Nem nuong Ninh Hoa

The dish

Fresh pork, usually leg or shoulder meat, is minced and blended with pork fat and sometimes shredded pork skin, then seasoned with garlic, sugar, salt and pepper^[1][3]. The mixture is packed around skewers, traditionally of lemongrass or bamboo, and grilled over charcoal until browned^[1].

At the table, diners build their own roll: the grilled pork goes into a sheet of rice paper, traditionally from Diên Thủy village, along with lettuce, herbs, cucumber and green mango or star fruit, and sometimes a crisp deep fried rice paper stick called chả ram^[1][3]. The roll is dipped in a thick sauce made by soaking glutinous rice overnight, then simmering it with ground pork, liver, shrimp and peanuts for five to six hours^[4].

Origin

Local tradition, as related by elders in Ninh Hòa, traces the dish to migrants who moved south from Thanh Hóa province during the Nguyễn dynasty's southward expansion, adapting their own methods of preparing pork to the ingredients available on the coast^[4]. What began as a family meal is said to have spread to Nha Trang as tourism to the coast grew, which is why the dish is sold under both the Ninh Hòa and Nha Trang names^[4].

Nha Trang and other versions

Nem nướng is sold throughout Nha Trang as well as in Ninh Hòa itself, and is often marketed there as nem nướng Nha Trang^[1]. No fetched source describes a specific difference in ingredients or method between the dish as sold in the two places; the Nha Trang trade is generally described as an extension of the Ninh Hòa original rather than as a distinct local variant^[1][3].

Recognition

Nem nướng Ninh Hòa was named among Vietnam's Top 100 specialty dishes in April 2020^[2]. On 6 January 2024, at the 53rd Vietnam Record Holders meeting in Ho Chi Minh City, the Asia Record Organization recognised it as one of five Vietnamese dishes awarded a new Asian food record that day, alongside bánh mì Sài Gòn, cơm hến of Thừa Thiên Huế, lẩu thả of Phan Thiết and bún nước lèo of Sóc Trăng^[6]. It was Khánh Hòa's second Asia Record for a food product, after the province's bird's nest had already been recognised in 2022^[6].

The trade behind it

One well documented family business is that of Đặng Văn Quyên: from the 1950s his family made nem in Ward 5 of Ninh Hòa town, and in 1987 he opened a shop at 15 Lê Lợi street in Nha Trang to sell grilled and fermented Ninh Hòa nem to customers from near and far^[5]. At the 2007 Nha Trang Sea Festival, his shop made a giant nem about 11 m long and 30 cm in diameter, weighing nearly 500 kg, built by more than 20 nem making artisans and described as the first giant fermented nem to set a record in Vietnam^[5].