[ At least it's appropriately tagged. ]

On 2007-08-30 08:58:04 -0700, said:

I know of no congealed blood dishes at any of the Hue joints I've been
visiting.

--- My only misadventure with Vietnamese Hue's (in)famous bun bo hue
was in your hood in some down home joint I happened upon and in which
I was the only non-Viet. Do you want it with blood?, the waitress
inquired.

There is one joint named Saigon, if memory serves way out on Garden
Grove. Quite possibly the last of little Korea's restaurants other
than one that is a (not bad) sushi/izakaya joint. We had three types
of blood sausage there and most everything on the menu was internal
organs and blod and stuff. But the name of the place certainly implies
it wasn't central Vietnamese. Generally, because of their location,
they concentrate more on the seafood and, of course, the little rice
cake things banh beo and banh loc and that stuff.

Yeah sure, said I, being an aficianado of authentic cuisine
and having had blood sausages and some other blood stuff in the past
and they were fine. I did not, however anticipate authentic bun bo
hue. A noodle soup dish loaded with big chunks of congealed blood in
gelatinous mass.

Not to quibble (any more than usual), but blood sausages are,
inessense, congealed blook in a gelatinous mass--surrounded by shard of
pig intestine, no?

I had a go at it, but couldn't handle it. The taste
was horrid. This is one of the very few exotic cuisines that grossed
me out. Perhaps the trick was too put loads of hot sauce on the
chunks of blood, or perhaps, as someone here suggested, the blood
wasn't very fresh. I dunno, but I always associate that dish with Hue
style now.

Well "tricking" out something that tastes like shit with hot-sauce
isn't what I'd call dinner. But I also wouldn't call it representative
of Hue, which is my point.

The word "hue" depending on the orthographics can mean many things.
One place we went to that had "Hue" in the name so asked about it. They
were totally confused and said it had nothing to do with Hue. I never
did know what it was related to. Good place thought.

As an example, (I'll describe orthographic details since they won't
come through on-screen):

Ba (straight tone) - three
Ba (with a comma thing on top, downward tone) - grandmother
Ba (with a litle hook on top, low and rising) - poisoned food
Ba (with tilde, down then sharp upward turn) - waste
Ba (forward leaning accent, rising tone) - aunt
Ba (dot beneath, low and falling tone) - any

That's not to say that every region of Vietnam doesn't have a blood
soup, they probably do. And undoubtedly Hue has one. If you can tell
me the place they serve it, I might (tentatively) try it. But if not,
that just leaves the other 96% of non-blood menu to consider.

I thought it was the entire cuisine of Korea you banished
due to a soup.

--- No, I got food poisoning on a camping trip and after that I didn't
seem to be able to digest kim chee, sauerkraut, etc. I think I'm
finally over it.

And so the whole "korea: barf: dogburgers" shtick, that was some other
story...?
--
///---

"In Little Saigon, bun bo Hue connoisseurs say Pho Cong Ly Saigon Deli
Restaurant turns out the most authentic-and hottest-version. Its
viscous, beefy broth is enhanced with mam ruoc, an odoriferous
fermented shrimp paste. Definitely not for the squeamish, *the
standard recipe calls for poached blood cubes*, a chunk of skin-on
pork hock and pungent herbs called rau ram..."

http://vietworldkitchen.com/bookshel...eLATJan-06.htm

I had my original bloody bun bo hue in some Viet. place I'd never been
to before nor since. I think I could find it again. It was near a
shopping mall on the south side of Westminster Blv., I think. To be
fair, I tried the dish one other time in a big fancy restaurant
called Hue something, also on West'r Blv., but the north side. Sans
blood this time, but the flavor brought back horrid memories...

As for the illegal Korean dog dishes, as I have said my main problem
with that is that the dogs are reportedly tortured to enhance their
flavor before being killed.

On Aug 30, 10:31 pm, wrote:
"In Little Saigon, bun bo Hue connoisseurs say Pho Cong Ly Saigon Deli
Restaurant turns out the most authentic-and hottest-version. Its
viscous, beefy broth is enhanced with mam ruoc, an odoriferous
fermented shrimp paste. Definitely not for the squeamish, *the
standard recipe calls for poached blood cubes*, a chunk of skin-on
pork hock and pungent herbs called rau ram..."

http://vietworldkitchen.com/bookshel...eLATJan-06.htm

I had my original bloody bun bo hue in some Viet. place I'd never been
to before nor since. I think I could find it again. It was near a
shopping mall on the south side of Westminster Blv., I think. To be
fair, I tried the dish one other time in a big fancy restaurant
called Hue something, also on West'r Blv., but the north side. Sans
blood this time, but the flavor brought back horrid memories...

As for the illegal Korean dog dishes, as I have said my main problem
with that is that the dogs are reportedly tortured to enhance their
flavor before being killed.

Haven't had blood for a long time. Last time was in a Chinese
restaurant in NYC. The English translation is duck red.

Once I brought blood sausages from a Deli to a pot luck party. One
guy said "How could you. It looks like turd."

On 2007-09-01 19:19:38 -0700, James said:

On Aug 30, 10:31 pm, wrote:
"In Little Saigon, bun bo Hue connoisseurs say Pho Cong Ly Saigon Deli
Restaurant turns out the most authentic-and hottest-version. Its
viscous, beefy broth is enhanced with mam ruoc, an odoriferous
fermented shrimp paste. Definitely not for the squeamish, *the
standard recipe calls for poached blood cubes*, a chunk of skin-on
pork hock and pungent herbs called rau ram..."

http://vietworldkitchen.com/bookshel...eLATJan-06.htm

I had my original bloody bun bo hue in some Viet. place I'd never been
to before nor since. I think I could find it again. It was near a
shopping mall on the south side of Westminster Blv., I think. To be
fair, I tried the dish one other time in a big fancy restaurant
called Hue something, also on West'r Blv., but the north side. Sans
blood this time, but the flavor brought back horrid memories...

As for the illegal Korean dog dishes, as I have said my main problem
with that is that the dogs are reportedly tortured to enhance their
flavor before being killed.

Haven't had blood for a long time. Last time was in a Chinese
restaurant in NYC. The English translation is duck red.

Once I brought blood sausages from a Deli to a pot luck party. One
guy said "How could you. It looks like turd."

Good one. And duck, of course, looks like a dead bird.
--
///---

That was a whole step of magnitude beyond blood sausages, etc. Those
wacky fellers are eating pure blood - pure congealed blood. Felt like
I walked into one of Anne Rice's vampire restaurants by mistake!

Chinese restaurant translations. The Chinese government is making a
concerted effort to standardize English menu translations and
eliminate goofy English mistranslations on menus all across the
country before the olympic games - items like "fried crap" for fried
carp!

On 2007-09-02 09:32:45 -0700, said:

That was a whole step of magnitude beyond blood sausages, etc. Those
wacky fellers are eating pure blood - pure congealed blood. Felt like
I walked into one of Anne Rice's vampire restaurants by mistake!

Chinese restaurant translations. The Chinese government is making a
concerted effort to standardize English menu translations and
eliminate goofy English mistranslations on menus all across the
country before the olympic games - items like "fried crap" for fried
carp!

Ah, gee. That's one of the things I love about Asian restaurants:
picking out the misfires on the menu.
--
///---