The story of Bún Xêu
“Are you giving Thanks?”, asks Der Miller. I should. It is my first independent Thanksgiving. There will be no turkey, not because they’re not that tender but because it’s cruel to take their lives on the day that everyone else celebrates. There will be no green bean casserole or sweet potato with marshmallow, not because I’m lazy but because I have no oven. There will be no cranberry sauce or stuffing, for no shining reason. I’ll just make the one thing that is both simple and not ramen: bún xêu.
Over 2000 years ago lived a king in a foreign land, who ordered his royal kitchen staff to prepare a party to welcome his future son-in-law from another foreign land. Naturally the king wanted a feast with national specialties, which included a type of rice flour pastry with sweetened mung bean paste. The flour had to be made in the morning of the same day to avoid it turning sour, and one young kitchen helper, who probably liked to get up early as much as I do, was in charge of preparing the batter.
Instead of mixing rice flour and water in a bowl, the half-closed-eye boy happened to use a strainer instead, which, fortunately, was placed on a pot of boiling water. When he realized what was going on, the needed pastry batter had long turned into fine strings of rice noodle. The chef caught the boy’s mistake, but sympathizing with his weariness, told him to pick some herbs in the garden and use fried lard pebbles to make stir fried noodle for the kitchen staff’s breakfast. In that season, only water celery was in abundance.
A servant of the king dropped by the kitchen to check on the preparation process, and was charmed by the aroma of water celery and lard. He asked for the dish’s name. The chef, panicked by the boy’s mistake, intended to say “xào” (|xao|, “stir fry”) but mispronounced it into “xêu” (|seh-oo|). The servant took a taste, liked it, and ran off to tell the king about a new creation named xêu, then the king went to the kitchen to try it himself. This is when matters really got out of Kitchen Boy’s hands: xêu was ordered to be served at the party that day.
Over 2000 years later, bún xêu, however so simple, is still considered a historically valued specialty of the Cổ Loa Citadel region, just 20km north of Hanoi today. The creation of rice vermicelli (“bún”) would not have happened in Northern Vietnam then, had the kitchen boy not been drowsy, the chef not sympathetic and creative, the servant not curious, and the king not open-minded. And so it goes the story of bún xêu. 🙂
Bún xêu – bún xào cần – stir fried rice noodle with celery
The main ingredients:
– Rice Vermicelli (sold at Asian markets with the label “Bún Khô“)
– Celery (good luck finding water celery im Supermarkt, so the normal chubby stalks are quite alright), sliced into finger long sticks.
– Lard, or Cooking Oil
– Salt, Pepper, Sugar
The supporting roles: Onion, Garlic, Mushroom, Green Onion, Coriander, Egg, Soy Sauce or Fish Sauce.
Blanch the bun and set aside. Make a thin omelet, set aside till cool, slice into strips. Sautee the garlic, onion, sliced mushroom, celery, and green onion (in that order), add a little bit of water, season to taste.
Now you have two choices:
1. Add the bun into the veggie skillet and spatula it like mad until everything entangles together. Re-add seasonings to taste. Pro: stuff mixes well. Con: your bun can get mushy, stick together, and be shortened to the size of rice grains. It all depends on how mad your spatula skill is.
2. Put a wad of bun on a plate, scoop some mixed veggie and sauce onto the bun, and mix while you eat. Pro: long noodle strands preserved, chewiness preserved. Con: it’s not really “bún xào” if the “bún” wasn’t “xào” (stir fried).
Decorations: omelet strips and coriander.
Happy Thanksgiving to you too, Turkey!
– Submission to Delicious Vietnam 8, a monthly blogging event created by Anh of A Food Lover’s Journey and Hong & Kim from Ravenous Couple –
I like what you guys are up too. Such intelligent work and reporting! Keep up the superb works guys I have incorporated you guys to my blogroll. I think it’ll improve the value of my website 🙂
1There are certainly a whole lot of particulars like that to take into consideration. That may be a great level to carry up. I supply the ideas above as basic inspiration however clearly there are questions like the one you carry up the place an important factor will probably be working in trustworthy good faith. I don?t know if finest practices have emerged around things like that, but I am positive that your job is clearly identified as a good game. Both boys and girls really feel the impact of just a moment’s pleasure, for the rest of their lives.
