Bun combo

Bun (vermicelli) combos are the perfect next step for someone learning about Vietnamese cuisine. The combos offer a chance to try a wide variety of different meats, rolls, and learn the joys of nuoc cham, all while still being anchored by friendly and familiar rice noodles. Having spent the last 7 blog entries exploring the bun on offer in Toronto’s west end restos, I’ve expanded my own horizons and hopefully encouraged others to do the same. Here are my picks for Best in the West:

1. Pho My Duyen [1208 Bloor st w]

More stylish than your average noodle house, yet an equal amount of care is lavished on exquisitely fresh ingredients. Many of the more unusual menu items illustrate the French colonial influence on Vietnamese cuisine. For the bun, try B19 Char-grilled Shrimps on Vermicelli.

2. Pho Phong [1603 Dundas w]

This out of the way spot still manages to lure in a diverse crowd with swanky décor, comfortable booths and consistently high quality food. I suggest #70 Dry Vermicelli with Spring roll, grilled pork and shrimp wrapped sugar cane.

3. Tie: Rua Vang [125 Ossington] and Pho tien Thanh [57 Ossington]

You won’t go wrong at either of these spots on Ossington. The cook at Pho tien Thanh used to work at Rua Vang, so it is hardly a surprise that they offer similar fare. Rua Vang (aka the Golden Turtle) is more well-known, which can mean waiting for a table during busy times, but the smaller, less crowded resto down the street is just a good, if not sometimes better.  At the Turtle, go for #93, Vermicelli with Grilled Chicken and Pineapple. Down at Pho tien Thanh, sample #58 Vermicelli with Meatball and Spring roll.

Pho Bo Ga La

Having tried the traditional Pho soup a few years – and a 25hr plane ride- ago, I decide to expand my horizons and go for the Vermicelli with Sugar Cane Shrimp and Pork. It sounded interesting, and I had no idea what to expect. My dinning buddy went for a more traditional Pho option, something I later wished I’d done also!
While we sipped our Jasmine tea and munched on the accompanying bean sprouts and various other greens, it was time to take in our surroundings. The lights are quite bright, but this adds to the warm and up-beat atmosphere of the long narrow room filled with small tables and happy patrons whose animated chatter drowns out the background sound of the TV, which incidentally is showing a beauty pageant being held somewhere in south east Asia.
After a short wait our dishes arrive, looking and smelling wonderful. In an instant I envied my dining companion for her choice of pho… while my vermicelli looked delicious, I had no idea how to eat the large, thick stem of sugar-cane covered in mashed up shrimp! This was due purely to my inexperience in the area of this most delicious of cuisine. Not wanting to look too out of place, I opted for carefully prying the delicate shrimp away from the sugarcane and mixing it in with the vermicelli, bean sprouts and other fresh goodies residing in my bowl. Whilst there wasn’t really a sauce on the dish, the traditional array of condiments already found on the table were able to provide any extra flavour a diner could have wanted. The vermicelli itself was cooked well, not too soggy and certainly not still hard! Before I knew it I was staring at the empty bottom of the bowel wondering where all that food had gone, surely I didn’t just eat the amount of food!

Pho Bo Ga La is on the main strip in China Town, on Somerset not far from down town Ottawa. It’s generally busy at all hours, so you may have to wait but it’s certainly worth it, there’s a reason the place is always packed!

Pho Bo Ga La
761-763 Somerset St W.
613-233-2222

This post was submitted by Jen Martin.

In today’s article I present to you our list of 10 Vietnamese dishes you must try. These are based on our personal favourites and our opinion on their popularity. We decided to leave out appetizers and beverages since we figure you get them regularly. Keep in mind that only few restaurants actually serve all these 10 items, so you might have to do some investigating!

our top 10 must try vietnamese dishes

Top 3 Dishes

The top 3 Vietnamese dishes that everyone has to have, and probably have had, are pho, rice combo, and vermicelli combo. These are not only the staples of most restaurants, they are also the representatives of Vietnamese cuisine outside of Vietnam. As discussed in previous articles (pho, rice, vermicelli), these 3 dishes can be customized based on your taste.

mouth watering pho

rice with pork chops

spring roll and grilled meat vermicelli

The 7 Musts

Here are the next 7, in no particular order.

