Bac Nam
Inspired by noodlepie's posts of Vietnamese life and food on his blog, I became determined to find a local Vietnamese restaurant which would serve me a bowl of noodles called bun rieu. Starting with noodlepie's first post on this dish in scoffin' street broth, again in alley cat cooks and then yet again, just a couple weeks back in bumper bowl of bun rieu, each time I saw the dish and read noodlepie's posts, I started to want this dish more and more.
Bac Nam has been open for just a few months, and each time I pass by, I tell myself that this is somewhere that I would eat at soon.
Well, tonight was the night. Since I was in the mood for some Vietnamese food, and since this place was just a few minutes away from my apartment, I decided to drop in. Inside, the restaurant was clean and very brightly lit.
After I had walked in, I was seated in the uncrowded room and provided with a menu. After a quick glance at the appetizers and salads, I decided to order the bo tai chanh (lemon beef salad, US$7.50), while continuing to look over the rest of the menu.
When the salad arrived, there was a lot of beef combined with lettuce, cucumber, daikon , carrot, celery, onions and shredded lotus root. It was tossed in lemon juice and other spices, then topped with fried peanuts and crispy fried shallots and served with some nuoc mam (fish sauce) on the side. The beef was still a bit pink and chewy, which lead me to believe that the beef was marinted then cooked quickly, perhaps dipped in a pot of boiling water or lightly stir-fried, before being served. The salad was wonderfully refreshing and very tasty.
While reading the menu, I came across menu item number 69, rice vermicelli in crab chowder, bun rieu cua (US$6.95)! Exactly what I wanted to try. Here is how it arrived, piping hot at my table!
It was served with mint, mung bean sprouts (blanched), and a lemon wedge.
Looking into the bowl, I found lots of ground crab meat, shrimp, a few slivers of luncheon meat (?), tomatoes, onions, cilantro (Chinese parsley) and little whisps of egg. There was no sign of any blood jelly, mam tom shrimp paste, or tofu here, but after adding the bean sprouts, mint leaves, and a squeeze of lemon to the bowl, I was ready to dive in. How was it? It was wonderful! The broth was light and refreshing, with the distinct, but subtle flavor of crab. It was mild and not at all spicy. I was tempted to add some chilli to the bowl, but restrained myself, and decided to enjoy it as it had arrived.
FYI...I had asked a Vietnamese friend of mine about the blood jelly and she said that most Vietnamese restaurants in Hawaii won't serve it to non-Vietnamese people unless asked!
Bac Nam has become a new favorite and is one of the better Vietnamese restaurants that I have eaten at. I'll be stopping in to try more of the menu, in particular, the pho dac biet (special combination pho with rare beef, brisket, tendons and beef balls), the bun chao tom (rice vermicelli with pounded shrimp) and the com ga xao sa ot (rice with spicy lemon grass chicken). Although I'm glad that I stopped by tonight, my only wish is that I had come here sooner.
Bac Nam
1117 South King Street
Telephone: 808.597.8201
Damn! Those look good, esp. the bun rieu cua.
Posted by: FatMan Seoul | October 21, 2004 at 06:43 PM
Hi Reid, after reading this post, I am thinking of looking for a vietnamese restaurant to try. I never really hv a real vietnamese food. All I had before is the typical Japanese oriented Vietnamese spring roll. :( Really wondering how Vietnamese cuisine tastes like.
Posted by: fish fish | October 21, 2004 at 06:48 PM
Hi Reid, I normally order the raw beef pho but sometimes, just for a difference, I order the combination ones..but most of the time, I dun know what (or which part of the cow)I'm eating. LOL.I'm a bit surprised to see the blanched bean sprouts..normally, they are served raw..I have seen some eldery chinese customer (who don't eat raw food) return the raw bean sprouts to the kitchen to have them cooked...as for the blood jelly, they do serve them here in Melbourne too, in fact you can buy them in the Asian market...
Posted by: Mik | October 21, 2004 at 09:16 PM
AT last... glad you managed to track it down. I admire your staying power. This looks great too, just a shame they didn't give you the mam tom - give it a go next time you drop by this joint. i thought I recognised the name of this place. I came across this restaurant here:
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=47540
Funnily enough we had bo tai chanh last night. Same as the one I blogged up earlier here:
http://noodlepie.typepad.com/blog/2004/08/ngu_vien_part_i.html
Doesn't look a thing like the Hawaii version though. We also had Bun Chao Tom. I'll blog it up next week - promise. Plus I was out on the market today buying a pumpkin at the root veg stall and I snapped a couple of shots of sweet potatoes for you... you did say you were interested. Will blog it later on.
