Signature Dish

Watch CHAY Vietnamese Restaurant Make a Meatless Bun Bo Hue

Clip: Season 3 Episode 9 | 4m 5sVideo has Closed Captions

Seth heads to Chay in Falls Church to try the hearty vegan take on the Vietnamese bun bo hue.

Aired 04/28/2025

Signature Dish

Watch CHAY Vietnamese Restaurant Make a Meatless Bun Bo Hue

Clip: Season 3 Episode 9 | 4m 5sVideo has Closed Captions

Seth heads to Chay in Falls Church to try the hearty vegan take on the Vietnamese bun bo hue.

Seth Tillman heads to CHAY Vietnamese restaurant in Falls Church, VA to watch chef Lan Tran cook Bon Bo Hue, a speciality from central Vietnam, but with a twist — no meat! The process starts with broth made from lemongrass, star anise, cinnamon, and other ingredients, and concludes with traditional rice noodles. The result is flavorful and textured soup, and fermented soy bean paste.

Aired 04/28/2025

Problems with Closed Captions? Closed Captioning Feedback

Signature Dish is a local public television program presented by WETA

Open in new tab

SETH: What are you cooking up today?

SETH: So we're recreating the flavor of meat, but doing it all with fresh vegetables.

LAN: Yeah.

SETH: So to put this dish together, I also see a giant stock pot.

Is this where you're making the broth for the dish?

LAN: Yeah.

SETH: No shortage of flavor going in there.

LAN: Yeah.

SETH: Already starting to get a really nice aroma.

SETH: After adding aromatics to the broth, Lan begins work on the seasoning paste.

SETH: It's certainly bringing out the aromas, I'll tell you that.

SETH: Spicy, garlicky.

Love it.

SETH: So you get a little bit of funkiness, a little body.

LAN: Yeah.

SETH: It's immediately transforming the color of that broth.

Such a beautiful color already.

LAN: Yeah.

SETH: This is one of the meats that's going in the dish?

LAN: Yeah.

SETH: Ah.

I'm always amazed at what can be done with tofu in the right hands.

SETH: All right, this is already looking nice and hearty.

With all of the flavorings added, Lan leaves the soup to simmer for 30 minutes.

To finish the dish, she adds the noodles and three more types of faux meat.

She then ladles in the soup and garnishes with herbs, onions, and one final dollop of the soybean paste.

All right, Chef, Thi.

Beautiful colors all over the table.

Incredible aroma.

Should I dig in or should I add a few toppings first?

THI: You should add a little bit of topping.

These are Thai basil.

SETH: A little basil, a little cabbage, cilantro.

THI: Cabbage, cilantro.

SETH: A little squeeze of lime perhaps as well?

THI: Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

SETH: Okay.

Hmm.

Outstanding.

The lemongrass really perfumes the soup really nicely.

LAN: Yeah.

SETH: A little bit of funk with that fermented soybean paste.

Looks like a little sausage here.

This is a hearty, comforting bowl of soup.

So much meaty flavor in this.

And I still haven't even had the noodles.

What kind of noodles are these, Chef?

SETH: They have a little bit of a nice chew to them as well.

LAN: Yeah.

THI: This right here, Bún bò Hue usually they come with a lot of different type of beef, oxtail, lots of bones.

SETH: There's a lot of creativity needed to be able to replicate these flavors to make it taste like something you might experience in Vietnam, but without any meat.