Banh Xeo. Sizzling Crepes – “Bun say-oh” is a fun dish to try. Besides being prettily yellow, it is also fun to eat, as it is a crepe stuffed with different goodies.

sizzling crepes

Hu Tieu My Tho. My Tho Seafood Noodles is a glass noodle soup dish with lots of vegetables and seafood. Egg noodle can also be added.

My Tho seafood noodle

Bun Bo Hue. Spicy Hue Noodle – “Bun bo Hue is the most famous dish to come out of the centrally located, imperial city of Hue. Thicker, round rice noodles in a spicy beef broth flavoured principally with lemongrass and chili, bun bo Hue is extremely rich in flavour and aroma. Large pieces of pig knuckle and (fatty) slices of beef add body to the soup, while thinly sliced red onions, chopped scallion and a squirt of lime give bun bo Hue an element of freshness.”

spicy Hue noodle

Banh Cuon. Rice-flour Crepes with Minced Pork – “Banh cuon is a popular dish hailing from Northern Vietnam and is typically eaten in the day time. It is a thin rice flour crepe stuffed primarily with ground pork and minced wood-ear mushroom. Banh cuon is laid out flat on a dish, topped with fresh sprigs of coriander, accompanied by slices of pickled carrot and daikon, and doused with sweet nuoc mam. Cooked bean sprouts and Vietnamese pork sausage (cha lua) are optional, although commonly added to the dish as well.”

banh cuon

Canh Chua Ca Kho To. As traditional as it gets, this dish of Sweet and Sour Fish Soup with Braised Fish in Clay Pot is something the whole family can share and enjoy.

canh chua ca kho to

Bo Luc Lac. ” The famous dancing beef dish of Vietnam. This is Vietnamese stir-fry at its finest. Made from marinated beef cut into cubes and fried with shallots, served over watercress, and, or lettuce, it’s a simple but delicious dish for beef lovers. Just as its appearance suggests, its flavours are bold and mouth watering.”

shaking beef

Bun Rieu. “Crab meat noodle soup is an extremely rich noodle soup originating from northern Vietnam. Made with a tomato-based broth flavoured with fresh crab paste and shrimp paste, bun rieu is a fine meld of sweet, savoury and sour. Vermicelli noodles, crab cake, fried tofu, and vegetarian sausage are added to the soup base, then garnished with fresh cilantro, bean sprouts and fresh water spinach.”

bun rieu

That wraps up our top 10. Aside from the Top 3, what are your 7 must have dishes?

For anyone following this series, I’m sure the obvious question has been, but what does she think of The Golden Turtle? No other Vietnamese restaurant I know of inspires more vehement debate; it is the most hyped and written about Viet resto in Toronto. People Love it or Hate it, but for better or worse Rua Vang (aka the Golden Turtle) is the standard against which all other Vietnamese restos are judged. Knowing this, I’ve held out against writing about it until now, simply because the stakes are so high.

A quiet moment on busy Ossington.

Full disclosure: I used to live around the corner from the Turtle and during that time (about 2 years ago) I ate here on a weekly basis. So if you had to place me in a camp, I’d be pro-Rua Vang. However, since the Ossington strip has metamorphosed into a hipster zone and the Turtle has become correspondingly busier, I feel the quality of their broth has gone down somewhat. Given the demand, service is silent but efficient, special requests are frowned upon and there is defiantly a vibe that discourages lingering around the table after your meal is done. And yes, the servings are small (compared to the baby bathtubs you get served in a lot of places) and yes, there are other places in town to get pho that is just as good or better, but Rua Vang is still damn good.

The gentrification of Ossington combined with all the hype surrounding this place, means that you should expect to wait for a table most nights. The crowd, mainly non-Vietnamese, is composed of young arty types and those drawn by repeated Toronto Life profiles on the “next hot ‘hood”. Rua Vang is also popular with the foodie crowd, probably lured by rumours that Susur Lee used to eat here on his day off. The girls at the table next to me on my most recent visit looked like indie rockers, but incongruously spent their meal discussing methods for braising red cabbage and comparing features of commercial ranges.

