One of the best highlights of my Hanoi trip was eating this amazing Vietnamese porridge by the roadside near my hotel. It’s called Chao Suon Sun which means ‘pork ribs & cartilage porridge’.
Unlike Cantonese style porridge in which we can find lots of ingredients like minced meat, meat slices and/or century egg, this porridge doesn’t have anything in it. Yet we can taste the sweetness of the pork broth that the paste-like porridge has been cooked in. And it is paired with the tastiest you tiao and floss on top. Heavenly combination.
Use Brown/Red Rice Instead of White Rice
For my version of Vietnamese porridge, I used brown and red rice instead of white rice. Made the broth with 1.5kg worth of pork ribs, pork soft bones (cartilage) and chicken carcasses. Covered that with water and boiled for about 1.5 hours before adding the rice to simmer for another 1.5 hours. For a more meaty bite, I also added shredded chicken breast meat.
I ran out of the Vietnamese meat floss that I bought last time so I substituted that with Chinese pork floss. And I made lots of youtiao to go with the porridge. Check out my Youtiao Recipe.
Doesn’t it look similar to the Chao Suon Sun above? 😉 What a comforting meal to have, especially on a rainy day. 🙂 Enjoy!
- 1 1/3 cup brown & red rice, wash & rinse
- 1.5kg pork ribs, soft bones & chicken carcasses
- water
- fish sauce
- 1 cooked chicken breast, shredded
- pork floss
- youtiao