Food / From the stream banks
Lá bún
A sour wild leaf from the stream banks, pickled before cooking, with an aroma all its own.
Lá bún is the leaf of a wild plant that grows along stream banks in the Kim Phú mountains, and it is sour. Villagers pick it, pickle it, and only then cook it. It has an aroma unlike anything else, and once tasted it stays with you.
What is lá bún?
It is the leaf of the bún plant, which grows wild along the streams. Around the old Minh Hóa district, now Kim Phú and its neighbours, it is the familiar sour green of family kitchens. If you stay at a homestay, ask your host to show you the plant by the stream.
How is it cooked?
The best-known dish is ant-egg soup with lá bún, made in ant-egg season from March to May: the richness of the eggs meets the light sourness of the leaf. The rest of the year lá bún is stir-fried on its own or with stream snails, and eaten with pồi or rice.
Where to try Lá bún in Kim Phú
Most local dishes are on no restaurant menu. The surest way is to book dinner with a home cook in Tân Hóa village (200,000 VND per person, book at least a day ahead) and ask for Lá bún. Many dishes are seasonal, so your host will tell you what is available. Staying the night? Ask your homestay host when you book.
- Stream banks
- where the plant grows wild
- Pickled
- before cooking
- 3 dishes
- ant-egg soup, stir-fried, with stream snails
Try this
- Ask your host to show you the lá bún plant by the stream
- Try lá bún stir-fried with stream snails
- In ant-egg season, have the ant-egg soup
More Kim Phú dishes
From the hill fieldsPồiThe “rice” of the Nguồn people, made from corn and cassava.
From the limestoneỐc lènA snail that lives on the mountain, not in the water.From the Rục peopleRượu đoác (đoác wine)A wine that is never distilled, drawn from the top of a forest palm.From the forest · March–MayTrứng kiếnAnt eggs hunted in the forest each spring: rich, and best in a sour soup with lá bún.From the nestNhộng ongThe pupae of the forest’s fiercest wasp, turned into a home-cooked treat.