Bun Bo - Yummo!

I've learned something.  In the match between life and blog, life wins.  I'd threatened self with: "If it's not done in the next two weeks..." - but somehow the fire wasn't hot enough.  As a 1-2 week follow-up from my last post on Hanoi, I'd meant to write a companion post sharing a tried-and-tested recipe for Bun Bo Xao - that delicious dish I first encountered in Hanoi.  Best of intentions, et cetera, et cetera... over a month later, but here is that companion post.

To try and replicate the dish, I went over to a good friend's who has an insatiable appetite for Vietnamese food and a rather handy knack for making it, too!  The good news is that our first attempt at Bun Bo Xao was a smashing success!
Bun Bo Xao is a noodle salad with beef and lots of fresh herbs and veggies.  It's healthy and full of mouth-watering flavour.

I heavily borrowed from Helen's recipe on www.danangcuisine.com but did make some modifications.
Here's how we made it (served 3):

Ingredients:
500g rump steak
4 cloves garlic - finely chopped
1 stalk lemongrass
Herbs (1 small bag of: mint, basil (preferably thai, but normal is fine), coriander) - all roughly chopped
1 carrot, shredded
1/2 cucumber, sliced and halved
1/2 onion (yellow or red), sliced
1.5 T oyster sauce
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
3 T vegetable (or rapeseed) oil
Rice Noodles (enough for everyone to have a large portion)
crushed roasted peanut (2 T per person)
Fried shallot (1 T per person)
4 T Fish Sauce
4 T sugar (regular or cane)
1 Lime
1 Small red chilli pepper (or more if desired)

1. Slice the rump steak very thinly and against the grain (Helen's suggestion as she says it keeps it tender)
2. Place the meat in a bowl and add 1/2 the chopped garlic, the lemongrass, 1 T oil, the oyster sauce, pepper, salt.  Mix well and let marinate for 20 minutes or more.
3. Meanwhile, prepare other ingredients and place in bowls or on a plate.
4. Heat 2 T oil in pan till hot - add one chopped clove of garlic and the onion.  Cook for 1 minute and then add beef.  Cook until brown all over - we left it pink on the inside.
5. Cook noodles per package instructions.
6. Prepare the salad dressing (Nuoc Cham) to be drizzled on top of the dish:  Mix 2T fish sauce, 2T sugar, 10T water (proportion always 1:1:5).  Then add final chopped garlic clove, chopped chilli, and juice of one lime
7. Once everything is ready, place everything on the table for people to build their own Bun Bo.  I placed a hearty portion of noodles at the bottom, then added fresh herbs, shredded carrot and sliced cucumber.. then the onion and beef.. and topped with crushed peanuts, fried shallots, and a few tablespoons of Nuoc Cham.

The result was delicious and took me right back to that bia hoi where I first enjoyed Bun Bo in Hanoi.
There is a fair bit of preparation for this dish, but it's very very simple to make and will, no doubt, be a regular in our kitchen from now on.

Ăn ngon miệng! (Enjoy!)