Bun Bo (Vietnamese Beef with Vermicelli)

Vietnamese Dinner Recipes

1 lb. rice vermicelli salt 1 1/4 lb. rump steak vegetable oil pepper 2 lg onions, thinly sliced 1 lg cucumber, peeled, sliced thin 4 oz peanuts Toppings, to each diner's taste fish sauce cold water white vinegar/lime juice sugar chili flakes or chopped fresh red chili

A delicious Asian dinner - it's not all rice, you know. Garnish the plate with lettuce. A note on ingredients: fish sauce - Fish sauce, or nuoc nam, is a common ingredient in many Vietnamese dishes. It is often used as a condiment, think of it in the same vein as soy sauce or ketchup or chutney. If it's available in your local grocery store, it will be on the shelf in the "ethnic" aisle, alongside the black bean sauce and the Saigon sizzle sauce and the like. Or, use the link to order a bottle from Amazon. Place vermicelli in large pot, cover with boiling water. Drain. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Add 2 tsp salt, vermicelli, boil 5 min. Drain, rinse with cold water. Reheat by covering with boiling water. Slice steak thinly. In a wok, heat a small amount of oil. Stirfry beef. Season with salt & pepper. Set aside. Add onions to wok and stirfry until soft. Drain vermicelli (which has been waiting in water). Arrange in bowl, top with beef, onion, cucumbers. Sprinkle with peanuts. Bring toppings to table, allow each diner to dress their own noodles to taste. Or provide each diner with a small bowl to mix their own dipping sauce from the fish sauce, water, vinegar/lime juice, sugar, and chili. Pour sauce over vermicelli or serve alongside as a dip.

Submitted by Gretchen Grant
Contributed on: Tuesday May 11th, 2004 and modified on Saturday May 15th, 2010