Bun Mam Nem — the Da Nang Noodle Bowl With No Broth at All

Where bún bò needs a stockpot simmering half the day, bún mắm nêm involves almost no cooking at all. It is a tossed bowl: noodles, herbs, meat, sauce poured over and mixed. And because it is that simple there is nowhere to hide — get the sauce wrong and the whole bowl is wrong.

What goes in the bowl

• Noodles — thin rice vermicelli, well drained, never wet
• Roast pork with crisp skin, cut into bite-sized pieces, or boiled pork
• Nem chua (fermented pork roll) and chả bò (beef sausage), sliced
• Fresh herbs — lettuce, mixed herbs, bean sprouts, shredded cucumber
• Boiled young jackfruit, shredded, at some places
• Roasted peanuts, crushed, and fried shallots
• Mixed mắm nêm poured over the top

The big difference from bún thịt nướng or bún chả: the dressing here is fermented anchovy sauce, not the sweet-and-sour fish sauce. It is considerably saltier and much stronger on the nose.

Mixing the sauce for a tossed bowl

Mắm nêm for noodles needs to be thinner than mắm nêm for dipping. The reason is simple: it has to have enough liquid to reach the bottom of the bowl and coat everything, rather than sitting on top.

How to do it: put the sauce in a bowl, add finely chopped pineapple, pounded garlic and chilli, sugar and lime juice, then a little warm water or pineapple juice to loosen it. Season slightly under a dipping sauce, because it will come out right once tossed through noodles and herbs.

The jar version is thicker than the bottled one and therefore easier to control when thinning — you take out exactly what you need rather than over-pouring.

Tossing and eating

Pour the sauce around the rim of the bowl rather than straight into the middle. Toss from the bottom up, gently, so the herbs are not bruised. Add chilli sauce if you want heat — a home-made one pounded from fresh chillies suits better than an industrial version full of sugar, which only makes a bowl that already has pineapple sweetness sweeter still.

Eat it as soon as it is tossed. Leave it and the noodles absorb everything, the herbs weep, and the bowl turns soggy and over-salted.