving hungry.
For those interested, I’ll publish their info in my next restaurant list update. Pretty sure I know what the next tale will be about, and I hope you find the choice unexpected (…for me!).
After this post was first published, a reader informed me that it most likely was jicama. They kindly shared how Google Translate tends to a Northern dialect and likely caused an error between cassava and jicama when I was searching. Now even when I Google English-based recipes with jicama, it appears very common.