Bun rieu Nguyen Sieu

Bun rieu cua is a delicious ordinary dish. The hot summer is the season of crabs. Crabs from paddy fields are cleaned, the carapace is removed, then the body and the legs are crushed using a mortar and pestle and sifted to form the base of the broth. The crab paste is taken from the carapace, boiled down with fat liquid, dried onions and salt. The broth base is boiled in a saucepan. When nearly done, crab meat will turn dark brown and start floating, creating various layers, and be taken out to a bowl. Crab meat is delicious and nutritious, rich in pro- tein and not greasy at all. Dried garcinia cowa, dam bong (a type of glutinous rice vinegar), tomato wedges are added to the broth. Scallions are sliced into 2-cen- timeter-long strips. Julienne lettuce, water mint, corian- der, marjoram and splitted water spinach stems are the vegetables and herbs accompanying the dish. The rice vermicelli should be the thick type that (Rice vermicelli soup with crab paste) 20 21 HANOI’S CUISINE HANOI’S CUISINE is soft but crispy and not crushed when in the broth. Fried tofu is a possible side dish. The silky rice vermicelli, topped with dark yellow crab paste and red tomato wedges, served with some shrimp paste, pepper paste, herbs and golden cubes of fried tofu, present cus- tomers with a nice combination of sour, sweet and spicy tastes. The light and cooling bun rieu can be served with the broth or dipping sauce based on personal pref- erences. Nowadays, many store add gio tai (pork pie made from pigs’ ears), beef or pig’s trotters to increase protein for the dish.