The Can Tho-style grilled pork roll is made from lean meat bled completely dry using a special method unique to the dish.
The blood is not washed away with water but absorbed by cloth or paper.
The meat is then pierced in several places to let the excess blood drain before being dried again.
The pork is then sliced, seasoned with grilled garlic, minced fresh garlic, strong fish sauce and other spices.
After marinating for 30 minutes, the seasoned meat is placed in a mortar with sugar and ground pepper and pounded with a pestle.
The paste is then rolled into thin sausages, fixed to kebab sticks and grilled over red-hot coals until it turns a dark golden-brown.
The finished meat should be a pinkish-red on the inside.
The roll is then topped with a cooked lard and spring onions sauce.
The Can Tho-style grilled pork roll is usually accompanied with fresh, leafy herbs, sliced unripe bananas, sliced starfruit, rice paper, banh hoi (extra-thin rice vermicelli woven in layers), pickled carrots, ground peanuts and different sauces.
Many people roll all the ingredients together into a rice paper and/or a large lettuce leaf before dipping it in fish sauce with garlic and chili or soy sauce.
Nem nuong can also be dipped in a thick and sweetened fermented soybean sauce.
A popular nem nuong spot is Thanh Van Restaurant, 17 Hoa Binh Street, Ninh Kieu District.
Thanh Van serves nem nuong with banh hoi for VND20,000 (US$1.3) a helping and diners can watch the cooks prepare the dish.
Can Tho, the Mekong Delta’s largest city, is some 170 kilometers south of Ho Chi Minh City.
Reported by Diem Thu |
E-mail to a friend 
Print version
To top
