Recipe video above. Popular Vietnamese street food! Fabulous combination of contrasting flavours and textures, fresh vegetables with flavourful lemongrass marinated pork, noodles and herbs, all doused in a mild nuoc cham sauce (so you can use lots).Light and fresh yet anything but dull. Excellent DIY spread for gatherings - lay it all out on tables and let everyone put their own bowls together. Chicken version here. Slightly different toppings because chicken is a white meat, pork is richer. :)
Pickle – In a large bowl, dissolve the salt and sugar in the hot water. Stir in vinegar. Add carrots and daikon – they should just about be covered.
2 hours – Leave for 2 hours until slightly floppy. Drain well then use per recipe.
Pork bowls:
Nuoc cham sauce - Mix ingredients together. Until sugar is dissolved.
Vermicelli noodles - Soak in boiling water for 5 minutes (or per packet directions). Drain, rinse under tap water, then cool and drain thoroughly (nobody likes watery noodles!).
Toppings - Prepare all the other toppings, ready to use.
Assemble bowls - Place noodles in a bowl. Top with lettuce, pickled vegetables, cucumber and bean sprouts. Slice pork, place 2 steaks on each bowl. Top with herbs, sprinkle with peanuts and sliced chilli. Add a lime wedge.
Serve with nuoc cham on the side so everybody can help themselves. Douse generously! Dive in and eat!
Notes
1. Noodles - or glass noodles/bean thread, or other dried rice noodles, preferably thin.2. Pickled veg - really recommend using this, it's a quick to prepare 2 hour pickle and you're rewarded with crunchy-but-floppy tangy veg that's so much more interesting than plain raw vegetables! Same as the pickled veg used in Banh Mi (chicken and classic pork). Having said that, if you're in a rush, just use raw but really finely julienne them.3. Nuoc Cham - This sauce is not as strong / fishy as others you may have tried. It’s intended to be used almost like a soup broth. Adapt this to your taste by adjusting the quantities. You may not use all this sauce – but I don’t want you to run out!4. Chilli - Birds eye chillies are small red chillies that are quite spicy. To make it less spicy, use large red chillies instead (which are not as hot) or skip it.5. Nutrition per bowl assuming all the sauce is consumed which it probably won't be. I've also had to make sensible assumptions about the pickles and how much of the sugar, salt etc ends up absorbed in the vegetables.