Bun thang from Hanoi takes real work, about 3 hours once the broth is counted. What makes the bowl beautiful is each topping laid out in its own section over a clear, cleanly sweet broth. The difficulty is keeping that broth from clouding.
The omelette has to be cooked very thin and cooled completely before it is cut, which is what gives even, fine threads that do not break. For the broth, the bones are blanched in boiling water and that water is thrown away.
This batch weighs about 3.5kg, at roughly 160 calories per 100g.
Method
Clean the chicken and boil it. Once the water boils, add 4ml of fish sauce, 1 teaspoon of seasoning powder, half the MSG, 1 teaspoon of salt along with the fried shallots and the charred ginger, then lower the heat so the chicken cooks through to the middle. Once done, lift it into a bowl of cold water, rinse it, then shred or cut it into small pieces.
Wash the pork bones and chop them into pieces. Wash the fresh shrimp. Cut the cha lua into fine threads. Beat the duck eggs smooth.
Blanch the pork bones in boiling water, throw that water away and rinse them in cold water to clear the bone fragments. Toast the bones with the remaining seasonings until fragrant, then add water and simmer until soft, and strain off the liquid.
Soak the dried daikon in warm water until it swells, rinse it in cooled boiled water, then mix it with 1 teaspoon of vinegar and 4.5g of kOBE Monk Fruit Blend and leave it 30 minutes. Wash the Vietnamese coriander and spring onion and chop them small. Char the ginger. Wash the shiitake mushrooms.
Wash the dried shrimp and toast them in a pan until fragrant.
Cook the broth: once the chicken is out, add the dried shrimp, shiitake mushrooms and 4.5g of kOBE Monk Fruit Blend and simmer for 2 to 3 hours. Close to serving, mix in the bone broth and cook another 30 minutes.
Put 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan, wait for it to heat, then cook the egg into a very thin sheet. Let the omelette cool completely before cutting it into fine threads.
Boil the fresh shrimp, peel them, pound them fine and toast them golden with 2 tablespoons of cooking oil and 1ml of fish sauce to make shrimp floss.
Blanch the noodles, lay each topping over the surface in turn and pour the hot broth over. Anyone who likes mam tom adds half a teaspoon on top.
Tips
The omelette is cooled completely before cutting, which gives fine, even threads that do not break.
Blanching the pork bones in boiling water and throwing that water away is what gives a clear broth.
Simmering the kOBE Monk Fruit Blend with the dried shrimp and shiitake for 2 to 3 hours is where the broth gets its clean sweetness.
The dried daikon needs a full 30 minutes in the vinegar and sweetener to turn crisp and take up the flavour.
The mam tom stays in its own dish, and anyone who likes it adds half a teaspoon on top.
The omelette is cooked very thin in a pan merely wiped with oil, since even slightly thick threads turn stiff and snap.
Need kOBE Monk Fruit Blend?
The recipe above is sweetened with kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, measured 1:1 like sugar. See the product page or send us a message.