SUMMER VIETNAMESE FOOD w/ RICHIE (Nem Nuong, Banh Beo, Nem Chua) - Fung Bros

Alright David, going in. David doused it. Yo, that looks like a bouquet of lettuce. It is the summertime in the SGV, in the 626, and we're at a spot called Summer Rolls. It's only right. So this spot is a Central Vietnamese-style restaurant. What we're about to dive into, Richie, you've been to Central Vietnam. Yes, sir. And we're about to dive into what is very popular and known out there, Nem Nuong. Is it considered, like, maybe a Vietnamese sausage, or is it like a pork? Some people do refer to it as a Vietnamese sausage. You were saying sausage is referred to as with the casing and everything. There is no casing here. But, I mean, you look at the process, it's really similar. You're putting it in, like, the grinder, the meat grinder, all the sauces, you know, peppers and everything. So you put it in the fridge after you make your mix, and then you'll put it on the grill. Yo, I went to Nha Trang, man. You know, I kind of consider Nha Trang, like, you could say the Miami of Vietnam. You could say that. We have to actually explain to people what Vietnam looks like. It actually kind of looks like Japan, except flipped, and then connected to land. Well, that's why you never hear West-East, you always just hear North-South. North-South Central. And I feel like almost because it's such a thin country, almost everywhere in Vietnam, there's, like, a coast. Summer foods is a lot of food you might eat around Nha Trang, around, like, the maybe beachy eatery areas. Definitely. We're gonna get some, you know, some pretty refreshing foods. And I think that this does still fit within our series that we always do with you, Rich, called Beyond Pho. Today, the episode is all about Nem Nuong. Nem Nuong. Which are popularized on the West Coast by Brodards over in the OC. You know what I noticed in non-Asian areas? When people are first exposed to something with a non-Asian name, they remember it more. Non-Vietnamese people made no Nem Nuongs as Brodards. But this spot, Summer Rolls, man, they got five different types of Nem Nuong. Five different meats. They got chicken, beef, they got sour pork. Sour pork. Regular pork. Shout out to the owner, Tony. Yo, what's up? Yo, Tony, we collaborated. A while back. Seven years ago. Yeah. Can you talk about the transition from Nem Nuong to Summer Rolls? Summer Rolls is easier to pronounce. Nem Nuong is really hard to pronounce, especially the new millennials. If they want to introduce it to their friends, it's hard for them to look it up. And it sounds intimidating. Exactly. I know some people who don't call it Nem Nuong. They just call it Summer Rolls. Because this is the only place they know it from. So you're almost rebranding. You got the brand name, at least out here. Summer Rolls. A lot of people call it the Brodards or the SGV. Summer Rolls or Brodards. What's up? They don't know. They don't know because we were open before they did. Okay. Back in 99. Right here, we got the original Nem Nuong. These are either served in room temperature or just slightly warm. Yeah, you don't refrigerate them because the refrigeration will dry it out. So this sauce is called Nuoc Cham. Nuoc Cham just translates actually to just dipping sauce. This is such an easy way. I think that's why this is working for the second generation. It's so easy. So a lot of the times when you have this, this pork is usually really rubbery and hard. But I really like that it's not like that. I would say the texture of it is really nice. Like really moist. Alright, alright. They're flying in here. Yo, I like the snap that it had. At first, it was a little bit like hard to get into. But once you start biting onto it, it breaks down. It is packed. Yo, you know what's kind of crazy? Look inside the chip right now. There's kind of like, I think that's shrimp inside the chip. I think it's a shrimp chip. Yo, I've never seen that ever. Alright, you guys. We've got the lemongrass beef and lemongrass chicken nuoc mam. And I do think it is perhaps, I want to say it's a little bit more of a modern thing. This dip is different. This is more of the traditional nuoc mam that you would dip like your regular spring rolls in. Yo, I love how the chicken breaks down. Obviously, this is grilled chicken. So you're getting, you know, the layers of that meat right there. In a way, I like the flavor more. Yeah. Okay. Like that chicken, that's good. Now we are moving on to the grilled beef dip. I'm excited about this because this is going to remind me of the seven course beef that I love so much. This is my favorite. It has that nice grilled flavor that you can kind of give beef a little bit more than chicken. You know, when you char chicken, I think it dries it out a little bit too much. But when you char beef, oh my God. Yo, Rich, I'm not going to lie. I'm a big chicken guy. But this beef nam nuong is creeping up. Creeped up on me like, ooh. So you're going beef, chicken, and then the traditional? Yo, man, I don't, it's okay. I don't want to say it. All right, guys. So I got to introduce you guys to nam chua right here. This is not typically how you would see it. You would see it at a deli, you know, really red because it is raw and fermented and everything. But this one, they seem to grill it actually. So it's pretty interesting. It almost looks like some salmon pieces. Yeah, and this is why I think this restaurant serves the beer. Because beer with this combination is, that's like the go-to, right? This is an interesting color. This is the fanciest one I've had because I think I've eaten at the deli, but I never had this one. I would say that one's pretty advanced though. Like if you're with your non-Asian friends and you want them to like the food, don't get this one. But if you're trying to hit them with the smack, you hit them with this one, man. You know, fermented raw pork. No one eats raw pork. So we went through five different flavors of nem, meaning