Eat nem chua Yên Mạc, the Huế court recipe a daughter carried home to Yên Mô

Barely sour, wrapped in guava leaf

The only one in Ninh Binh

Nem chua Yên Mạc is a fermented pork roll from Yên Mạc in Yên Mô, roughly 20 km south of Ninh Bình city, sold by producers in the commune and by specialist đặc sản shops in the city. The lineage is specific and datable: Phạm Thận Duật, a Nguyễn dynasty minister from Yên Mộ Thượng, liked nem chua with his rice wine in Huế; his daughter Phạm Thị Thư learned the court kitchen's method and on returning home passed it to Phạm Xủy, who opened a stall at phố Cầu Bút. Roughly 30,000 to 45,000 VND a quả at source.

Why it's unique

Fermented pork is universal in Vietnam. A named, court-derived lineage attached to one commune is not, and the result tastes different from what is sold everywhere else: barely sour, in noticeably long, wide slices rather than the small cube of Thanh Hóa nem chua.

The method is where that difference lives. The pork must be nạc mông, rump, from a pig killed the same morning and still warm, because shoulder or loin gives a mushy nem. It is sliced about half a phân thick and bruised with the back of the knife rather than minced, rolled in roasted rice thính, then pressed in cloth to drive the water out. The skin is boiled in a roll, pressed flat, trimmed of fat and shredded to the thickness of fishing line. It is wrapped in banana leaf over a guava-leaf inner layer, and it cures by fermentation rather than by heat.

Before you go

Ask how long it has been fermenting, because the time is seasonal: one day in summer, two in autumn, three to four in winter. A winter purchase may need to travel with you before it is ready.

Eat it the way it is eaten locally, with lá sung, lá ổi and lá đinh lăng rather than lettuce, dipped in nước mắm cut with lime, garlic and chilli. Buy at a producer such as Nem chua Yên Mạc Anh Quân, or at a city đặc sản shop; expect roughly 30,000 to 45,000 VND a quả at source and 40,000 to 50,000 from a gift shop, cash. It is busiest and freshest in the run-up to Tết, since this is food for weddings, death anniversaries and new year parties far more than for restaurant menus, which is why almost no visitor orders it. Keep it cool and eat it within a few days.

Sources (4)