I tried Googling 'rice noodle sheets' on Google Images and found out the dish is called banh cuon. I have seen recipes for banh cuon but making the noodle sheets is very low down on my list of cooking attempts! I wanted to try banh cuon cooked to order for my first taste, if at all possible. It proved a bit elusive because it is not on a huge amount of menus. In my searching of the internet I also found out that the dish is more prevalent in the north of Vietnam.
It was time to Google again; 'banh cuon review Melbourne'. This search led me to a review of Thanh Tam (172 Victoria Street, Richmond) by Kat at Spatula Spoon and Saturday. Kat also reviews a few other dishes at Thanh Tam.
This is the dish that greeted me at Thanh Tam:
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| Banh cuon $9.00 |
The rice noodle rolls are filled with cooked minced pork and what could have been black fungus mushrooms too, as that seems to be a usual filling. You can also order the banh cuon with prawns, or pork and prawns.
The salad was a pile of mung bean spouts, julienned cucumber, mint and basil leaves. A Vietnamese dressing is served with the dish so I sluiced it over the salad and the rolls. The dish is topped with some fried shallots.
Surrounding the banh cuon and the salad is slices of pork loaf (cha lua) and another loaf called nem chua, which is made up of pork skin shredded and mixed with salt and flavourings and cured. It also has peppercorns in it. It is quite brightly pink on the plate so I was a bit unnerved by that. As it turns out, it was really lovely, a very mild taste with the peppercorns.
Also on the plate was something that looked like a potato croquette, it had a potato taste and a prawn inside.
This is a cracking dish and will be back for more.
This is a cracking dish and will be back for more.
I tried to find out what the croquette thing is called or what is in it, but had no luck. If anyone is able to tell me about this tasty fried bit of deliciousness, I'd be very grateful!
UPDATE: I think the croquette thing is called Mung Bean Cake. but there was something else besides the mung beans, maybe taro and it could be called banh cong?
UPDATE: I think the croquette thing is called Mung Bean Cake. but there was something else besides the mung beans, maybe taro and it could be called banh cong?
I have never tried this dish and like you have been fascinated by the rice noodle roll-y things! Dong Que in Hopkins St have it and as they are Northern Vietnamese I would think it would be good. I have also seen the rolls at Tan Truc Giang (Southern Vietnamese) but they are unfilled.
ReplyDeleteI have seen nem chua on the bench at various grocers and have always been terrified by the colour. Good to hear it is yummy!
Can't help with the croquette unfortunately!
I was wondering whether Dong Que might have this dish. Will have to get back there and check it out (and some of the other things from your review of the place)
ReplyDeleteThe nem chua was a pleasant surprise.
Food looks great and the prices even better, I ll have to check this place out deb.
ReplyDeleteSandra, the dish I had was very filling and I saw the size of some other dishes people were eating, very generous sizes! Such good value. I am really looking foward to going back to try more things! Hope you get there to check it out.
ReplyDeletebanh cuon is seriously yummy. There are actually a few versions of it as well :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info Anh, looking forward to trying more versions. Will have to track down more places to try it.
ReplyDeleteBanh cuon is my favorite Vietnamese dish! Yes the croquette thing is bánh cống, as far as I know there isn't taro in there, but a mixture of rice flour, wheat flour, mung bean flour and whole mung beans.
ReplyDeleteMai, thanks so much for the info on the banh cong! I'll look out for them now (and a recipe if possible)
ReplyDelete