Banh cuon

This is Banh cuon, one of my favourite food. It's a northern dish, but sometimes can be found on the street of Saigon. Banh Cuon originally is from Thanh Tri district, just outside Hanoi.
To make Banh Cuon seems simple and easy, but it actually requires good skill. You'll need a steamer, a ladle, ready made rice flour mixed with water. A ladle full of the white mixture is spread across the skillet of the steamer covering the surface. It is then covered for 30 seconds or so. And the mixture turns into a kinda like cooked noodle pancake, very thin and clear. This is why you need the skill to not tear the Banh Cuon's flimsy rice film when trying to stuff it with mashed pork, mushrooms, prawns.
It comes served with mixed nuoc mam (fish sauce), maybe cha lua (mortadella), sliced cucumber, beansprouts, mint... You will also need a delicate touch to eat the dish also, by using chopsticks. (I sometimes can't handle it)
Here is the video of Making of Banh Cuon
http://noodlepie.typepad.com/blog/files/making_banh_cuon.MPG
Back in my country, whenever I went to my dad's hometown for a visit, I and my cousins, even dad, uncle, grandma... would go to the Banh Cuon place right across the street very short after we arrived. They made really really good Banh Cuon and my dad often had to stop us from eating too much, because we had to have lunch later. Banh Cuon is not expensive, by 2000dong (about 15 cents) you can buy a big dish, and 2 dishes is enough for lunch.

Dry beef salad

Dry beef salad! Oh my god, one of the best snack ever. Just look at the picture, isn't it so delicious?
The best place to eat this (it's called Nộm thịt bò) is Hồ Hoàn Kiếm street, the shortest street of Hanoi. It's only, what, i dont know but very very short. Maybe it takes about 2 minutes to walk from one end to the other. A special street for the best snack. Yummy.
I've never tried to make it, there must be some secret process but it seems really easy, just put everything on the dish and pour mixed fish sauce on.
The first layer is green papaya and carrot sliced really small like thread. On top of it is spices like mint, basil and some other leaves. Then the layer of dry beef. The Vietnamese dry beef is not smoked, they sun dry it somehow, so the beef is not too dry, but tough bit and chewy. It tastes kinda sweet, salty and spicy, and just irresistable (especially when you squeeze lemon juice on it). Along with the dry beef is buttery smashed peanut.
Maybe the secret of Nộm thịt bò lies in the fish sauce mixed with vinegar, water, sugar, chili... The sauce has to be salty enough to eat with the dish, but not too salty so we can drink it after finishing all the vegetable and meat. Anyway, this is one of the best snack ever ever ever.