Vermicelli with grilled chicken and pineapple

But how was the bun? It was great. I ordered #93 Grilled Chicken with Pineapple Vermicelli ($7.25). The noodles themselves were firm and distinct in texture. The chicken was strongly marinated with vinegar and soy, quite salty on its own, but a perfect match for the sweet and unassertive nuoc cham. The garnish was composed of cucumber, pickled carrot and daikon, all perfectly sliced into ribbons, as well as crushed peanuts, bean sprouts and shredded lettuce.  The flavors were vibrant and true and I found myself using a spoon to scoop the last bits of goodness out to the bottom of my bowl. The only small disappointment was that the pineapple was canned rather than fresh, but that is true pretty much across the board in restaurants at this price point.

I know that this is going to spark debate. So lets hear it. When it comes to the Golden Turtle, should we believe the hype?

Rua Vang [aka The Golden Turtle]
125 Ossington Avenue
(416) 531-1601
10am -10 pm, closed Tuesday

The corner of College and Dufferin is an unlikely location for a miniature Viet-town, yet a number of Vietnamese businesses and shops cluster together here in an otherwise distinctly Portuguese neighbourhood. No fewer than 3 Vietnamese restaurants co-exist on a single block.  Faced with such an array of options, how is one to decide? On road-trips my dad always picked a roadside diner based on the number of transport trucks parked out front (truckers being the experts on roadside cuisine), so following the same theory, I decide to try the resto with the largest number of Vietnamese customers inside. And the winner is: Pho Linh.

Simple but modern exterior of Pho Linh on College.

The busy resto is decorated in a simple, yet pleasantly modern style. The lighting is almost painfully bright. So far, so good.  But when the tea arrives, it tastes like little more than hot water. Oh well, no one chooses a Vietnamese restaurant for the tea. Moving on to the main attraction, I select #47– Vermicelli with Fried Chicken and Lemongrass [$7.00].

Vermicelli with Fried Chicken and Lemongrass

The noodles arrive remarkably quickly, and as was the case at the Canh Buom next door (see my earlier review), they are slightly thicker than average, more like spaghetti than vermicelli. On top of the noodles rests a generous serving of boneless, skinless chicken thigh, which has been crisply fried and garnished with mint, green onion, lettuce, bean sprouts and peanuts.  The texture of the meat is acceptable, slightly chewy, not at all fatty, however it evinces no noticeable notes of lemongrass or indeed of any spicing beyond salt. The flavor is pleasant, but plain. Even after dressing the dish with nuoc cham and herbs, I find myself spritzing it with lime in order to notch up the flavor profile.

Meanwhile, across the table my dining companion is busy adding chili and hoisin sauce to his pho, the broth of which he found to be quite flavorless on its own. The tea seems to have set the tone for the evening after all—not bad, but a bit bland.

All this being said, I’m not willing to write off Pho Linh just yet.  Given the large number of people eating there (and with other Viet options nearby) and the positive buzz this place gets online, I’m willing to wager that I just happened to stumble in on an off night.

Pho Linh
1156 College st.
416- 516-3891

After 4 weeks of tasting bun in Toronto’s west-end Vietnamese restaurants, I thought I had hit my stride. Though quality, freshness and style varied to some degree in each place I visited, the formula was basically the same. I knew what to expect. Then I wandered into Canh Buom and got thrown a curve ball.

Outside Canh Buom on College.

Several aspects of the evening conspire to unsettle and surprise me. First the Décor: An unexpected nautical theme (Canh Buom translates as  ‘boat’s sail’) is strangely mismatched with 1950s-bowling-alley-style booths upholstered in sparkly vinyl. Second the Service: A gruff old man and a young fireball of a waitress tag-team our table in good cop/bad cop mode. At times the scene plays out like a slap-stick comedy—for instance, when a fellow diner went to squeeze some siracha chili sauce into his pho, only to have the entire lid fall off, dumping half the bottle into his bowl.