Posted by: pieman | October 21, 2004 at 10:11 PM
Hi FatMan,
Thanks! The food was delicious! This is probably my NEW favorite Vietnamese restaurant. The bun rieu cua was incredible. I'm sure I'll be having this again!
Hi fish fish,
Are there a lot of Vietnamese restaurants in Japan? A lot of the Japanese tourists that visit Hawaii do go to the Vietnamese restaurants here. I wonder if they mostly have the pho though. Vietnamese food is actually one of my favorites. I'd have to say that I have it at least once a week. The food seems to be a cross between Thai and Chinese, with a lot of unique flavors thrown in for good measure. You should try it sometime, you won't be disappointed.
Hi Mik,
Nice to see you again! =)
The blanched bean sprouts are served at the customer's request. Since I normally don't like the grassy taste of raw bean sprouts, I ordered them cooked. I normally order pho tai as well, but have them cook the meat. I don't normally like to have raw meat brought to the table for some reason. As for blood jelly, I haven't seen it anywhere here yet. My Vietnamese friend also told me that she won't eat it AND that it's not really healthy for you.
Hi pieman,
YES...FINALLY! It was worth all the searching I did, but it still doesn't look as good as what you get in Vietnam. This was actually a very good bowl of soup and I'm definitely going to keep looking for this when I go out to eat.
I was looking at your earlier post of bo thai chanh, and you're right, yours definitely looks different. It actually looks like a plate of raw meat. I'm not so sure that it's the same thing and it leads me to believe that shop owners here are probably not serving this correctly in fear that people might not want to eat it. I'll ask the owner of this shop the next time I go to eat there. He was very friendly.
And finally...thanks for taking the time to snap some pics of the sweet potatoes in Vietnam...I'll be heading on over to your site to take a peek.
BTW...I just saw that post on e-Gullet as well.
Posted by: Reid | October 22, 2004 at 12:32 AM
Hi Reid, tat's wat I'm goin to tell u. Most Japanese will think of Pho once mention Vietnamese food. Instead, I only know Pho for Vietnamese food, as it is one of the most advertise food in Japan. They even hv instant pho here. I had tat before. Nice nice. Just like the Chinese He Fen or Guo Tiao. :) I will try Vietnamese food soon.
Posted by: fish fish | October 22, 2004 at 03:22 AM
What is blood jelly? Is that the same thing as blood pudding (I think that's the name)? What is it used for?
Posted by: Lisa | October 22, 2004 at 11:37 AM
Hi fish fish,
I've never had instant pho. Hope you get to try some Vietnamese food soon. I'm sure you'll like it!
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for visiting my blog. Blood jelly is actually congealed pig's blood made into jelly-like cubes. You can go to noodlepie's site to see more. Just click the links in the post to get to his site. I'm not sure that it's used for anything more than giving the soup added depth and flavor. Hope to see you again.
Posted by: Reid | October 22, 2004 at 08:33 PM
Mmmm the soup looks just perfect!
Posted by: Jonny | October 23, 2004 at 02:24 PM
Hi Jonny,
The soup was absolutely amazing! It's now one of my favorite dishes. I'm hoping to find more variations of this dish at other restaurants around the state.
Posted by: Reid | October 23, 2004 at 06:15 PM
Hi Reid, again,I'm not surprised to see that luncheon meat found its way into a bowl of Vietnamese soup in Hawaii, haha. Seriously though, I've never had this soup before but now I will look out for it.
I also ask for my beansprouts to be cooked and blanched because I hate the smell and taste of raw sprouts. And that blood jelly, I will not go near it, a little scary to me.
Posted by: umami | October 24, 2004 at 07:13 PM
Hi Umami,
I'm not surprised too, but they also serve it with luncheon meat in Vietnam as well! Now that's a surprise. I've never had this until now and it's really delicious. I really don't like raw beansprouts because it tastes like grass! I've never tried blood jelly, so I thought it might be nice to try at least once. Most of the people I talk to don't eat it either. =)
Posted by: Reid | October 24, 2004 at 07:20 PM