the rolls. Now we getting off the rolls and we getting on to the little bones. Okay, okay. So this one right here, man, this is a treat, all right? Because you don't know how hard it is to prepare these, all right? I've only had this probably once or twice in my life on these actual plates. Otherwise, I'm eating it from the deli. Like that's, everybody gets this from the deli in those little, the styrofoam plate. The name is? Bun baeo. So basically, I mean, these are pretty much like, they're always going to be kind of pricey because look, you know, you're individually putting them on these plates and I do, I never prepared them, but I heard they are kind of like a pain in the butt. This is almost like the oyster shooter of Vietnamese food, right? I guess you could say that. It's like a shot. So I looked up the recipe for what bun baeo is made out of. It's steamed rice flour with tapioca in it. So it's going to have a very, very squishiness to it. Kind of like pork boba, maybe. You know, this is how I know I'm getting older. Back then, when I was a young man, my mom used to always yell at me for drowning my bun baeo in all the nuoc mam I could. Like literally, it would be floating and swimming. But you know, nowadays, you know, I'm a little lighter with it. This is also from Hue. Oh, from Hue. Which leads us into another thing from Hue. The Bun Bo Hue. Yo, the BBH, Richie. So this is bringing me back, man. There's this spot, man. Little lady used to prepare these. I went there probably at least five times. Minimum 100 degrees eating this. So I feel like I'm back when you were in Hue. And when I was in Hue. Wait, you said minimum 100 degrees. What do you mean? Minimum 100 degrees outside. Oh, you mean the weather was 100 degrees and you're still eating hot Bun Hue. That's how good it is. Minimum. And even though it would be hot, it would make it that much better so you would just have to throw it on there. You had to do it. I'm excited to try this, man. So we got the pork blood right here. I don't know how this is prepared. I rarely ever see anybody take a whole bite of this. You're usually going to take a bite like this and then just have probably a little bit of this. Kind of like a little follow-up. I think they are leaving it up to the customer to put as much spice as they want because there's no spice in it. I think they're leaving it up to the customer to do that. But as far as flavor, man, this is pretty good. Bruh. The ciabatta bun meat. This reminds me of LA right here. This is a really LA-looking sandwich, man. I'm not going to lie. With the ciabatta. Ciabatta, that's just a fun word to say. Vietnam was colonized by France, which is why they use the baguette, right? But this is ciabatta, which is not from the country that colonized Vietnam. It's from Italy. Oh, it's from Italy. It's an Italian bread. Can't have Vietnamese food without Vietnamese ice cream. All right, all right, just in time. This tastes more like an American sandwich, which I think is important. I don't think everybody has to serve a traditional bun meat all the time. You know what I'm saying? So it's cool to switch it up. Yeah, for sure. Honestly, if you wanted a traditional bun meat, you probably wouldn't come to some place. Nah. Go for it. No cut on the top of my mouth. Last but not least, of the central Vietnamese foods that are great in the summertime, we have bun xeo. Why is it people's favorite? I think it's just so different, you know what I mean? And like, it's hearty. Like, you have one of these, and you feel full. You've got to have a lot of this to feel full, you know what I mean? You're putting it in lettuce, you're wrapping it up, you're having fun with it, and you're getting messy. So I think that's why a lot of people really like this. I wanted to bring up a good point you just said. It's unlike anything else. There is not another dish in the Asian cuisine that I've come across that is like this. And I know we were talking about this earlier, how everybody thinks this is egg. You know, you guys say, you guys mention that a lot in videos. It's not egg yolk. It's turmeric. It has one of my favorite aspects to a bun xeo, the mixture of crispiness with soft. When you have the soft, and then you soak in with the fish sauce, and then you've got the crunch from the grilling and everything. I like that combination. Is the crunch coming from the crepe, or is it coming from the sprouts? When I'm talking about it, I'm talking about the crepe itself. Crispy crepe. You've got to have that. I never like bun xeo when it's leftovers. Oh, okay. I'll get soggy. I've never been a fan of that. That wraps up for beyond, beyond, beyond pho here at Summer Rolls. Running through the nem nun, the bun xeo, the bun baeo, a lot of aeos. Going to a spot that's serving traditional food that got some vibes. It's fun. But anyways, let us know in the comments below what you guys think about traditional food being served in a little bit more of a modern, accessible, cool way. And also in the comments below, let us know what other spots you want us to try around the LA area. Fun Bros are back in the 626 area. You know, there's a lot of spots to cover. So, be prepared. All right, you guys. Thank you so much for watching. That was a very special episode of Beyond Pho, Fun Bros Food. Thank you to our special guest, Richie Lee. Thank you for having me, man. All right. Until next time, everybody. We out. Peace. All right, you guys. Follow Richie's channel. Yeah, for sure. RichieLee23. But yo, you guys. Last video, we were all in. We were in Singapore. We were on set for Crazy Rich Asians being extras. Yeah. Asked by Jon Chu to come out. Yo, shout out to Jon. But I didn't make the cut. I didn't. And yo, my girl was joking around with me. She said, maybe you were just being a little too extra to be an extra. I was like. Shout out to Tony. Shout out to Summer Rose in Temple City. You guys got to check out this spot. And until next time, we out. Peace.