Bún

First, a few things about Los Angeles: 

Maybe this is just the area I live in, but all the Vietnamese restaurants in my vicinity are overpriced and not that great.  Sure, they tout being organic and stuff but the pho broth is always lacking flavor and the banh mi sandwiches are always too overstuffed with unnecessary fanciness.  I had no idea Vietnamese was so hip, but of course Los Angeles would adopt Vietnamese cuisine as trendy, of course.  Still, the best Vietnamese food in Southern California is in Westminster's Little Saigon, I think.  Oh Grace, we'll have to go back to Westminster for those crunchy pork spring rolls.  

Okay, strange aside about Los Angeles' ability to ruin things with fanciness, over.  

One of my favorite Vietnamese dishes is Bún, which is a combination of vermicelli noodles with picked carrot and daikon, cilantro, nuoc cham, and often topped with a type of meat.  My personal favorite Bún meat is lemongrass chicken.  I've never tried making it but I recently bought some daikon and carrot pickles at Nijiya Market at Sawtelle and thought they'd be put to good use in some Vietnamese food.  I didn't have lemongrass chicken but I did have a frozen salmon filet, which I marinated and baked in a miso/honey/soy sauce glaze.  I baked the salmon before going to school so that I could quickly assemble my dinner when I got home and as a result, Bún was all I could think about all throughout class.  I made a simple nuoc cham out of fish sauce, water, sugar, and lime juice.  I don't think I've ever seen Bún with salmon, but I can't imagine why it isn't done because it was a combination that made a lot of sense to my mouth.  

Another aside: I love cold noodles.  Why aren't there more cold noodles in the world?  It's like eating a carb-y starchy salad.