June 5, 2007
Vung Tau Restaurant - Bánh Khot
Bánh Khot - Crisp rice flour cupcakes with shrimp and scallions, served with lettuce, mint and basil.
If not for Wandering Chopstick’s recommendation, I would never have ordered this dish. In fact, I may not even step into Vung Tau Restaurant in San Jose because:
1) I don’t know how to pronounce the restaurant’s name.
2) I don’t know how to pronounce Bánh Khot.
3) Crisp rice flour cupcakes doesn’t sound appealing to me without a picture.
Last weekend, I stepped out of my comfort zone, took the plunge and ordered Bánh Khot as recommended.
I was pleasantly surprised at what was served. Actually I did not know the proper way to eat it! There was a separate plate of lettuce, mint and basil served with the Bánh Knot. We had to ask the waiter “Er… how do we eat this?” He patiently explained that we can cut the Bánh Knot into half (cos it was steaming hot), put it on the lettuce with a piece of mint and basil, wrap it up like you would for a tortilla, then dip into the sweet sauce and DIG IN!
I tried my first Bánh Khot “wrap” without the mint and basil cos I thought I wouldn’t like the taste of that combination, but for the second round, I added a leaf of mint and basil and whoa! the taste absolutely changed! The flavors of the mint and basil complemented the juicy shrimp and fragrant crisp rice cupcakes very well and gave a light refreshing lift to the tight aromatic package “wrap”.
According to Wandering Chopsticks, Vung Tau is a coastal town so seafood is their specialty. Banh Khot is one of Vung Tau’s specialty dishes. It is made from rice flour with some coconut milk. Shaped into small, round rice cupcakes by hand, it is crispy and delicious with a shrimp in the middle. This particular dish must be eaten with the assortment of green garnishes (lettuce, mint and basil) used to wrap around each morsel.
Mint and basil are characteristic of Vietnamese cuisine, commonly eaten in salads, raw spring rolls and phở and this post is my contribution to this week’s Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Küchenlatein.
Vung Tau Restaurant is a Vietnamese family business.
Vung Tau Restaurant
535 E Santa Clara St
San Jose, CA 95112
(408) 288-9055
Vung Tau II Restaurant is the second restaurant they opened. The menu may differ slightly from the original Vung Tau Restaurant.
1750 N Milpitas Blvd
Milpitas, CA 95035
(408) 934-9327
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June 5th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Poi-ing poi-ing poi-ing…I will go and try :D I think having a separate plate of veg and herbs is quite characteristic of Viet cuisine. I always like to add lotsa basil in my pho. :)
June 5th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Glad you liked it. And even gladder that you trusted me enough to order exactly what I told you to! :) Did Mama Simcooks like it?
During summers, my mom always had a plate of herbs on the table. You don’t necessarily have to wrap it, we just take various herbs and munch on them in between bites of other food. It’s a Southern VNese thing though to wrap everything in lettuce.
BTW, the cupcakes aren’t shaped by hand. They’re poured into a cast iron pan (like the Danish apple cake pan). I think of these as the crusty version of banh beo, which is also poured but not crispy. I think they’re really good here b/c of the slight coconut aroma. This was the last meal I had in VN two summers ago, and you should have seen the size of the pan they used in Saigon!
June 5th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Oooh, I can hear these shrimpy cupcake thingy is calling out my name…all my fav ingredients in a cupcake…wow!
June 5th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Hmm! Never seen the dish before. I will have to ask my Vietnamese friend about it.
But it looks delicious. I love that dipping fish sauce with sugar and carrots.
June 5th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
I love Vietnamese food. I always end up eating enough herbs to choke a cow.
June 6th, 2007 at 12:18 am
I’ve never seen this on menus (then again, I haven’t looked). Will definitely have to try the Bánh Khot. I love anything fried!
June 6th, 2007 at 3:00 am
I’m vietnamese and I’ve never tried it. You guys are so lucky that you have a variety of cuisines to choose from.
June 6th, 2007 at 9:38 am
Thanks for participating this round. Now I know how to enjoy this dish with the interesting combination of basil and mint.
June 6th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
When we want to entertain the inlaws, Vietnamese places is where we go. I never know what to eat so I have to trust my wife to tell me what the dishes are. They like to order spicy stuff and I can’t eat that.
June 7th, 2007 at 5:55 am
I’ve had that before! Its been so long now….(sad)
June 7th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
No peep for two days. Can it be? Are congratulations in order? :)
June 10th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
What a great idea and how amazing to wrap a dish afterserving. Thanks for sharing. :)
June 11th, 2007 at 5:58 am
I love the sound of this. I haven’t tried it, but Salt Lake does have several good Vietnamese restaurants. I agree with Ming, there is nothing that tastes much better than that sweet fish sauce mixture with carrots that you dip your spring rolls into. One of my favorite Vietnamese dishes is a type of moodle bowl with fried spring rolls and that sauce poured over. So you can tell by the way I’m gushing about Vietnamese food that I’d love this.
June 14th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
Must be very busy with the latest addition. Hope the river flows like milk and honey. Take care.
June 15th, 2007 at 7:54 am
I love Banh Khot but the picture that you posted doesn’t look like banh khot that I know at all. These look like “banh cong” which is another kind of Vietnamese rice cake. I have a link here to show how the Vietnamese banh khot look. By the way, I’m Vietnamese and I love Vietnamese food
June 15th, 2007 at 7:55 am
here is the link http://dina-n-brian.com/Alice/Banhguide.htm
June 15th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Same same, never ordered things that i am not sure of. Unless someone orders it.
I think I should try try it too, if they sell the same thing here in sg. hmmmm
June 21st, 2007 at 8:11 am
I heard you had your baby! Congratuations! I had dinner with Wandering Chopsticks last week in Los Angeles. Email me and tell me all about your new baby!
xoxo
jaden
June 24th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
Oooo, I just read Steamy Kitchen’s comment! Congratulations!! Hope everything is going well!