Bun Dau Mam Tom - a culinary dish with Hanoi culture

When it comes to Bun Dau Mam Tom, visitors will see that in every corner of Hanoi, Bun Dau Mam Tom has become a rustic street food that attracts domestic and international tourists. That is why this dish becomes attractive and is the first suggestion in the list of delicious dishes to try in Hanoi, Vietnam. Let's explore this unique dish with iguide.ai!

1. What's so appealing about Hanoi's vermicelli with shrimp paste?

Bun Dau Mam Tom – the name itself makes it easy for tourists to know the harmonious combination of Bun Dau and Mam Tom, a dish that sounds simple and familiar to the lives of Hanoians. Tourists will see a “tray” of Bun Dau Mam Tom including many side dishes: fried tofu, pork leg, fried spring rolls, sausage, pig intestines and Hanoi’s specialty “Cha Com”. Just enjoying a portion of Bun Dau like that, tourists will feel like they will have a delicious, cheap and filling meal.

To have the tofu cut into crispy, hot and not burnt pieces requires the skill and carefulness of the main chef. Each long piece of tofu is arranged closely together in a pan of boiling oil until golden brown. Each piece of tofu must be carefully selected to be white and soft, fried so that both the inside and outside are golden brown, soft, crispy and have the fragrant smell of soybeans. The dish looks simple like that, visitors only need to try one piece, surely they will want to eat more.

After the delicious fried tofu is fried hot and served on the plate, visitors will not be able to forget the attractive Cha Com dish that everyone often eats. This is an indispensable dish in every meal. The soft Cha Com pieces, fried until golden brown, blend with the aroma of "sticky green rice" - a gift of young rice that easily attracts visitors when enjoying the dish even for the first time.

Along with that are pieces of pork leg that have been rolled tightly in a broth with the aroma of fresh ginger and rich spices from early morning, so when you slice each small piece of meat onto a plate, you will feel the soft, crispy and fragrant taste of pork. Each piece of hot meat is arranged on a plate to eat, looking so appealing.

In addition, visitors can enjoy many other dishes such as: pig intestines, fragrant fried sausage, fried spring rolls. These dishes are very familiar and rustic to the Vietnamese people and certainly only in Hanoi have this unique feature that cannot be confused with any other specialty dishes of other cities.

The perfection of this dish does not lie in the fried tofu pieces or the chewy, soft and white noodles, but in the harmonious combination of the “shrimp paste” dipping sauce. Actually, not everyone can eat shrimp paste, especially international tourists who initially find this dish very unpleasant to the taste, but once tourists have eaten it, they can only be “addicted”.

To make delicious shrimp paste, the real shrimp paste must be ordered from the traditional long-standing shrimp paste factories in Thanh Hoa. When looking at the shrimp paste, it will have a rosy color and a fragrant smell, not a strong smell. To mix delicious shrimp paste also depends on the skill and good taste of the chef. Scoop it into a bowl, add a little sugar, MSG and pour a layer of rich golden fat on top of the shrimp paste bowl, it looks really shimmering, extremely appealing to the eyes of tourists.

Visitors will feel the full sour, spicy, salty, sweet taste of shrimp paste dipping sauce: the sour taste of lemon, the spicy taste of a little bit of chopped fresh wetted, the salty taste of shrimp paste and the sweet taste of a little sugar. All blend together to make visitors just need to dip it with other dishes along with vermicelli to find it both strange and delicious, irresistible. It will be even more wonderful if visitors eat it with raw vegetables: basil, cucumber, Vietnamese balm or perilla, surely will not disappoint visitors.

Not only is Bun Dau Mam Tom attractive because of its rustic dishes, close to daily life, but it also attracts tourists because of its simple presentation, pleasing to the eye. The pressed vermicelli leaves are cut into pieces and arranged evenly on a tray lined with green banana leaves. Combined with crispy, golden fried tofu and a little pork offal, sausage and pork with some raw vegetables. And of course, there is a bowl of shrimp paste with a little lemon and fragrant chili that is hard for tourists to resist. Because of its appeal, there is hardly any dish that can compare. Therefore, tourists coming to Hanoi do not forget to stop by the restaurant to enjoy Bun Dau Mam Tom - a specialty of Hanoi.

2. Famous delicious vermicelli with fermented bean curd stalls in Hanoi

Just set foot in Hanoi, tourists will see this dish of vermicelli with fermented shrimp paste on every road, sidewalk or in alleys and streets. But if you have time, with only a meal from 30,000 VND - 55,000 VND/meal/person, tourists should stop by to enjoy Bun Dau Huyen My (No. 31, Hang Khay), Bun Dau 54 Phan Huy Ich or Bun Dau Ma May. These are famous addresses for vermicelli with fermented shrimp paste with delicious, nutritious and cheap quality, the right choice for tourists to have a full and memorable meal when coming to Hanoi.

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