Bun Rieu Cua
I need help from my Vietnamese readers!
I’m not sure exactly what this dish is mainly because I’m not sure if the first word is “bùn” or “bún”. They mean “muddy” and “noodles”, respectively. The dish doesn’t appear to have any noodles and some of the ingredients do kind of look like soupy mud. When she says “bun” it sounds more like “bún” to me and noodle certainly makes more sense! I know “cua” is crab and “riêu” is sour soup.
If it is referring to mud, then what is the ingredient that lends that name to the dish? Also, what is that makes her appear to cry about 2 minutes and 15 seconds in? I can only catch a few words here and there.
Either way it looks good – need to find a recipe to try it out!
November 14th, 2008 at 2:36 AM
Hi,
The first word is bún :). This is a very delicious dish and I miss eating it
Around 2:15 she talk about her mom. She said that whenever she cook the dish it reminds her of her mom so she really miss her mom.
hope this helps.
Maybe because she have a different accent than what you used to hear so it’s kind of hard to listen. I’m Vietnamese myself but for some reason I can’t really understand if a person from Northern VN talk…if they talk reallly slow then maybe i can catch some words haha.
Parker is so cute! Thanks for trying your best to learn the language and keeping Parker’s heritage. I wish i live nearby so i can teach Parker Vietnamese
November 14th, 2008 at 3:20 AM
Hi! I been a reader and this is my first time posting on your blog.
I think it is great that you and Parker are learning Vietnamese. I was born in the US and my Vietnamese sounds well like I was born in the US. LOL
BTW, where did you find the show on YouTube that you posted? My mom loves that show.
Sorry for going off the topic
November 14th, 2008 at 4:53 AM
Bun rieu cua looks like this.
Bun, thin rice vermicelli noodles. The dish originated by using mud crabs from the rice paddies. Mashing them up like you would make a bisque to strain out the broth. The crab meat is often mixed with shrimp and pork to create a patty, the “rieu.”
Keep meaning to make this one of these days. It’s a lot of work though and I’ve been pretty busy. You can use the shortcut paste from a can, but you know how I feel about posting recipes from a can.
November 14th, 2008 at 12:50 PM
Thank you!
I wish there was a children’s playgroup I could send him to so he could learn the language. Unfortunately, in Akron, Ohio there isn’t one that I know of.
I am doing my best, but I know I probably will never speak it well enough to teach him properly.
November 14th, 2008 at 12:53 PM
I just found it by searching on youtube for vietnamese food recipes. I have some others from that show on there, too.
Also, have you ever seen vietnamlive.tv? If you catch it at the right time, sometimes there are cooking shows on there.
November 14th, 2008 at 12:54 PM
Thanks. The one on your site is a very different color from the one in the video? Are they the same thing? Or, is it just regional differences that are showing up between the two?
November 14th, 2008 at 6:10 PM
We had a Vietnamese friend over last night, and I showed him the recipe. He recognized it immediately. It was one of his favorite foods that his mom used to make.
He said it is a northern dish made with noodles and river crab. Evidently, the river crab is much smaller than sea crab (less than a hand’s breadth) and has a very different flavor. He misses it but says that it takes a long time (up to four hours when his mom prepared it) to make properly!
Thanks for keeping your blog so regularly updated. My husband and I have been trying to adopt from Vietnam for the past year, and we didn’t get a referral before September 1. At this point, we’re just waiting it out to see what happens. In the meantime, it is great to “see” Parker growing up!
November 25th, 2008 at 11:18 PM
If you can read Vietnamese or have any vietnamese friends they can help you out with the ingredients translation and cooking steps.
I found two links with recipe and cooking instructions. The first link is from a chef in Vietnam but I think it’s hard for you to find the ingredients used in Vietnam. I suggest the second link which is a homemade from a Vietnamese housewife living in England.
http://nguoivienxu.vietnamnet.vn/vanhoaamthuc/2004/06/161705/
http://my.opera.com/hocnauan/blog/bun-rieu-cua-dong
Good luck!