Vietnamese BBQ Pork with Rice Vermicelli

Carl and Stephanie introduced us to a small Vietnamese restaurant on 3500 South and Redwood Road a couple of years ago and we love their BBQ Pork. It has a grilled sweet flavor that's different from anything we've ever had. This is the dish Matt gets and I've tried to combine a bunch of different recipes that are a lot like this and it turned out pretty good. A couple things I'll try different next time but overall a success.

Here's a picture of some of the harder to find ingredients. I tried Wal-mart (wm) first and bought what I could and then went to an Asian Market (am). Next time I'll just get everything at the Asian Market. From Left to Right: Rice Cooking Wine (am); Oyster sauce (wm); fish sauce (am); peanuts (wm); rice vermicelli noodles (am); rice vinegar (you actually don't need this, wm); shallots (wm); dried chilies (wm, up by the produce); carrots (wm).

Vietnamese BBQ Pork with Rice Vermicelli

Sauce you smother the bowl with:

• 1/2 c. fish sauce
  
• 1/2 c. sugar
  
• 1 garlic clove finely chopped (I use the bottled stuff)
• 1 c. hot water
  
• 1 chili diced very small (it will taste hot on its own but when added to your bowl it won't be too hot, although you can always add less and then add more later)
  
• 2 t. lime juice
• sprinkle of shredded carrots
  

Dissolve the sugar in the hot water and then add the other ingredients. Set aside. Usually served cold or at room temperature. **If you scroll to the bottom of the post you will see a picture with 2 sauces in it. If you don't want to make this sauce you can always buy it at the asian market. The ingredients are the same except instead of fish sauce they add vinegar. I bought some in case this didn't turn out. Yes it shows my lack of confidence but I didn't have a whole lot of it with all of these ingredients I've never used before.**

• 1 1/2 lb. pork loin thick chops, thinly sliced (freeze slightly and it will help you be able to slice it thin)

Marinade for the Pork:

• 1 shallot finely chopped
• pinch of salt and pepper
  
• 2 garlic cloves finely chopped (I use the bottled stuff)
• 1/2 t. oyster sauce
• 1 T. fish sauce
• 1 T. vegetable oil
• Caramel sauce: mix 1/2 c. water and 1/4 c. sugar in small saucepan over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes until golden brown, then while constantly stirring add in 1/4 c. hot water to thin the sauce and add it to the rest of the marinade ingredients. **Side note: it took me 3 tries (yes 3) to finally get this right. First time I looked away for about 30 seconds and it burned, second time I stirred it even though I know you're not suppose to when you're candying (is that a word?) something-so don't stir it (until it's brown)- and finally it worked the third time. So if you're not up for this you can just add 1/4 c. brown sugar and it will add the sweetness you need.**

Put the pork into the marinade for about 30 minutes before cooking.

I bought a small wok at the Asian market because I've always wanted one and they're pretty cheap there but I forgot to take a picture. I put 1/2 the pork in at a time so that it would cook fast and easy. Be sure to get some of the extra marinade in both batches so that it thickens and puts a glaze on the pork. It only takes about 5 minutes on high heat to cook. Even less time if you cut the meat really thin, we just didn't have time to freeze it first so ours is a little thick.

The second batch I added a tablespoon of brown sugar to my pork for extra sweetness and to see how it cooked and I liked it better than the first batch. So next time I will either forget the caramel sauce altogether and just do brown sugar or I might do both. Depends if I have a lot of patience that day or not.

You can always cook it in a frying pan on high heat or what I'm going to try next time is on skewers on the grill.

Ingredients for the "bun" as they call it:

• rice vermicelli noodle (instructions on how to cook them are on the package)
• shredded lettuce
• shredded carrots
• cilantro
• green onions
• cucumbers
• bean sprouts
  
• crushed peanuts

Put the noodles, lettuce, carrots, bean sprouts and cucumbers in the bowl. Then on top of the meat you sprinkle cilantro, green onions and a small amount of crushed peanuts. (Matt forgot to put cilantro on his and we didn't buy bean sprouts and he didn't want the peanuts. So just make it to your liking) Then you add as much sauce as you want and stir it all together and enjoy!

I would have taken a picture of my bowl but this is what mine consisted of: rice vermicelli noodles and BBQ pork. Not too exciting but it tasted really good because I got the sweeter second batch of pork. Mmmmm, I miss it already.

The following picture is the sauces you can buy that are probably a lot like the one you make in this recipe.

And this was dessert. I had a lot of fun at this Asian Market. It's a new market that opened in November and it's on 3825 South and Redwood Road. There were a lot of sweets I wanted to try. These butter coconut cookies are really good. I'll be buying these again. I've already gone through half the package and I just bought them last night.