2I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to come back later on. Cheers
3I haven’t checked in here for some time as I thought it was getting boring, but the last several posts are good quality so I guess I will add you back to my daily bloglist. You deserve it my friend 🙂
4Thank you, I’ve just been looking for information about this subject for ages and yours is the greatest I’ve found out so far. However, what concerning the conclusion? Are you positive in regards to the source?
5Thanks for sharing superb informations. Your site is so cool. I’m impressed by the details that you’ve on this blog. It reveals how nicely you perceive this subject. Bookmarked this web page, will come back for extra articles. You, my pal, ROCK! I found just the info I already searched all over the place and simply couldn’t come across. What a perfect web-site.
6I have not checked in here for a while since I thought it was getting boring, but the last several posts are great quality so I guess I’ll add you back to my daily bloglist. You deserve it my friend 🙂
7Great beat ! I would like to apprentice while you amend your website, how could i subscribe for a blog site? The account aided me a acceptable deal. I had been tiny bit acquainted of this your broadcast offered bright clear idea
8Some genuinely good articles on this internet site, thanks for contribution. “For today and its blessings, I owe the world an attitude of gratitude.” by Clarence E. Hodges.
9Simply wanna comment on few general things, The website layout is perfect, the written content is really fantastic : D.
10I am glad to be a visitor of this consummate weblog! , appreciate it for this rare info ! .
11I appreciate, cause I found just what I was looking for. You have ended my four day long hunt! God Bless you man. Have a nice day. Bye
12Thanx for the effort, keep up the good work Great work, I am going to start a small Blog Engine course work using your site I hope you enjoy blogging with the popular BlogEngine.net.Thethoughts you express are really awesome. Hope you will right some more posts.
13But wanna say that this is invaluable, Thanks for taking your time to write this.
14Great awesome things here. I am very happy to peer your article. Thanks a lot and i’m having a look forward to contact you. Will you please drop me a mail?
15Hello, Neat post. There’s a problem along with your web site in web explorer, could check thisK IE nonetheless is the marketplace chief and a large component of folks will omit your wonderful writing because of this problem.
16Hi there! This is kind of off topic but I need some guidance from an established blog. Is it hard to set up your own blog? I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty quick. I’m thinking about creating my own but I’m not sure where to begin. Do you have any points or suggestions? Cheers
17The root of your writing while appearing reasonable initially, did not really sit well with me personally after some time. Somewhere throughout the sentences you actually managed to make me a believer but only for a very short while. I still have got a problem with your leaps in logic and you would do well to help fill in those breaks. In the event you can accomplish that, I could certainly be fascinated.
18This website online is mostly a stroll-by way of for all the information you wanted about this and didn’t know who to ask. Glimpse here, and you’ll definitely uncover it.
19I’d have to check with you here. Which isn’t one thing I often do! I enjoy studying a publish that may make individuals think. Additionally, thanks for permitting me to comment!
20I rattling pleased to find this website on bing, just what I was searching for : D as well bookmarked.
21I truly appreciate this post. I have been looking everywhere for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You’ve made my day! Thx again
22Hi , I do believe this is an excellent blog. I stumbled upon it on Yahoo , i will come back once again. Money and freedom is the best way to change, may you be rich and help other people.
23I do love the way you have presented this specific situation plus it really does supply me personally some fodder for thought. Nevertheless, because of what I have experienced, I just trust when the feed-back stack on that people remain on point and in no way start on a soap box involving the news of the day. Anyway, thank you for this excellent piece and whilst I do not necessarily concur with it in totality, I regard your perspective.
24Throughout this great pattern of things you secure a B+ just for effort. Exactly where you actually confused us ended up being in all the details. As people say, the devil is in the details… And that couldn’t be much more accurate in this article. Having said that, permit me reveal to you precisely what did work. Your text is incredibly convincing and this is most likely the reason why I am taking the effort in order to opine. I do not make it a regular habit of doing that. Next, although I can easily notice a leaps in reasoning you come up with, I am not certain of exactly how you seem to connect the points which inturn make the actual final result. For right now I shall subscribe to your position but wish in the near future you connect the dots much better.
25