Deciding to leave my fate up to chance, I ask the waitress to bring me her favorite vermicelli dish. Imagine my surprise when instead of the large bowl of thin noodles I’ve come to expect, a flat plate bearing thicker, spaghetti-like rice noodles and a veritable mountain of herbs (mint, Perilla, and Vietnamese balm) arrives in front of me. Along side is a dish of grilled pork and sausage patties, pickled green papaya and carrot, all soaked in nuoc mam cham and garnished with crushed peanuts, sesame seeds, and crispy fried shallots. When I inquire of the waitress what it is I have received, she explains that this is the North Vietnamese style of vermicelli (much less common in Toronto’s Vietnamese restaurants than the Southern style) known as Bun Cha Hanoi [A18, $8.50].  Rather than mixing the noodles and toppings together in a large bowl and dressing with Nuoc cham to taste, in this style the diner selects choice bits from the serving dishes and blends them in a small bowl, a few bites at a time. The cooked meats are dressed with the fish sauce in advance so that the strong salty flavor permeates them to a much greater degree. The effect is less delicate and less sweet than in the southern style, but is tasty and quite compulsively edible. You will find that you fill that tiny bowl many, many times. Particularly the cha (juicy grilled pork patties flavoured with garlic, sugar, salt and black pepper) will disappear all too quickly.

Little bowl of Bun Cha Hanoi.

Canh Buom bills itself as a Viet-Thai restaurant and has variety of Thai options on the menu. Do yourself a favor and take the opportunity to sample the much less well-known North Vietnamese fare instead. Don’t let the wacky décor, or the enthusiastic, yet ineffectual, service distract you. But do check the lid on the hot sauce before you squeeze.

Canh Buom
1144 College st
416-538-4287

If an award for strangest restaurant décor existed, Kimbo would be firmly in the running. This location clearly didn’t begin its commercial life as a Vietnamese restaurant. The massive dining room is decked out in a faux-Tudor style, with heavy wooden beams framing textured plaster walls, red carpeting, and huge wrought iron chandeliers that look like something Errol Flynn might have swung from while executing a swashbuckling escape. Overall the effect is of a mock-baronial castle, where cabbage rolls would look more at home on the table than salad rolls. Nonetheless, the menu is distinctly Vietnamese, specializing in bo 7 mon, or beef in 7 courses.

Crazy decor at Kimbo

Kimbo's Vermicelli with grilled beef and spring roll.

As there are only 2 of us dining tonight, we will skip the beef-stravaganza, in favor of simpler fare.  Perusing the list of vermicelli combos, and in a nod to the specialty of the house, I spend an inordinately longtime deliberating between the grilled beef and the sautéed beef combo. Ultimately I decide on #114, Grilled Beef with Spring Roll on Vermicelli, $7.95.

Once my decision is made, the meal arrives at the table with almost supernatural speed. As it turns out I needn’t have agonized so– the beef arrives bearing none of the traditional attributes of grilled meat, no searing or grill marks, just a uniform, rather tough texture and the overwhelming flavor of vinegary marinade. The spring roll is better. It is large and filled generously with bean thread noodles, black mushrooms, shredded carrot and minced pork. The rice paper wrapping is thick and chewy rather than crispy. The best aspect of the dish is the vermicelli itself, which is more al dente than usual, in a way that I enjoy, particularly when mixed with hearty curly lettuce and bean sprouts, then dressed with the syrupy, rather fishy nuoc cham and a little bit of chili sauce from the variety of sauces available on the table. My mood lifts further with the arrival of a very affordable bottle of Tsing Tao [$3.50]. Domestic brews are even more of a steal at $3.00 each.

Kimbo isn’t going to supplant any of my favorites for best vermicelli in West End T.O., but if you’re looking for a quick bite and a cold beer, you could do a lot worse.

