Bun thit nuong, the southern noodle bowl you pour yourself

Bun thit nuong is the bowl that shows how the south eats. Everything is cold except the pork, nothing is a soup, and the diner finishes the dish by pouring the sauce and mixing it. In Ho Chi Minh City it is lunch, dinner and a late snack.

What is in a bowl of bun thit nuong?

A bowl of bun thit nuong starts with cold rice vermicelli, then adds grilled pork marinated in lemongrass, garlic and fish sauce. On top go fresh herbs, shredded lettuce, cucumber, pickled carrot and daikon, crushed roasted peanuts and a spoon of spring onion oil. A small bowl of nuoc cham comes on the side.

The pork is the part to judge a stall by. It should be thin, caramelised at the edges and smoky, grilled over charcoal rather than in a pan.

How do you eat bun thit nuong?

Eat the dish by pouring the fish sauce over the whole bowl and tossing everything together with chopsticks. The noodles, pork, herbs and pickles should all be coated before the first bite, so the dish tastes the same from top to bottom.

Pour the sauce in two or three goes rather than all at once. A bowl drowned at the start turns soggy by the end, and the cooks at a busy stall will not bring a second dish of sauce unless asked. Add chilli from the table to taste.

How is it different from bun cha?

Bun thit nuong and bun cha share grilled pork, rice noodles and fish sauce, and assemble them in opposite ways. The southern dish is dry: everything sits in one bowl and you pour the sauce over it. Bun cha is northern and wet: the pork sits in warm sauce and you dip the noodles into it.

The marinade differs too. The southern pork leans on lemongrass and sugar, the northern on fish sauce and shallot. Order both on the same trip to see how one country treats the same ingredients.

What does a bowl cost on a Saigon pavement?

A bowl of the grilled pork noodles costs about 35,000 to 60,000 dong at a street stall or small shop, which at roughly 26,000 dong to the US dollar is one and a half to two and a half dollars. Adding a fried spring roll puts the price towards the top of that range.

Restaurants aimed at visitors in District 1 charge double for the same bowl. The pavement version with a charcoal grill at the front is the better one as well as the cheaper one, as the cheap eating guide explains for most dishes.

What should you add to the order?

The standard addition is cha gio, a fried spring roll cut into pieces and laid over the pork. Menus in Ho Chi Minh City add cha gio to the name of the dish, and it is the most common way to order it in the south.

Other shops add nem nuong, the grilled pork sausage, or a few grilled prawns. The spring roll guide explains which rolls are fried and which are fresh, and the nem nuong page covers the sausage.

Where is bun thit nuong eaten?

The south eats it everywhere, and Ho Chi Minh City most of all, where stalls grill from late morning until night. The smell of lemongrass pork on charcoal is the easiest way to find one.

Further north it changes. Hue serves a version with a thick peanut sauce instead of fish sauce, and Hanoi treats the dish as a southern import. The grilled food guide maps the charcoal dishes across the country, and the street food guide lists the rest of what to eat on a pavement.