Bánh Hỏi with Scallion Oil
Bánh hỏi mỡ hành
Bình Định's woven rice-vermicelli mats, brushed with scallion oil and laid beside grilled meat — the wedding-tray classic, made easy with dried bánh hỏi.
By Vietnamese Cookbook Kitchen · March 7, 2026
The South Central CoastThe Lê Dynasty era, 1428–1789
Bánh- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Serves
- 4
- Level
- Beginner
Bánh hỏi belongs to Bình Định the way lace belongs to Bruges. The province — Quy Nhơn's hinterland on the south-central coast — claims the craft, and the villages around An Nhơn still press it fresh every morning: rice dough forced through dies fine enough that the strands measure under a millimeter, then laid in flat woven mats and steamed. It is ceremony food first — no Bình Định wedding tray or đám giỗ (death-anniversary feast) is complete without it — and breakfast food second, served with pork offal as bánh hỏi lòng heo. The name's origin is argued about; one story says diners kept asking (hỏi) what the strange lacework was. That is a story, told with a straight face.
Abroad, the dried version turns a two-day artisan product into a fifteen-minute one, and the results are honestly good. The rule that matters: bánh hỏi is a fabric, not a noodle — cook it, rest it, and lift it in sheets. The scallion oil is structural, keeping every thread separate and supple, and the mat becomes a wrapper that holds grilled pork better than rice paper holds anything. Somewhere in An Nhơn a press is squeaking before dawn; the least we can do is not mangle the weave.
Oil the mats while they are still warm — mỡ hành soaks into warm bánh hỏi and merely sits on cold. Cold mats also crack when you lift them; warm ones bend.
Lời đầu bếp · A word from the kitchen
Ingredientsnguyên liệu
Serves 4
Bánh hỏi
- 200 gdried bánh hỏi — about 7 oz — sold in flat cellophane packs at Vietnamese markets, often labeled with An Nhơn or Bình Định; regular rice vermicelli is not the same weave
Mỡ hành (scallion oil)
- 6scallions — green parts only, sliced into thin rings; save the whites for the grill marinade
- 80 mlneutral oil — 1/3 cup — rice bran, canola, or peanut
- 1/4 tspfine salt
- 1/4 tspsugar
To serve
- 500 ggrilled pork — about 1 lb — thịt nướng from the bún chả playbook, roast pork belly, or nem nướng all belong here
- 1plate of herbs — lettuce, mint, perilla, and cucumber batons
- 240 mlnước chấm — 1 cup — the foundations recipe, mixed a touch stronger than for noodles
Methodcách làm
Step 1: Make the mỡ hành
Put the scallion rings, salt, and sugar in a heatproof bowl. Heat the oil in a small pan until it shimmers — about 160°C, or when a test ring sizzles on contact — and pour it over. The scallions should fizz, turn vivid green, and stop; if they brown, the oil was too hot.
Step 2: Boil the bánh hỏi
Drop the dried sheets into a large pot of unsalted boiling water and stir once, gently. They need only 2 to 3 minutes — check the packet, then check a strand a minute early. You want tender with a whisper of bite; the strands finish softening as they cool.
Step 3: Drain and set the mats
Drain in a colander and rinse briefly with warm — not cold — water to stop the surface starch from gluing everything into one brick. Lift the noodles in palm-sized layers onto a plate, patting each into a loose flat mat. This resting knits the fine strands back into the woven sheets they were extruded to be.
Step 4: Oil while warm
Spoon mỡ hành generously over the warm mats, tilting the plate so oil finds the edges. The oil is not garnish — it keeps the fine strands separate, supple, and rollable for the next hour.
Step 5: Serve as a build-your-own tray
Lay the bánh hỏi beside the grilled meat, herbs, and nước chấm. Eaters lift a whole mat, wrap it around a piece of meat with a leaf or two, and dip. A mat torn in half is fine; a mat mangled into loose noodles has missed the point.
Đồ nghề · The tools
Equipment
Charcoal grill / grill pan
Vỉ nướngNướng means fire, and lemongrass pork wants char and smoke. A small charcoal grill is the true answer; a screaming-hot cast-iron grill pan under a cracked window is the honest apartment one.
Shop on Amazon →Bamboo steamer
Xửng hấpFor bánh bao, xôi, and fish steamed whole — bamboo breathes, so nothing drips condensation back onto your work. Line it with a cabbage leaf, not parchment, and steal the leaf after.
Shop on Amazon →
Equipment links are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you. Disclosure.
Questions from the kitchen
Can I use regular rice vermicelli instead?
You can eat the same flavors, but it becomes bún, not bánh hỏi. The dish's identity is the weave — strands fine as thread, pressed into sheets you can pick up like fabric. Ordinary vermicelli is too thick to knit and falls apart as strands.
Why did my mats fuse into one solid slab?
Overcooking, cold rinsing, or stacking them wet. Pull the noodles a minute before they seem done, rinse warm, and set the mats in a single layer with mỡ hành between. The oil is the anti-glue.
What do Bình Định locals actually eat this with?
The canonical breakfast is bánh hỏi lòng heo — the mats served with boiled pork offal and a bowl of rice porridge. Abroad, grilled pork is the friendlier gateway; the mats do not care what they wrap.
Nấu tiếp · Cook next
Keep the burner on
BánhThe World of Bánh·85 min·Intermediate
Hải Phòng Bánh BèoBánh bèo Hải Phòng
Hải Phòng's square bánh bèo — banana-leaf steamed rice cakes under a pork and wood ear topping, dunked in a peppery bone-broth dipping sauce.
BánhThe World of Bánh·40 min·Beginner
Smashed Rice Crackers with Baby ClamsBánh đập hến xào
Cẩm Nam's two-texture trick — a wet rice sheet smacked onto a crisp cracker, broken by hand, and dipped beside baby clams sautéed hot with lemongrass.
BánhThe World of Bánh·70 min·Intermediate
Sizzling CrêpesBánh xèo
The south's giant turmeric-and-coconut crêpe, fried lacy-crisp around shrimp and pork, then torn, rolled in lettuce with herbs, and dragged through nước chấm.