Discover the essence of Hoi An’s history in a single bowl with ‘cao lau’ recipe, featuring unique noodles and tender braised pork, reflecting centuries of trade influences.
The Guardian newspaper praised Hoi An’s cao lau as “the history of the city in a bowl.” They highlighted how the dish has evolved over time, incorporating ingredients from foreign traders, yet still maintaining its quintessential Vietnamese essence.
The defining characteristic of cao lau is its noodles. To make these noodles, people in Quang Nam Province, home to Hoi An, use rice that has been soaked in water from the Ba Le Well and mixed with ash from Cu Lao Cham Island. The rice is ground into flour, kneaded into a block, and then rolled out into thin, square-shaped pieces. These pieces are steamed and then cut into individual noodle portions. These noodles are slightly brown, crispy, and chewy, distinguishing them from other types of noodles in the region.
This recipe serves about 4 to 6 people, takes approximately 75 minutes to prepare, and provides around 3,052 calories in total.
Ingredients
– 600 grams of collar pork, pork leg or pork belly
– 1 liter of pork stock (optional)
– 4 shallots
– 4 cloves of garlic
– Spices: salt, five-spice powder, soy sauce, sugar, stock powder
– Cooking oil, annatto oil
– Cao lau noodles, both thin and square-shaped pieces (if not available, you can substitute with thick, large-sized dried rice noodles)
– Green chili
– Basil, bean sprouts, baby mustard greens, chili, lime
Instructions
1. Preparation
2. Cooking process
3. Final product
