Not as well-known as its sister, bun rieu, and usually being mistaken with it by most people, but canh bun is still special and flavored by many Saigonese. And of course, it’s far away from the Vietnamese food handbook of tourists …
Canh bun oc (morning glory snail noodle soup)
Once, I asked my boyfriend if he ever tried canh bun, and the answer was obviously ‘no’. Seems like canh bun just exists in the local world, and his innocent curiosity pushed up my passion of blogging about canh bun.
Canh bun is so much a like bun rieu, but much simpler and cheaper in many ways. We use the same crab tomato base broth for both, but canh bun has big round noodles and eaten with boiled morning glory (aka water spinach or rau muong).
| Canh bun | Bun rieu |
|---|---|
| Crab tomato base broth | Crab tomato base broth |
| Big round rice noodles (same as bun bo hue) | Vermicelli |
| The noodles are cooked together with the broth | The noodles are left aside |
| Boiled morning glory | Raw herb platter |
Perhaps, because of its similarity with bun rieu, canh bun is usually sold together with bun rieu in the same cart which contains a hot pan of crab tomato base broth on one side, and on the other side are some small jars (shrimp paste, tamarind sauce, chili paste).
A colorful bowl of canh bun oc, crab tomato base broth and topped with blood jelly, tomatoes, fried-tofu, crab-meat cake, snails, tamarind sauce, and some herbs !
When I was small, a bowl of canh bun was just simply big orange noodles occupying a half of the bowl, and the other half was abundance of green boiled morning glory, on top of the bowl was few pieces of blood jelly, ah, some dried shrimp in the orange broth. Finally, added some shrimp paste. And it cost 2000 vnd.
Now, canh bun has more diversity and has richer performance as you can add fried tofu, cha (Vietnamese pork sausage), crab-meat cake, or snails (canh bun oc) as you choice. However, it still keeps the charm of crab tomato base broth, shrimp paste, blood jelly, and its most special boiled morning glory !
Canh bun oc is eaten with boiled morning glory.
My canh bun place was on Hoang Hoa Tham street, well, it wasn’t the best canh bun stand in Saigon for sure, but it was the only one I often popped in because it was near my place, and the taste was satisfying enough. Oh, let me tell you one more reason which kept me coming back there because the seller was cool as she let me take away the canh bun without paying because she didn’t have change for my money. (Well, with other sellers, they might try to change money somewhere and I might have to wait for an hour in the rain … )
Available on Hoang Hoa Tham street
Around 2 -5pm, 12000 vnd/a bowl of canh bun oc
Love to come back to Saigon one day for a bowl of canh bun, so see you, my beloved morning glory noodle soup, sometime soon !
h5n1
