Bun moc
Bun moc is a rice vermicelli soup served with chicken or pork broth, and comprises Vietnamese ham and sausages of all shapes and types. Thanh Mai restaurant on the corner of Nguyen An Ninh and Truong Dinh Streets in District 1 is one place to experience the most authentic bun moc as it has been serving since the 1980s.
Bun rieu
Bún rieu is a traditional Vietnamese rice vermicelli soup. There is a popular version for this dish - Bun Rieu Cua. It is made with crab, tomatoes, pork, and tofu. Bun rieu is served with tomato broth and topped with freshwater crab, specifically rice paddy crabs which are pounded with the shell into a fine paste before being strained.
Pho
Made from rice flour and water, they are white at first, but become translucent when cooked. These noodles are available both fresh and dried. The dried variety cooks into a chewy texture that is nearly as good as fresh banh pho. Although the noodles have no flavour on their own, they are absorbent of other flavours, making them flexible and complementary to different types of soups. Particularly used in pad thai, a Thai dish, banh pho is also widely used in pho soup, a Vietnamese savoury broth that comes with tender slices of beef.
Mi xa xiu
Char siu, aka BBQ meat, appears frequently in Chinese cuisines and adding it to noodle soup is no exception. Slices of roasted meat are served on top of glistening, fragrantly fresh noodles that can be ordered dry with a bowl of broth or served regularly in soup. The best place to enjoy a bowl is to go to Saigon’s Chinatown. A noodle shop at 191 Cao Văn Lầu, District 6 is known for serving up some of the city’s best Chinese noodle soups along with other tasty dishes such as beef stew.
Bun bo Hue
Bun bo Hue (Hue beef noodle soup) is a regional speciality comprising thick rice vermicelli and various toppings in a thick soup. Unlike pho, this dish is a combination of sweet, sour and spicy as it’s flavoured with boiled bones and shank, annatto seeds, lemongrass, ginger, fermented shrimp paste, chilli oil, and sugar. As for the toppings, expect congealed pig blood, beef or pork knuckles, bean sprouts, lime wedges, cilantro, diced green onions, banana blossoms, mint and basil. You can also ramp up the spiciness by adding fresh chillies and fermented fish sauce to your bun bo hue.
Hu tieu Nam Vang
Hu tieu Nam Vang is a Cambodian and Chinese pork based noodle soup, that contains slices of all sorts of organs, and a shrimp or few, plus an assortment of other additions. A bowl of noodles especially is a nice mixture of noodles, pig parts, a shrimp, and a nice basket of herbs and vegetables to garnish.
Banh canh cua
Banh canh cua, actually means soup cake in Vietnamese. Banh canh cua is quite similar to Japanese udon noodles, which are typically made with a combination of rice and tapioca starch, were more sticky and a little chewier than udon, which are typically made with wheat flour. Banh canh cua is more like a hearty stew, the broth is thickened like gravy, almost like Thai cuisine style radna.
Bo kho
Bo kho in Vietnam is usually a stew that’s tomato based, filled with nuggets of deliciously tender beef, carrots, shallots, and other small vegetables, and slow simmered to pool all the flavors together. Just like Vietnamese noodles, or nearly everything you’re served in Vietnam, bo kho is typically accompanied by a basket of fresh herbs and vegetables to garnish.