A rainy weekend with housemates

We are 4 youngsters living in a 4-floors house for over 2 years. We normally throw parties or have meals together on the weekend. As we all are not good at cooking, we always prefer something basic, does not require many ingredients, and is easy to prepare and cook. One of our go-to dishes is “Bún đậu mắm tôm” (Fried tofu with vermicelli and shrimp paste), which, in spite of containing quite a few components, does not require good cooking skills.

An unique dish of Vietnamese cuisine

This dish is very unique and not for everyone, even Vietnamese people. For foreigners, you’ve probably never heard of this dish before. Even if you have, you may not want to try it. For some people, its smell is not appetizing at all. The smell comes from the shrimp paste. You can have another type of dipping sauce, for example, fish sauce in replacement for shrimp paste. However, the dish would lose its uniqueness. Shrimp paste has controversial flavors, like blue cheese, or durian. You know, there are people who can't stand it, but also people who love it.

Main ingredients

The main ingredients of the dish, as you can see from its name, are fried tofu, vermicelli and shrimp paste. This is also the original as well as the most basic version of Bún đậu mắm tôm. However, it is quite plain and people gradually upgrade it by adding more protein into the dish such as boiled pork belly, Vietnamese sausages, spring rolls, etc. As meat lovers, we of course did an upgraded version.

• Tofu
• Pork belly
• Spring rolls
• Vermicelli
• Fresh vegi and hẻbs: lettuces, cilantro, Elsholtzia ciliata (this one is a must. There is no proper Bún đậu mắm tôm without this herb), perilla.
• Shrimp paste

Preparation and cooking

There are no high cooking skills required for this dish. Trust me, it is so basic that anyone can make it.

• Pork belly: just boil it. Add some green onion, lemongrass, pepper, whatever to remove the bad smell from the meat.

• Tofu: cut it into medium bite-sized peacies then fry until it turns to light golden colors.

• Spring rolls: buy frozen ones from the mart. All you need to do is fry it.
• Vegi and herbs: Wash it and drain the water.

• Vermicelli: cut it into bite-sized

• Shrimp paste: the recipe for the best shrimp paste is: 1-1-2-1, in which: 01 tablespoon of shrimp paste, 01 tablespoon of sugar, 02 tablespoons of lemon juice, 01 tablespoon of boiling oil which was left from frying tofu and spring rolls. The boiling oil is a very important component to make the shrimp paste tastes better. It does not only help to slightly cook the shrimp paste but also brings a fatty flavor to milden the strong taste of the same.

Nothing of the above requires high cooking skills. You just can't go wrong with this dish.

The dish for a rainy weekend.

“Bún đậu mắm tôm” (Fried tofu with vermicelli and shrimp paste) is quick and easy to make at home. I and my housemates indeed had a good time preparing this dish together.

Enjoyyy!