For a successful hot pot, the soup base is everything. The most simple Chinese hot pot would be just chicken/ beef stock. But there are so much more than chicken stock out there, there are Sichuan pepper, Chongqing Ma La, Manchurian, herbs, etc. Thai’s offers a chili, lime dipping sauce which makes even more spicy. There are places use milk as soup base, and of course we have visited “Hakata” style. Here, I want to introduce to you Vietnamese vinegar hot pot – Nhung Dam.
I first encountered Nhung Dam in Las Vegas, at Pho SO 1, an authentic vietnamese restaurant off the strip, in a strip mall on Spring Mountain Road. Nhung Dam is actually part of the traditional vietnamese meal Bo 7 Mon (Beef 7 courses). Out of the 7 courses, I like Nhung Dam the best. It is so simple, yet so good. The vinegar broth has lemongrass, onion, garlic and of course vinegar in it (some places also add coconut water). Heated by a portable stove, along side with it are: slice of raw beef (or your choice of meat), a small mountain of vegetables (lettuce, cucumber, carrots, basil), a plate full of rice noodles, rice paper, a hot bowl of water, and a dipping sauce. We would cook our meat to our desire temperature, and wet the rice paper till it is soft, add meat, veggies, noodles, and roll it as if we are making out own summer roll, then dip it in the sauce. Because the broth is mostly vinegar, it reduced the oil of the meat and added flavor, and lemongrass added aroma. But, the star is actually the dipping sauce. This is not your typical soy sauce, spicy sauce mixed. It is called Mam Nem, a very popular dipping sauce in vietnamese cuisine. It is a mix of pineapples, chili peppers, lime juice, lemongrass, vinegar, fish sauce, and anchovy sauce. It is sweet, sour, fresh, spicy and salty all at the same time, just thinking about it, makes my mouth watery. I dare to say this is the best dipping sauce of all. This is the star of Nhung Dam. The sauce is so good, I want to bottle it up and bring it home. Every time I go to Vegas, this dish is a must have for me.
As fun as Vegas is, it is still a long flight away. After some searching, I found a place near Boston that serves Nhung Dam with fish, and I love it even more than beef.
Anh Hong, is actually located in Dorchester, MA, south of Boston, a town with rising population of Vietnamese. The place is on a street corner in a residential area. Bo 7 Mon is advertised in neon light on the store window. Ca 7 Mon is on the first page, for only $32.95/ 2 pp, I didn’t need to take another look at the menu.
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Goi Ca
Anh Hong Special Fish Salad, a mixed of pickle vegetables with already cooked fish, sprinkle with peanuts. Very light and simple
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Ca Nhung Dam
Fish Fondue with Special Vinegar Sauce. Big slices of founder, although beef is the more traditional, fish is lighter and just as good. Unfortunately, the sauce here didn’t employed pineapples, but it was still very good. I was a little disappointed. I love pineapples.
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Cha Dam, Mo Chai, La Loi
I called this fish ball trio. We have a giant fish ball, grill fish sausage, and fish wrapped in Hawaiian “Loi” leaf. All grilled to perfection.
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Noung Ca– Gilled Fish with Butter.
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Chao Fish– Special Fish congee
This fish 7 courses offers enormous amount of food. We honestly could not possibly finish all of it. So we finished those we can’t take home. We tracked down the hot pot, grill fish, fish salad and the congee. All were delicious and satisfying. And the fish ball trio, we enjoyed it the next day.
There are a lot of vietnamese restaurants in NYC, but during my search, ti only found a couple places in NYC that have the dish. I asked some of the vietnamese restaurant owners, why won’t everyone put this amazing course or hot pot on their menu. They all said that, it requires a lot of work, with little profit margin. I guess i’ll just have to take a long drive, or even a longer flight.
Pho So 1 | 4745 Spring Mountain Rd, Las Vegas, NV | Jan, 2015
Anh Hong | 291 Adams St, Dorchester, MA | Jan, 2015
