Chả cá Lã Vọng)

Cha ca la vong

Vietnamese Grilled Fish Dish

It is bucketing down today and other than slowing down the chaos a little and making everything even more humid, it also limits the amount of seating on the street and even those that trade. So to my little black book I referred to check out from my research where I could go that was indoors

CHA CA THANG LONG is a restaurant tucked down an alley that opens up into this vast space which was not what I expected. It is a massive operation and very very impressive.

It is a good a large restaurant operation as i have ever seen. Setting is gorgeous and the large chandeliers just so not what I expected. There is only one thing served here and that is this dish

Snake head fish marinated in tumeric, garlic, ginger, tumeric, curry spice. Best to use a slightly firmer fish that won’t break on you as it is plenty of dry frying to wilt the amazing amount of dill and spring onion. This dish is not for you if you are not a lover of dill. Thankfully it is one of my favourite flavours

Fish gets fried at your table and then added to it the dill and spring onion, patience is required here as it takes a while to wilt all that green. This gets served with thin rice noodles, peanuts, chilli, mint, perilla and raw spring onion.

You put some rice noodles in a little bowl and top with your fish and greens, sprinkle with nuts and some herbs and dress with a touch of nuoc cham dressing. A touch of dressing goes a long way, not just for flavour, but also to loosen up the noodles to be able to mix it all together

I feel like a version of this might make it to the our tables in the restaurant, however we will do the cooking for you

Fish covered with spring onion and dill

Another Empty Bowl