Chicken and Bamboo Shoot Noodle Soup Recipe

The other day, I soaked and cooked a bunch of dried bamboo shoot (mang kho) and squirreled them away for Tet so that I could simmer some with pork hocks. But the chilly winter weather got to me today and I defrosted a batch of the prepped bamboo shoots to make bun mang noodle soup, a Vietnamese favorite; bun refers to round rice noodles (think bun rice noodle salad bowls!) and mang refers to bamboo shoot. I looked in my cookbook library and found Vietnamese recipes that paired bamboo shoot with chicken, duck and pork hocks (called bun mang ga, bun mang vit, bun mang gio heo, respectively).  Chicken is the fastest and easiest to make as it is readily available at any supermarket. It’s also less expensive than duck and lighter than pork.

Vietnamese food is often quite simple yet seemingly complex. That's the beauty of this preparation -- just a few average ingredients coming together for spectacular results. People have asked me what makes bun mang taste good. The answer has less to do with the protein than the quality of the bamboo shoot; for tips on buying and preparing this standard Asian ingredient, read “How to Cook Dried Bamboo Shoot.” The dried bamboo shoot lends its golden hue and naturally sweet-savory flavor to the broth for bun mang. Normally, wood ear mushroom is added for contrasting color and crunch but I love to drop in some reconstituted shiitake mushrooms so that the soup is super laden with umami goodness.