Vermicelli Rice Bowl (Bun Thit Nuong)

I'm biased. I was raised on home cooked Vietnamese food. My mother doesn't have any recipes written down so when I ask her for recipes, she gives me wild guesses of amounts of ingredients, and always says "but just taste it and add what you think it needs."

So unfortunately, I've had to resort to finding recipes online and also ultimately tweaking amounts per my tastes. The reason I'm saying all this is because it applies to basically all my recipes I post here. Most of what I've posted here is pulled from a google search and saved here as a reference for myself more than any else, like self promo.

For the following recipe, I use the first section of ingredients for any meat. I think I even did it for shrimp and it worked, complementary-wise. 

I also have a recipe for nước chấm that my mom sent me. I followed the recipe exactly and it tasted perfect, the same as what I grew up with and poured on all my food. 

Ingredients

For the pork:

• 1 lb. pork shoulder thinly sliced
• 1 small yellow onion finely diced
• 2 tablespoons sugar or honey
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons canola oil or other neutral tasting oil
• juice of one lime
• black pepper to taste

For the dipping sauce (Nước Chấm): 

• 6 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons sugar or honey
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• juice of one lime
• crushed red pepper to taste

For the Bún Bowls:

• 4 cups chopped fresh lettuce
• 8 oz. rice vermicelli noodles cooked and cooled (a standard package size)
• 1 cucumber halved or quartered and sliced
• 2 carrots thinly sliced or cut julienne
• 2 tablespoons fresh mint chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh basil chopped
• chopped peanuts for garnish (optional)

Instructions

• Add the pork and all the marinade ingredients to a large freezer bag or container. Allow to marinate for at least 24 hours or up to three days (you can also freeze it for a longer time).
• Cook the pork on high heat in a heavy skillet, such as cast iron, shaking off any excess marinade as you remove it from the bag. Cook for approximately 10 minutes, or until seared and fully cooked through.
• Meanwhile, divide the bowl ingredients into four bowls, layering the lettuce, noodles, carrots, cucumbers, and herbs.
• Mix together ingredients for dipping sauce/dressing.
• Top each bowl with equal amounts of pork and garnish with chopped peanuts. Pour dipping sauce on top of each bowl just before eating.