Grill Smoke · Hanoi Lunch Ritual
Bún Chả
Photo: Valentin Orange / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
When Barack Obama ate it here with Anthony Bourdain in 2016, the bill for both men came to around $6 — and Bourdain picked it up.
Patties and slices of pork are grilled over charcoal until charred at the edges, then dropped into a bowl of warm fish-sauce broth with pickled papaya and carrot, served alongside a mountain of rice noodles and herbs for dipping. Sidewalk stalls fan the coals right on the pavement, and the smoke is often what draws customers in.
Why it's made this way: The dish is thought to have taken root in early-20th-century Hanoi; food writer Vũ Bằng described the whole city as 'transfixed by bún chả' as far back as 1959, its grill-smoke perfume filling entire Old Quarter streets long before a US president ever sat down for a bowl.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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