Mystery meat

May 8, 2010 8:24 AM

What did we eat? We went for banh mi (Vietnamese hoagies) and they had other goodies in a deli case. We bought some kind of small squares, about one inch per side, and maybe 3/8" thick. Each was topped with a slice of onion and a slice of jalapeño. Inside each was a whole peppercorn. It was weirdly pink - at first we thought it was some kind of sweet bean dessert. Ground, pickled(?) pork. What are they called?
posted by fixedgear to food & drink (3 answers total)

Cha lua=Vietnamese ham. The picture on the wikipedia page is mine and it's pretty crappy. The cha lua (or gio lua) is on top of the banh cuon. Here's a slightly better picture in my flickr photo stream of the same dish.

That's how I always see this sausage - perched on top of rice rolls. Still, it sounds like it might be what you had.
posted by stuart_s at 9:31 AM on May 8, 2010

Was it Nem Chua?
posted by Arbac at 10:12 AM on May 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

Nem Chua it is! It looked exactly precisely like that. We got two kinds of bin mah. One was roast pork, the other had cha lua in it, and two other mystery meats. Thanks.
posted by fixedgear at 10:56 AM on May 8, 2010