Chả Cá

Chả cá is turmeric-marinated white fish fried tableside with dill and spring onion until the herbs wilt into the oil, then folded with rice noodles, peanuts and more herbs into each diner's own bowl. It's a Hanoi dish so specifically tied to one restaurant, Chả Cá Lã Vọng, that the street it opened on more than a century ago was eventually renamed Chả Cá Street — the dish and the address are still spoken of as a pair.

What it really is

Firm white fish marinates in turmeric and galangal, then fries at the table in a small pan set over a portable burner, with a generous handful of dill and spring onion added directly to the sizzling oil so the herbs cook down rather than sitting on top raw. Each diner builds their own bowl from the shared pan — fish and wilted herbs over rice noodles, topped with crushed peanuts, more raw herbs and a squeeze of lime, dipped in a shrimp-paste-and-lime sauce called mắm tôm or a milder fish-sauce dip.

Frying at the table, not in the kitchen, is central to how the dish is eaten and understood. The fish keeps cooking and the dill keeps wilting throughout the meal, so the last bite of fish tastes noticeably different from the first — a moving target the dish is built around rather than a flaw in the format.

How it's served

• Tableside, in a small pan over a portable burner, fish and herbs fried together as the meal progresses.
• Assembled by each diner into their own bowl, over rice noodles with peanuts and more herbs.
• With a shrimp-paste-lime dip or a milder fish-sauce dip alongside.

How to write it on the menu

• Flag the fish and the peanuts.
• Say which dipping sauce is served, since mắm tôm's fermented shrimp-paste flavour is far more assertive than a plain fish-sauce dip and some guests will want to choose.
• Note that it's cooked and assembled at the table, since a guest expecting a plated dish may not recognise the format.