There are things that you get to do when you travel with other people that you don’t get to do when you travel by yourself. One of those things is discussing the food you are eating. Sounds simple, but over the past year most of the places I have been, English was not the primary language spoken. While I have attempted to pick up Spanish, and some Vietnamese, my efforts have been less successful than I had hoped at the onset. So, it is an additional bonus when traveling with people that you can converse with them about the food.
I recently had the opportunity to spend some time traveling through Vietnam with two of my old friends from high school. Both are fans of Vietnamese food; we all grew up eating a fair amount of it in the vibrant Vietnamese community in Oklahoma City. There is not a shortage of great Vietnamese restaurants in OKC; it is also home to arguably one, if not two, of the best Vietnamese grocery stores in the US. That being said, none of us is a novice when it comes to eating, appreciating, and loving Vietnamese food. Some of us, perhaps, might be a more ardent fan than the others (it is my second trip here in the past year, so to say I like the food would be to put it mildly). It can, however, be a beguiling cuisine.
My goal was to take them to some of my favorite spots in Hanoi and Saigon; a goal I am happy to report we accomplished. Along the way though, there was some confusion between Pho and Bun, or more properly, Phở and Bún.
A quick note on the Vietnamese alphabet and tones as it does make a big difference in the meaning of the words. In Vietnamese, there are three different letters that look like what we know as O: (O,Ô,Ơ); each with a different meaning, pretend O and Ô are just as different than an O and a B in English as they are completly different letters. A has three different letters that also look similar to our A: (A, Ă, Â), there are two U’s that also look like a U to us: (U,Ư), finally two D’s as well: (D, Đ). Each its own, different letter. Each pronounced differently.
On top of the additional letters, there are 6 different tones that can also change the meaning of a word and the pronunciation; the first tone is just the vowel without any mark, the other five, illustrated with a basic o, are: ò, ỏ, õ, ó, ọ. This is not meant to be a lesson on the Vietnamese language, just a quick primer that I recently learned that has allowed me to have a better understanding of the language, at a very, very basic level, and might provide you some help when trying to decipher the meaning of some words.
I mention all of that to help try to explain, as I promised a friend I would, where some of the confusion can come in. We tend to make Vietnamese words into English words and scrap the additional letters (the ones with the hat, hook, or bowl above or beside them) as well as the tones. So, what we call Pho, could be Phở or Phố: the first being a noodle, the latter, a street. Our Bun could be, Bún or Bùn: the first also a noodle (albeit a different kind), the latter, mud or slop. Not very appetizing. In our zeal to make the words relatable to our language, we muddle the meaning of the words.
When you see Phở Gà or Phở Bò, which are both soups, Phở refers to the long, flat noodle not to the soup itself; that means if you get a bowl of soup in the US purporting to be Phở but it has a round noodle and not a flat one, you really have a Bún. Confused?
Bún also refers to the noodle, this time a round one. It can also be a soup, but can also be a bowl of noodles with a delicious sauce, not a soup, that is called, Bún Thịt Nướng. The literal translation: Noodle, Meat, Grilled. It is one of the first Vietnamese dishes I had growing up and is what started my love and fascination with Vietnamese food. Here is where part of the problem began for my friend, as we later found out. We just always knew the dish as Bun. It was the delicious Bún we would order all the time and devour without giving much thought to what it meant. It was not a soup though. We also erroneously assumed Phở was always a soup, because that was all we ever saw it as. Knowledge is enlightening and also saddening; I wish I had known sooner of these other dishes with Phở in the name that were not soup. Phở Cuốn Hà Hội, Phở Hưng Bền, Phở Trôn, and Phở Chiên Phồng, to name a few Phở dishes that are defiently not soup, but all use the Phở noodle, either steamed, fried, or stir fried – all also delicious. Each a very happy discovery.
Then that leaves Bún. The Bún Thịt Nướng from my youth was always served with luke warm to cold noodles, grilled pork, pickled vegetables, herbs, and a fish sauce that you would ladle a bit over all of it. There was nothing soupy about it, other than being served in a bowl that Phở also came in. Then there are the famous Bún Chả and Bún Bò Huế, the first sauced, the second a soup. Still confused?
Since Bún refers to the noodle, it can be a soup or a noodle dish that comes with a sauce; not always a soup though or a sauced dish. Bún Bò Huế is definitely a soup and is from the city of Huế, which is home to the Imperial Cuisine of Vietnam. This soup, traditionally beef broth with lemongrass, fermented shrimp paste, and chili oil, is the spicy big brother to Phở Bò and Gà. It even comes with a square of congealed pig blood. While that might sound strange, it is amazing. Just think of blood sausage in your soup minus the sausage part. Bún Riêu Cau, also definitely a soup, has the same noodles, but has a tomato broth with crab and pork.
So, you are not safe in thinking a Phở is always a soup or that a Bún is never a soup. Both are untrue. The big distinction here is that Phở no more means soup than if I were to tell you that any dish we call beef would be a medium rare filet, or rib eye, or NY strip. It could also be a hamburger, or short ribs, or brisket; basically it is the main ingredient in the dish, or one of the main ingredients, but it does not, by itself, tell you whether or not it is a soup. No one would confuse a beef tenderloin and béarnaise sauce with beef stew (but the former does deserve some investigation and a trial run to confirm it cannot be made into a delicious soup); both dishes have beef in the name, that’s it. So, just because you see Phở or Bún in the name of the dish, don’t assume it is a soup or noodles with a sauce. The easiest thing to do, is just to eat it and and enjoy how amazing Vietnamese food is until you learn the names of all the dishes. A worthwhile, ambitious, and enjoyable goal for anyone. I certainly plan to continue learning all of the dishes I can while eating them along the way.
