Bon Me | Bold, Fresh, and Fun Vietnamese Cuisine

Chef Ali is at it again! This time it’s to come up with a breakfast menu. Starting Thursday May 5th Bon Me will be serving up hot, tasty, and satisfying breakfast options. On the starting line-up Ali has congee (a savory rice porridge) and a breakfast Bon Me sandwich made with eggs.

We also added hot coffee from Rao’s and tea from MEM Tea this week!

So stop by on Wednesday to give the Bon Me breakfast a try! We will be serving breakfast from 7:30 a.m. until 11 a.m.

Fish sauce and rice are the building blocks of Vietnamese cuisine. Fish sauce is called nuoc mam in Vietnamese. This flavor is used widely in Southeast Asian food. The Thai version of the sauce is more pungent whereas the Vietnamese version is lighter and more delicate. There are recipes that use fish sauce dating back 1,000 years!

Never had fish sauce? Andrea Nguyen recommends sniffing dried porcini mushrooms and then sniffing fish sauce in her book Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. The smell is nearly the same! The taste of the sauce is similar to soy sauce and used much in the same manner. It is thought to contain the fifth flavor, umami, which is a full bodied meaty sort of flavor.

Fish sauce is not nearly as nutritionally deficient as ketchup which is basically sugar and tomatoes. Fish sauce is high in vitamin B and protein.  Our Vietnamese Vinaigrette is made with fish sauce — try it next time you order a noodle bowl!

Names: Daikon, Giant White Radish, Raphanus sativus, cu cai tau (Vietnam)

Daikon has a pungent, earthy smell that many people find overwhelming. The texture is crisp and refreshing and Bon Me serves it up after a quick pickle with carrots. The carrot daikon pickle is a classic component to a bahn mi sandwich and one we felt was important to preserve in our representation of the cuisine.

Ahh, the polarizing cilantro.  Do you love it or hate it?  Your affection for the most widely use fresh herb in the world is thought to be a genetic trait.

Here is an interesting investigation into the taste divide on cilantro by NPR:

Did you know that the seed of cilantro is coriander.  Coriander can be added to dishes whole but more commonly it is used in cooking as a ground dry spice.

In Vietnamese cilantro is called “N-gaw” and is used commonly as a garnish.  You will see it on all of our main dishes.  It brings a bright flavor that rounds out the dish.

Summer in a Glass

As our start date draws near, and our key menu items are nearly ready for service, we are starting to think about drinks!  At our tasting at City Hall we served a lemon ginger tea that was pretty polarizing.  Some people loved the “kick-in-your-pants” ginger flavor while others found it too spicy.  We had fun last weekend playing around with the recipe for a Thai basil lime soda.  It is definitely a summer beverage, but it was fun to sip it on a freezing February day in Boston and imagine ourselves on a tropical beach in Southeast Asia . . . .

Now you may be wondering why an inspired Vietnamese food truck is using Thai basil.  Why not use Vietnamese basil?  Actually, Thai basil is a common ingredient in Vietnamese food.  Thai basil is more pungent and a bit spicier than the basil most commonly used in the United States.  People say it has a hint of mint or a bitter flavor. You will have to let us know what you think when you see this drink on our menu!

If you have any other drink ideas, please let us know!

As a new small food business we are learning about the challenges of finding kitchen space in the Boston area.  Now, you may think that because we’re small we can just use our home kitchens, but the health code does not allow it.  (Although annoying, this is actually a good thing to keep our food safe.)  Kitchen space that is inspected and permitted for commercial use is tight in the Boston/Cambridge area.  I guess if you consider how expensive residential rents are — it’s not hard to believe that kitchens, even commercial ones, are tiny and are in use nearly every second of the day.

That is why we are so excited about this new project in Cambridge.  It won’t be finished in time for Bon Me to start cooking in April, but it is a much needed resource for other small food businesses.  Check out their video and if you are so moved, please feel free to support this venture! (I did.)