Bo la lot, beef grilled inside a leaf

Bo la lot is beef minced with lemongrass, rolled in a dark green leaf and grilled until the leaf chars. It is the one Vietnamese dish where the wrapper is the flavour.

What is the leaf?

Piper sarmentosum, called la lot here, and it is not the betel leaf that chewing quid is made from despite what the English translation says. It is a low creeping pepper relative with a broad, glossy, heart-shaped leaf.

Raw it tastes faintly of pepper and green tea. Over charcoal it blisters and blackens at the edges, giving off a smell somewhere between bay leaf and grilled seaweed. That is what the dish is for. The herbs guide covers the rest of the green plate it arrives with.

What is inside the leaf?

Beef, minced and seasoned with lemongrass, garlic, shallot, fish sauce and pepper, sometimes with a little pork fat worked in to keep it from drying. A spoonful goes on each leaf, rolled tight into a finger about 6 cm long and skewered in threes or fours.

The rolls cook fast, three or four minutes over hot coals, and are served immediately with fried shallots and spring onion oil spooned over. A roll costs 8,000 to 15,000 dong and a portion is six to eight of them. Sitting still is the one thing they do badly.

How do you actually eat it?

Build the wrap yourself. A sheet of rice paper down, a pinch of noodles, herbs, a slice of cucumber and green banana. The roll goes on top, then fold the sides in and roll it up. Dip and eat in two bites. A plate of eight with the wrapping runs 60,000 to 120,000 dong.

Nobody minds if the first two fall apart. If the rice paper is stiff, a bowl of warm water is on the table to dip it in for a second. The spring rolls guide covers the same technique on a dish where it matters more.

What is mam nem, and should you try it?

Mam nem is anchovy fermented to a paste, thinned and sharpened with pineapple, garlic, chilli and lime. A southern counter puts it in front of you by default. It smells considerably stronger than it tastes.

Try one wrap with it before deciding. If it is not for you, nuoc cham is on every table and no one will comment: the light fish-sauce dip with lime, sugar and chilli. The fish sauce guide explains how the two are related.

What is bo bay mon?

Bo bay mon is the seven-course beef dinner of the south, and bo la lot is one of its courses. The others run through beef in vinegar hotpot, beef with fat wrapped in rice paper, grilled skewers, a salad, a soup and finally rice porridge with the last of the broth.

Bo bay mon is an occasion meal ordered for a table of six or more, and it runs 300,000 to 600,000 dong a head at a restaurant that does it properly. Ordering bo la lot alone is the cheap way to meet the best course of it.

Where does it sit on a menu?

Three places. At a quan nuong, the grill restaurants where a table orders several skewered things at once. At a cart, where one person grills nothing else and sells portions to take away. And as one course of bo bay mon, the seven-course beef meal that families order for an occasion.

Ho Chi Minh City is where all three are easiest to find, and the grilled food guide covers what else comes off the same coals.

Is it good for a first-time visitor?

Very. The flavours are mild and the assembly is the fun part. Nothing in it surprises a foreign palate badly, and the only decision is the dip.

The dish also travels well as a shared order: six or eight rolls between two people alongside something else. As a whole meal for one it is less satisfying than it looks, because the rolls are small and the plate is mostly herbs.