Ribs - Vietnamese Inspried

The Vietnamese joint near my work has been closed during this whole Covid thing, and I needed a fix, so I took things in to my own hands. I picked up some ribs a few weeks back and had been planning on smoking them this weekend. I tried to find a way to cook them with a Vietnamese angle.

Started with the rub. Some five spice, ginger, lemongrass, garlic, fish sauce, lemon zest, brown sugar, and red pepper.





Threw them on the smoker and waited. I debated using wood or not, as everything I ate in Vietnam was either cooked with charcoal or gas, but it in the end I threw some apple wood in there just because.



I wanted these fairly fall off the bone for the final product, so I wrapped after a few hours. I know some are not fans of fall of the bone, but when you see the final product it will make sense.



In the meantime, I pulled together some pickled carrots and some dipping sauce. The dipping sauce was inspired by what you get with bun cha. It was homebrew rice lager, fish sauce, brown sugar, water, lemongrass, ginger, onion, five spice, and pepper. Pretty close to the rub I used on the ribs.





Ribs all done and ready to be broken off the bone.



As far as eating these, I used lettuce and rolled them up with vermicelli, pickled carrots, cilantro, and the ribs. Dip the whole thing in the dipping sauce and chow down.





All in all I was pleased. It scratched the itch. The ribs were not my best effort as far as tenderness. They came out a little drier than I prefer. The lettuce didn't quite roll as easily as some of the greens they have in Vietnam, but I don't know how to fix that. I'll give it another go at some point, but not right away. It was a good bit of work and I'm not sure if it was worth the effort.