Bún thang

As tradition built it

Serves 4 to 6. About 2 hours.

Ingredients

• 1 chicken, whole
• 200 g giò lụa (pork sausage), sliced fine
• 2 eggs, made into a thin omelette and sliced fine
• 50 g dried radish, 20 dried shiitake, 50 g dried shrimp, 2 to 3 dried squid tentacles dried radish, dried shiitake, dried shrimp, dried squid tentacle
• as available pork bone, for the stock
• 1 salted egg yolk
• to serve bún rối (loose rice vermicelli), herbs

Method

1. Simmer the chicken with roasted shallot and roasted ginger until cooked; remove and shock in cold water for a firm, springy texture, then shred.
2. Add blanched pork bone to the chicken cooking liquid and simmer further to extract stock; add dried shrimp, dried squid tentacle and dried shiitake with a little rock sugar, simmering 2 to 3 hours.
3. Arrange the shredded chicken, giò lụa, egg and dried radish in careful, colour-separated sections over the noodles, with the salted egg yolk placed centrally, "like the sun."
4. Pour the hot broth around the bowl in two passes: the first poured off via the ladle held over the bowl and discarded, the second poured properly, specifically to avoid disturbing the arrangement, finishing with the herbs.

What a modern chef changes

The colour discipline made deliberate, not incidental

Rung 6, applied to a soup rather than a plate

Method

1. Compose each topping in its own distinct wedge or line, treating the bowl itself as the colour-and-portion canvas Huế's plating principle already describes, rather than scattering ingredients evenly.
2. Pour in two passes as the tradition specifies, since this is not decorative fussiness but the actual mechanism that keeps the arrangement intact once broth is added.
3. Serve promptly once assembled, since the whole point of this dish's presentation is lost within minutes as broth and garnish begin to merge.