🇻🇳 Vietnam · Hanoi and northern Vietnam
Bún ốcVietnamese snail noodle soup
A northern Vietnamese noodle soup of thin rice vermicelli and river snails in a light, pale-pink, mildly sour broth of snail liquid, pork-bone stock, fried tomato and fermented-rice vinegar (giấm bỗng), served with herbs, shrimp paste and chili.
Origin and history
Bún ốc is a Hanoi street dish. A Vietnamese food article on the old-style version cites a cookery book published by Tân Dân thư quán in 1930 that already described soaking snails in rice-washing water, and notes that the old bowl contained only snails, with extra toppings added by later stalls.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 servings
- Total time
- 2 h
- Hands-on
- 1 h
Ingredients
- 1 kg2.2 lb live apple snails (ốc nhồi) or similar freshwater snails, purged beforehand, see notes
- 500 g1.1 lb pork neck or marrow bones (xương hom/xương ống), blanched and rinsed; optional, for a sweeter broth
- 2 ripe tomatoes, half minced, half cut into wedges
- 2 dried shallots (hành khô), finely sliced
- 2 tbsp lard or neutral oil
- 100 mlscant 1/2 cup giấm bỗng (fermented glutinous-rice vinegar), about 50 ml for steaming or boiling the snails, the rest to finish the broth
- 500 g1.1 lb fresh thin rice vermicelli (bún)
- coarse salt and fish sauce, to taste
- perilla (tía tô), scallion greens, lettuce, banana blossom, shredded, for the bowls
- 2 tbsp fermented shrimp paste (mắm tôm), to serve at the table
- 3 tbsp ớt chưng (chilli fried in oil), to serve; see notes
Method
-
1. Purge the snails: soak them in clean rice-washing water for at least a day, changing the water often, then soak briefly in water with a splash of giấm bỗng and chilli and rinse well.
-
2. Blanch the pork bones in boiling water for 3 minutes, rinse, then simmer in 2 litres (8 cups) of water for 1 h 30 min at a gentle bubble, skimming, until the stock is clear and sweet.
-
3. Boil the snails in water with 50 ml giấm bỗng and a spoon of coarse salt until the flesh pulls away from the shell, then pick out the meat and rinse it. Strain the cooking liquid through a fine cloth and keep it.
-
4. Fry the sliced shallots in the lard until golden, add the minced tomato and cook until it breaks down into a red paste.
-
5. Pour the paste through a sieve into the pot with the bone stock and strained snail liquid to give the broth a pale pink colour.
-
6. Add the tomato wedges and simmer 3 to 4 minutes, season with salt or fish sauce, then add the remaining giấm bỗng off the heat so the sourness stays gentle.
-
7. Scald the vermicelli in boiling water, drain, and divide among bowls.
-
8. Top each bowl with 5 or 6 snails, a few tomato wedges, shredded perilla and scallion, then ladle on the very hot broth.
-
9. Serve with the herbs and lettuce on the side; each diner stirs in shrimp paste and ớt chưng to taste.
Notes
- Snails need the long purge; soaking time is not included in the total. Pick heavy snails with thin shells and full openings.
- Ớt chưng: fry minced garlic in hot oil, add fresh chilli purée and chilli powder (roughly 100 g fresh chilli and 50 g powder to 1 cup oil keeps for weeks in a jar), cook about 3 minutes and cool.
- A Vietnamese guide to the old Hanoi style says the original bowl holds only snails; many stalls later added pork cracklings, fried tofu, ear sausage or beef, which purists say hides the dish. Another recipe also makes snail-and-pork patties for the broth.
- Without giấm bỗng, use a mild rice vinegar added in smaller amounts, and expect a sharper sourness. Canned snails are a poor substitute for fresh ones.
- Make the broth ahead and reheat; add the vinegar only just before serving.
Adapted from VnExpress, Bún ốc Hà Nội theo lối cũ (method, snails, tomato, giấm bỗng) and Mytour, Phương pháp nấu bún ốc Hà Nội (quantities for bones, broth water, vinegar, noodles and ớt chưng, scaled down).
At the festivals
No festival we list has printed it on a menu yet.