Kimbo Restaurant
358 Bathurst st
416-603-7817
Sunday-Thursday 11 am-10 pm
Friday & Saturday 11 am-11 pm

Ossington has exploded in the last year: posh new restaurants and bars open weekly, and half the places you wander into are so fresh that your cocktail comes with a side of drywall dust. Gentrification is in the air, but so far Pho Tien Thanh still looks like the restaurant that time forgot. The lighting is fluorescent, an A/C unit takes pride of place above the door, the bathroom layouts are… unconventional. Luckily, you are here for the food, not the décor. And, as the busy lunchtime crowd attests, the food more than makes up for the lack of ambience. Local business people and office workers drop in for take out, families enjoy lunch together, hipsters take a welcome break from cruising the trendy shops and galleries.

Street view of Tien Thanh on Ossington

The trim and well-dressed proprietor arrives at the table bearing smiles and tea. In the warmer months, iced tea is offered as an option, which makes a pleasant change. My lunch companion doesn’t even glance at the menu. He’ll get what he always does—Rare beef soup. While pho is invariably the most popular dish on any Vietnamese menu, Pho Tien Thanh is particularly renowned for their aromatic and beefy broth. Here the raw beef is piled high atop the steaming bowl like a ruby. It is perfection.

But, I’m here to root for the underdog. My mission is to challenge the supremacy of pho, championing vermicelli as the ultimate noodle dish. So for me it is #58 Vermicelli with Meatball and Spring Roll [$6.25].

meatball and spring roll

As it turns out, “meatball” is a misnomer; rather the meat is formed into a long skinny cigar shape and colored a very bright shade of hot pink! But set aside any hesitation about the crazy colour and you will find that exterior of the meat is nicely charred from the grill, while the interior is composed of lean ground pork and cubes of pork fat, very much like a sausage. Redolent of garlic and anise, the “meatball”, is surprisingly evocative of Italian sausage spiced with fennel seed. The spring roll too has been formed into an unusually thin cigar-shaped tube, as slender as your index finger. Wound so tightly, the rice paper wrapper doubles over itself, creating a texture that is both crisp and chewy, which contrasts well with the strongly spiced, peppery filling.

Aside from the distinctive shapes of the meatball and roll, the Vermicelli dish initially appears rather bland, garnished only with a few pieces of pickled carrot, daikon and green onion. However a rapid toss with the chopsticks reveals a bed of lettuce, cucumber and beans sprout hidden beneath the heap of noodles. Act fast! If allowed to steam under the noodles, the greens will lose their crispness, and much of the pleasure of this dish comes from the variation of cool crunchy veg and warm slick noodle. Dressed with Pho Tien Thanh’s spicy, vinegary version of Nuoc cham, this dish really starts to shine.  To further jolt the flavor profile, snag some of the Thai basil and saw tooth coriander from the plate of garnish that came with your dining companion’s pho. You might want to ask for a taste of that beautiful broth while you’re at it.

Pho Tien Thanh
57 Ossington ave (North of Queen)
416-588-6997
*Cash Only

Cha Ca

Under a pile of fresh herbs is delicately fried grouper atop vermicelli noodles. What makes this distinct for Vietnamese food is the dill, which often makes an appearance in Northern Vietnamese cuisine. Cha Ca is a dish that is named after a street in Hanoi where this specialty originated.

Carp or Catfish is the usual local Red River fish used in this dish served with piquant dipping sauces such as mam tong tom made with pineapple and dried shrimp, or nuoc cham. When I had it, I had Grouper and fish sauce with peanuts on the side. A blend of coriander, green onion and dill served to balance the flavours of the fish. After pouring the sauce over my noodles, it became a refreshing meal that was perfect after having taro spring rolls and Saigon beer.

Taro spring rolls

The morsels of Grouper were especially delicious because of the breading. A blend of rice flour instead of wheat flour combined with a dusting of tumeric dressed the fish and subsequently fried in peanut oil instead of canola. The result is a light and crisp finish. Happily, I didn’t get the “I shouldn’t have eaten that” heavy-fish-and-chip-gut after the meal. I was pleased!

Also garnished with sesame seeds

Shrimp Fresh Rolls

Next time you’re skimming the menu deciding on a starter, or if you are walking through Chinatown famished for a snack, this is a tasty guilt free option. Strands of vermicelli are bundled in with herbs, lettuce and shrimp. Before you take a bite you must introduce your roll to the sauce.

