Hủ tiếu — Southern Vietnam, Vietnam

Hủ tiếu is a Vietnamese noodle dish built on a broth simmered from pork bones, served over rice noodles with herbs and additional meats. It can be eaten as a soup, with the broth ladled directly over the noodles, or dry, with the broth served in a separate small bowl on the side. It is reported from Southern Vietnam, especially Saigon, where it became widely eaten from the 1960s onward and is commonly served at breakfast. Different noodle types are used from one stall to another, and the dish is closely associated with the city's street-food culture. To prepare it, pork bones are simmered for several hours with aromatics to build a clear, savoury broth, which is skimmed regularly to keep it clean. Rice noodles are blanched briefly in hot water, placed in the bowl, topped with sliced pork, sometimes shrimp or offal, and fresh herbs, then either covered with the hot broth or left dry with the broth on the side. Within the wider family of Vietnamese noodle soups, this version is distinguished by its lighter, pork-based broth rather than the beef broth used in phở, and by the option to eat it dry, tossing the noodles with a seasoned sauce rather than drinking a soup. The mix of toppings and the exact noodle used varies considerably from one vendor to the next.