VIETNAMESE WATER SPINACH NOODLE SOUP (CANH BUN)

Online Travel Vietnam: At first glimpse of a pot of Canh Bun, many people may mistaken it with Bun Rieu (Crab Noodle Soup).

 

 

Similar to Bun Rieu, they both originated from Northern Vietnam but this dish is definitely different in taste and texture. 

Canh Bun's broth and rieu (crab mixtured) are much lighter.  Canh Bun's rieu is soft and  fluffy while Bun Rieu's rieu is sturdy.  In addition, it doesn't have tomatoes; the noodles are thicker and they have the reddish color once cooked in the broth and eaten with boiled water spinach or rau muong.   

 

This is one of the dishes that I used to enjoy in the afternoons in Saigon as a kid.  I couldn't recall all the condiments in Canh Bun but I do always remember a distinctive reddish broth, thick noodles, fried tofu, huyet (conjealed blood), fried tofu and the main ingredient riêu made of field crab  paste (cua đong xay) and rau muong.  As you know these are usually sold as street foods on carts or carried throughout the neighborhood in dong ganh (bask̀ets). Everytime the lady with Canh Bun came by, the  extremely fragnant broth would turn in me into Povlav's dog.  

 

The other morning, I woke up and it was cold and immediately I wanted a comforting dish that would warm up our tummies.  Sure enough my senses lead me to the aroma of canh bún.  

Since I didn't have field crabs to make riêu, I used the combination of shrimps, dried shrimps,  crab meat and crab paste with Soya Bean Oil instead.  The rieu turned out not as fluffy as I had hoped but it was tasty.  I used Annatto seeds to get the color instead the red color powder which I wonder if any Asian grocery stores carry it; therefore, it didn't have the reddish color that you would see in canh bún.  I also added  escargot (oc buu) which is my husband and surprisingly my daughters's favorite.  My husband didn't care much for canh bun the first time he tried it in southern California, but after trying my recipe,  he requested it again a few days later.   This time, I went to an Asian grocery store to hunt for field crab paste.  I came upon the last 2 jars.

 

Bare in mind that the smell of field crab paste is quite pungent but has a mild taste.  I remember seeing my friend's family preparing this paste from grounding whole field crabs in a mortar.

 

Canh Bun made with crabfields takes less time to prepare as it's already made into paste.  In the recipe below, there are directions for both rieu cua (crab rieu) and rieu cua dong (field crab rieu).  Authenticity would favor the recipe with field crabs.

 

  Source: vietnamesefood.biz