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Vermicelli with sour soup

Bun rieu, vermicelli with sour soup, is one of Vietnam's most popular dishes. It is offered at hotels, restaurants and markets, or sold by peddlers, but not many people know its origin.
Sour soup vermicelli is for eating any time of the day. It is served for breakfast, lunch or dinner or it can be a temporary dish between two meals. In particular, it is a favorite of women.The soup always has crab. The style of cooking is different in each region and at each restaurant. The main ingredients are vermicelli, field crabs, tomatoes, solid pig blood and fried tofu.Usually, to prepare sour soup vermicelli, people process field crabs first. They wash the crabs, remove their plastrons and shells, scrape their liver-pancreas and keep these separate in a container, then pestle or grind their bodies. The plastrons and shells are not used because they will blacken the soup.In the next step, they knead pestled or pounded crab in water, extract the juice and throw away the waste. Tomatoes, solid pig blood and fried tofu are cut into pieces. The liver-pancreas is fried in oil with some salt.Now, cook the crab juice in a saucepan with a low flame until the crab meat floats. Then, add the processed tomatoes, solid pig blood, fried tofu, some water, and spices. In some regions, people use fermented rice juice to create a sour taste of the soup. Leave the saucepan of soup on the stove with a small flame.To eat the dish, put some vermicelli into a bowl, add some crab meat and broth with tomato, pig blood and tofu. The sour soup vermicelli is accompanied with fish sauce, banana flowers, convolvulus, bean sprouts, scented herbs, chili and lemon. Some people eat it with fermented shrimp paste and tamarind juice. In one bowl of sour soup vermicelli one has a great mix of flavors.A bowl of sour soup vermicelli ranges in price from VND6,000 to VND10,000.
Author: Saigon Times