Chả Cá Lã Vọng - Hanoi-Style Grilled Fish with Dill and Spring Onions
Chả Cá Lã Vọng is the only restaurant in Hanoi (and Vietnam) that was listed in the international #1 bestseller “1000 places to see before you die" by Patricia Schultz in 2003. The name of the restaurant comes from the dish that restaurant serves, ie. Chả Cá (grilled fish) and a Chinese statue named Lã Vọng that used to stand in front of the restaurant. This restaurant has been serving this special dish for more than 100 years from their great-grandfather who created this dish.
I have tried this grilled fish dish in the original restaurant in Hanoi at 14 Cha Ca Street, Hoan Kiem District as well as the well-known ‘Chả Cá Lã Vọng” restaurant in Saigon/HCMC that all of the Hanoians living in Saigon love it. It used to be on Tran Nhat Duat Street, District 1.
This is probably the Hanoi or Northern dish that I like the most. My husband was born in Hanoi so we always enjoy making this dish together. I’m the one who prepares the fish and all the other ingredients, he would be the one who lights up the BBQ and grills the fish for me. When he’s not around, I normally grill the fish on a skillet fry-pan as you can see in the below photos.
I used to use sword fish to make this dish, however as sword fish is a type of big fish that contains high level of mercury, I use any firm white fish fillet that I could buy on the day instead. My general tip for all of the Vietnamese women around the world is to use the white fish fillet that people can use to make fish steak in the country where you live. So let’s cook, don’t wait until you go back to Vietnam for this dish. I often have lots of credit when serving this dish to friends coming from Hanoi.
Chả Cá Lã Vọng (Hanoi-style Grilled Fish with Dill and Spring Onions/Scallions)
800g firm Ling white fish fillet, cut into 5mm thick pieces
1 teaspoon of ground turmeric
1.5 teaspoons shrimp paste or fish sauce
1 small galangal, sliced then crushed
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Spring onion (scallions) green part, washed, cut into 5cm long
Spring onion (scallions) white part, cut into julienne strips
2 bunches of dill, washed, cut into 5cm long
2 Vietnamese sesame rice paper crackers, microwaved on 800Watts for 1.30 minutes to puff
Roasted peanut, vermicelli noodle, perilla and mint to serve
3 tablespoons Vietnamese shrimp paste
5 tablespoons caster sugar
6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime/lemon juice
Combine fish, ground turmeric, crushed galangal, shrimp paste/fish sauce, olive oil and black pepper for at least 1 hour.
Combine spring onion green part and dill in a big bowl.
Make Shrimp Paste sauce: crush garlic and chilli using a pestle and mortar. Spoon into a bowl, add shrimp paste, caster sugar and lemon/lime juice, mix until sugar is dissolved.
Heat a frying skillet over medium heat, add one tablespoon of oil, then cook the fish, in batches, for 1-2 minutes each side.
In the meantime, heat a cast-iron frying pan over medium heat, add one tablespoon of oil, place a handful of dill and spring onions, quickly fry them through. Arrange the fried/grilled fish on top of the herbs, serve the whole pan on the table together with vermicelli noodle, crushed peanut, rice paper crackers, spring onion strips, fresh herbs and shrimp paste. (serve fish and fried herbs in batches)
How to eat: place some vermicelli noodle into a serving bowl, add some fried/grilled fish together with dill and spring onions on top, some crushed peanut, rice cracker, spring onion strips, drizzle with a little of shrimp paste and serve.
If you grill the fish on a BBQ, once the fish is cooked, transfer to a baking tray and cover with foil to keep warm and fry herbs in batches then serve.
In Vietnam, the fish, dill and spring onion are cooked on the table in a hot frying pan with plenty of oil. I prefer to stir fry the herbs before adding grilled fish to avoid consuming too much oil.
Adjust sugar, lime and shrimp paste to your liking.