Bún Bò Huế

Cover the bones and pork knuckle with cold water, bring to the boil for 5 minutes, then drain everything and rinse both the meat and the pot. Refill with 5 litres of fresh cold water.

Add the beef shank, the six whole lemongrass stalks, salt and rock sugar. Simmer gently for 2 hours, skimming often. Take the shank out after about 90 minutes, once a skewer slides in easily, and cool it.

💡 Cool the shank completely before slicing — ideally in the fridge. Hot beef shreds under the knife; cold beef gives you clean, thin slices.

Make the chilli oil: warm the annatto seeds in 6 tbsp oil for a minute, strain them out, then fry the minced lemongrass, shallots and garlic in that orange oil until soft. Stir in the chilli flakes off the heat.

💡 Chilli flakes burn in seconds and turn bitter. Always add them after the pan comes off the heat.

Dissolve the mắm ruốc in a ladle of hot broth, let the grit settle for a minute, then pour the clear liquid into the pot. Add the fish sauce and half the chilli oil, and simmer 30 minutes more.

💡 Straight from the jar, mắm ruốc smells alarming. Thirty minutes in the pot turns it into the savoury backbone of the whole broth — this step is not skippable.

Taste and correct: it should be salty, sour-free, hot, and lemongrass-forward, with the shrimp paste sitting underneath everything rather than on top. Adjust with fish sauce and sugar a teaspoon at a time.

Cook the noodles until just tender, drain, and divide between six deep bowls. Lay on the sliced shank and a round of pork knuckle, ladle the boiling broth over, and float a spoon of the remaining chilli oil on top.

Send the herbs, banana blossom, red onion and lime to the table on a separate plate. Everyone tears and drops in their own — this is the last stage of cooking, not decoration.