Sonny Side is an American vlogger who owns the YouTube channel Best Ever Food Review Show with nearly 11 million followers. Recently, Sonny Side and Vietnamese-American chef Calvin Bui together experienced the dishes ranked “worst” in Vietnam on the Taste Atlas website. The dish that left the most impression and also “smelliest” to the two Vietnamese food enthusiasts was bun dau mam tom.
The dish includes many ingredients such as sausage, spring rolls, pork, fried tofu, fresh vermicelli, herbs, cucumbers... "But shrimp paste is the ingredient that makes this dish the most "challenging" for diners," commented the American YouTuber.
Bun dau mam tom is a rustic dish originating from Hanoi, northern Vietnam. This is often a snack, a cheap light meal that is loved by many people and has become popular in big cities. Nowadays, not only Vietnamese people but also foreign tourists want to try this "smelly" specialty.
Before eating Bun Dau Mam Tom, Sonny and Calvin visited a seafood wholesale market to see how shrimp paste was made. The two visited a shrimp paste vendor, using fresh shrimp mixed with salt and fermented for 7 months to create the finished product.
"Calvin, we're in a manufacturing facility that makes some people uncomfortable. Try sniffing really close." Sonny took a whiff of the concentrated shrimp paste and was immediately choked by the smell. He described the smell as giving him asthma and then getting cured.
Meanwhile, Calvin smelled it and exclaimed, "It smells so good, this is the most rich fermented smell I know, it's amazing."
Immediately tasting a spoonful of the freshly salted shrimp paste, Sonny and Calvin agreed that the flavor of the shrimp paste was very distinctive, salty, astringent, rich and shockingly strong, like "just putting an atomic bomb exploding with flavor in the mouth".
However, the way to enjoy shrimp paste is not to eat it directly, so two diners went to a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City to try vermicelli with shrimp paste right away.
Before eating, you have to make the shrimp paste to taste by adding sugar, fresh kumquat juice, fresh chili slices and stirring the mixture until fluffy. "The flavor is much better, with a full range of spicy, sour, salty and sweet flavors, very appealing," Calvin described.
When dipping the pork, fried tofu and fresh rice noodles into the newly mixed shrimp paste to sip, the two Western guests nodded and continuously praised the dish. Sonny even said that eating vermicelli with tofu and shrimp paste made him feel happy.
What he likes best is that even though there are many ingredients to eat with it, everything is in harmony thanks to the shrimp paste. Calvin thinks that shrimp paste is the perfect version of all dipping sauces because it goes well with everything.
Sonny is curious as to why shrimp paste is so underrated. Calvin says: "When you first hear the names of fermented Asian dishes, everyone feels scared, but after a long time living and eating those "smelly" dishes in Vietnam, you will see that it's okay, not that bad, and if you have the chance, try it once."
