Vietnamese Cold Noodles (Bún)

Today was a pretty food-heavy day. My friend Priscilla came over to cook with me and ended up staying for dinner as well. I'll post up some future posts about the stuff we made...but dinner consisted of Vietnamese bún, or cold rice vermicelli tossed with an assortment of veggies and herbs and meat (in this case, Mom's lemongrass pork chops), all drizzled with nuoc cham dipping sauce. It's definitely tasty - but not exactly filling. I think I started getting hunger pains a couple hours after finishing.

To tell the truth, I always order this when we go out to a Pho restaurant...I know, I know, shame on me for not eating Pho at a Pho place. Don't get me wrong...I love pho. But it's usually a little on the oily side, and I was never a super devout fan of meat-dominated dishes to begin with. I find the cold noodles refreshingly light, and it keeps me from feeling guilty after I've left.

I actually did an earlier post on this dish, but I didn't really like how the photography turned out last time. I actually prefer this version much better.

Vietnamese Cold Noodles (Bún)

Lemongrass Grilled Pork Chops


Ingredients:


A:
-4 pork chops
-2 stalks lemongrass, minced
-6 cloves garlic, minced
-1 tsp Taiwanese Sacha barbecue sauce
-1/2 tsp oyster sauce
-1-inch piece of ginger, minced
-1 tbsp sugar
-1 tbsp rice vinegar
-1/2 tsp black pepper
-1 tsp dark soy sauce

B.
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-1 stalk lemongrass, minced
-About 1 tbsp fish sauce (I'm not exactly sure of the amount...add to your taste)

1. Marinade the pork chops at least an hour beforehand with ingredients from A.
2. Add oil to a flat pan and sear the chops over high heat. Turn every so often until the meat is nicely browned.
3. Remove the pork chops, then add B ingredients to the leftover oil.Cook for about 1 minute.
4. Return the chops to the pan and cook for another minute.

Other ingredients:

-Vietnamese rice noodles
-Carrots, cut into matchsticks
-Cucumber, cut into matchsticks
-Mint
-Cilantro, diced
-Romain lettuce, roughly chopped
-Nuoc cham dipping sauce