Peanuts, chilli and shredded carrots top this sauce

Squeeze in some lime and then dip it into the sweet hoisin sauce topped with peanuts, carrots, and chilli. The result in your mouth is an amalgamation of sweet, salty, crunchy and basil freshness that will make you happy. Because the flavour of the roll itself is quite simple involving rice noodle, shrimp, lettuce and basil wrapped in rice paper, it acts like a compacted salad ready for a dipable dressing.

There are variations on the combination of ingredients that can be wrapped inside, such as Vietnamese cold cuts and sausages. Fish sauce is also an option for dipping.

Grilled pork vermicelli

So what are vermicelli dishes? In a nutshell, it is a combination meat/salad dish over thin rice vermicelli noodles, where the vermicelli (usually cold or room temperature) is topped with charcoal-grilled, thinly-sliced marinated meats or seafood such as chicken, pork, beef, meatballs, shrimp, or calamari, and then finished with fresh salad greens, bean sprouts, fresh herbs including mint and coriander, chopped peanuts (beware allergies!!) and a pickled assortment of carrots, cucumber and daikon radishes.

Mix this all up together with some choice additions of lime, srirachi hot sauce and the robust Nuoc cham sauce made with fish sauce, lemon juice, vinegar, garlic, sugar and chili sauce, and the end result is a medley of absolute goodness! Also, a vermicelli bowl is almost always served with a crispy spring roll making it the perfect combo meal for one.

Spring roll vermicelli

Vermicelli can be found on the menu of every Vietnamese restaurant so be sure to give it a shot next time: I recommend the grilled pork or chicken, which really soak up the bold flavours of the marinating liquid to give you a true taste of Vietnamese ingredients.

Photo Credit: Thanh Tran

Vietnamese flavours

Luckily for us, Vietnamese food is generally considered to be healthy since Vietnam’s geographical location yields lots of fresh tropical fruits and vegetables which have been incorporated into the diet. Also contributing is the fact that food is typically prepared and served either raw (rice paper salad/summer rolls Goi cuốn, papaya salads Goi du du, baguette sandwiches Bahn mi), grilled (marinated meats over rice/vermicelli Com tam/Bun) or in soup form (Pho), which require far less use of oils and fats. The exception is the deep fried spring roll Cha gio, which is a relatively modern interpretation of the more traditional summer rolls.

However, if one is new to Vietnamese cuisine and not familiar with some of the ingredients, it is more difficult to grasp the nutritional value of these meals in comparison, especially with nutrition and food regulations being different for imported foods. Therefore, upon looking over the menus for popular Vietnamese restaurant chains such as Ginger and Pho88, here are, in my opinion, the healthiest selections:

salad/summer roll

- salad/summer rolls Goi cuon – fresh shrimp, crab, chicken, herbs and vermicelli wrapped in rice paper rolls; be sure to try the low-fat fish extract sauce Nuoc cham in place of the fattening peanut sauce
- Pho noodle soup – a big bowl of thin rice noodles covered in a rich, clear meat broth and topped with various meats, scallion, bean sprouts, onion, coriander and sweet basil. I have had people argue that noodles are high in carbohydrates and therefore are not healthy, however a healthy diet should be approximately 50% carbohydrates (grains, noodles, sugars, sauces), 20% protein (meats, tofu, nuts) and 30% fat.
- vermicelli bowls, Bun – bowl of rice vermicelli topped with grilled marinated meat, fresh greens, beansprouts, mint, coriander, chopped peanuts, and pickled carrot, cucumber and daikon radish
- papaya/mango salad Goi du du – thinly sliced fresh papaya or mango with pickled carrot, cucumber, daikon radish, mint, onion and occasionally meat
- fresh fruit juices/smoothies – made with exotic fruits including mango, avocado, pineapple, dragonfruit, durian, and jackfruit; opt for juices as smoothies often have condensed milk or other fattening dairy added

papaya salad

Keep in mind, these are just recommendations, and that my motto for healthy eating is ‘everything in moderation’ : if you go for the deep fried spring rolls, then choose a healthier entrée.

Photo Credit: Tony Ngo,Thanh Tran, C. P.