The Vietnamese Noodle Salad Known as Bun Bo Xao

Hot from the wok, a fragrant, zesty stir-fry of beef is spooned over freshly cooked room temperature rice noodles. Then come carrot, cucumber and radish slivers, and a sprinkling of crushed roasted peanuts and crispy fried shallots for good measure. A pile of sweet green herbs is at the ready. Now a generous splash of the traditional umami-laden dipping sauce called nuoc cham.

And there you have it: bun bo xao, a warm, made-to-order Vietnamese noodle salad, refreshing and satisfying for an easy lunch or supper.

For the uninitiated, this dish makes an easy introduction to Vietnamese cooking. The standard ingredients are all there: fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, garlic and hot pepper. There’s no complicated broth to make; just a quick marinade for the meat, chopping a few vegetables, washing some herbs.

But it is the nuoc cham dipping sauce that pulls it all together. The complex flavor of the sauce belies how simple it is to make. The most important element is amber-colored fish sauce, made from a long fermentation of salted anchovies.

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