Bún Bò Huế

the imperial city's beef and pork noodle soup: thick round rice noodles in a lemongrass and shrimp-paste broth stained red with annatto chilli oil

Origin: Huế & Central Vietnam

From the journey of Rice.

Bún bò Huế is the noodle soup of Vietnam's old imperial capital, and in Huế itself it is simply bún bò; the city's name is what the rest of the country appends to distinguish it. Thick round rice noodles sit in a broth of beef shank and pork bones driven by lemongrass and fermented shrimp paste, stained orange-red with annatto oil, and it is eaten at breakfast. It is worth setting against phở, because the two are frequently treated as versions of one thing and are not. Phở is a northern soup, clear, sweetened by charred onion and ginger and perfumed with star anise and cassia, served with flat noodles. Bún bò Huế is central, and central Vietnamese cooking is the spicy, salty, assertively seasoned end of the country: the broth is cloudy, the noodles round and thick, the aromatics lemongrass rather than anise, and the seasoning shrimp paste rather than fish sauce alone. Where phở is restrained, this is not. The fermented shrimp paste, mắm ruốc, is the element that decides it. It is stirred into water, left to settle, and only the clear liquid is added to the pot, which gives depth without cloudiness or grit. Leave it out and the soup is a lemongrass beef broth; put it in and it is Huế. Huế's cooking carries the memory of the Nguyễn court, which sat there from 1802 until 1945 and demanded elaborate, small, precisely made dishes. The tradition attributes bún bò to a woman remembered as Bà Bún of Vân Cù village, near Huế, who is said to have made the noodles; the story is local and undocumented and is best treated as folklore, though Vân Cù is a real noodle-making village and still supplies the city. What is certain is that the dish belongs to the central coast and that the bowl is finished at the table by the eater, with banana blossom, perilla, bean sprouts, lime, and as much chilli as they want.

Ingredients

Broth

  • 1 kg beef shin or shank, in one piece
  • 700 g pork trotters or hock, in pieces
  • 500 g beef bones
  • 4 litres water
  • 8 lemongrass stalks, bruised and knotted
  • 1 onion, halved and charred
  • 1 thumb ginger, charred
  • 2 tbsp fermented shrimp paste (mắm ruốc)
  • 200 ml water, for the shrimp paste
  • 3 tbsp fish sauce
  • 2 tbsp rock sugar
  • 2 tsp salt, or to taste

Chilli oil

  • 3 tbsp neutral oil
  • 2 tbsp annatto seeds
  • 4 shallots, finely chopped
  • 6 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 2 lemongrass stalks, very finely chopped
  • 3 tbsp chilli flakes

Noodles

  • 800 g thick round rice noodles (bún bò Huế noodles)

To serve

  • 300 g Vietnamese pork sausage, sliced
  • 1 banana blossom, shredded and held in acidulated water
  • 200 g bean sprouts
  • 1 bunch perilla and Vietnamese coriander
  • 4 spring onions, sliced
  • 1 onion, sliced paper-thin
  • 2 limes, in wedges

Method

  1. Blanch the beef, pork, and bones in boiling water for ten minutes, then drain and rinse everything and scrub the pot.
  2. Return the meat and bones to the clean pot with the 4 litres of water, the knotted lemongrass, and the charred onion and ginger, and bring to a bare simmer.
  3. Skim carefully for the first twenty minutes and never let it boil. A rolling boil emulsifies the fat and the broth goes grey and muddy.
  4. Simmer for two hours, then lift out the beef shank when a skewer meets no resistance, cool it, and slice it thinly across the grain.
  5. Stir the shrimp paste into the 200ml of water and leave it to settle for ten minutes, then pour the clear liquid into the pot and discard the grit at the bottom.
  6. Season the broth with the fish sauce, rock sugar, and salt and simmer for another thirty minutes.
  7. Make the chilli oil: warm the oil with the annatto seeds over a low heat for three minutes until it runs deep orange, then strain the seeds out.
  8. Annatto is a colour and not a flavour; if the seeds stay in they go bitter, and the oil should be strained the moment it is orange.
  9. Fry the shallots, garlic, and chopped lemongrass in the coloured oil for five minutes, then take it off the heat and stir in the chilli flakes.
  10. Stir half the chilli oil into the broth and keep the rest for the table.
  11. Cook the noodles to just tender, drain, and divide between deep bowls with the sliced beef, pork from the trotters, and the sausage.
  12. Ladle the boiling broth over, top with the sliced onion and spring onion, and serve with the banana blossom, sprouts, herbs, lime, and the remaining chilli oil for each eater to finish their own bowl.

Notes

Thick round bún bò Huế noodles are a different product from the thin bún used in bún chả and are sold dried by Vietnamese grocers; nothing else gives the right slippery bite. Settle the shrimp paste and use only the liquid. Never boil the broth. Strain the annatto seeds out as soon as the oil colours. The banana blossom is traditional and worth seeking out, but shredded white cabbage stands in for it. Blanch the meat and bones and start again with clean water; this is the standard first step in Vietnamese soup-making and it is what makes the difference between a clear broth and a cloudy one.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
© 2026 The Gastrographer. All original research, narratives, and illustrations. All rights reserved.