I just had one of the most memorable, flavorful, filling, delicious Vietnamese meals I've ever had just looking for an authentic traditional Vietnamese classics.
I couldn't make my mind up and asking my server for one of her favorites asking for something with a little spiciness.
She suggested Bún Chà Hà Nôi, an unassuming simple Vietnamese meatball and pork and rice noodles dish with the standard accompaniment of fresh Vietnamese vegetables and herbs.
Individually, each item and ingredient delicious in its own right... Together... It was an umami experience I hadn't experience in a very long time.
Especially from a well known and established local eatery.
I mean this dish got my attention!
I requested several quarters of fresh lime that I squeezed the juice into chopped garlic and Thai chilis in the little condiment dish that I smothered with traditional fish sauce and poured half of this mixture into the larger bowl of meatballs and pork in the room temperature broth with the remaining over the cool rice noodles.
What happened as I grabbed a mouthful of noodles with my chopsticks to bring them into the broth before entering my mouth can only be described as a minor transcendence of my Western taste bud's palate into we're going to be described as Vietnamese culinary love.
A dish my great late friend Anthony Bourdain would have described as "food porn"! Whenever something was so attention getting you couldn't help yourself but desire more.
I don't know whether it was because I just didn't expect this from looking at the same rice noodles, herbs and vegetables you'll see on almost every traditional Vietnamese dish plate. Or the fact that they all came traditionally served at room temperature but when combined with one of my favorite condiments of mixed and chilies crushed garlic and fish sauce giving them into their house broth the dynamics that took place on my awakened taste whats it definitely got my attention!
This was Vietnamese love and if I looked far enough back into this recipe origin, I would eventually find a loving grandmother that created this recipe. ❤️
One that wanted to bring the simple staples and what was available in the kitchen in a way to please those she loved.
So simple, unassuming and in some ways basic and its components together formed a synergism of umami that I couldn't describe just in flavors alone.
I'm sure the dish itself isn't reasonably inexpensive one to make given the ingredients, in the relatively reasonable price of d.65,000 in this highly touristed area of Da Nang makes this experience no less epic.
Is this dish worth a Michelin star, I'm not sure Michelin would know how to score Love🤔❤️
But to this old chef in ethnic authenticity food anthropologist informer Buddhist monk that has sought the origins of "delicious" in more than 94 countries this was one of my true highlights that I hope the restaurant never changes anything about the recipe and continues to offer it not only as was served to me but at the same affordable price to the world.
NOTE: Not knowing what you expect, I mis-paired Bếp Ngon Việt's "Bún Chà Hà Nôi" to with their menu's #15 "My Xào Hài Sàn" stir-fried noodles with seafood which in its own right is a good dish but not very properly... And I should have instead picked a seafood salad or something lighter to compliment Bún Chà Hà Nôi... Which either dish was ample in filling enough on their own.
I would hope you would share this and whenever in Da Nang looking for a little culinary love and possess a slightly adventurous culinary palate in need of a little excitement, just a little I would hope you would treat yourself to Bếp Ngon Việt's "Bún Chà Hà Nôi" .
Because it's the simplest things made with love that will move you and be remembered most in this journey we call life. The journey meant to be lived as the adventure it is.
"Always Be True To The Cuisine." - Chef Dominic D'Maestro, The MangoMonkey Chef