Meatballs adapted to Vietnamese taste

Tea Side Dish from Hohhot City

For a long time, popular dishes have followed the footsteps of Chinese immigrants to Saigon, and then became typical dishes of the Cho Lon area. Saigon cuisine is delicious thanks to the harmony of all dishes, without distinction, without calculation of origin, as long as it is suitable for the life, taste and eating habits of the people here.

The same goes for the cute little meatballs. They have been around for so long that people have forgotten that they were originally just a side dish to the tea rations of the people of Hohhot city (Inner Mongolia - China).

In a tea party, meatballs are often ordered with dumplings. Meatballs is the Vietnamese name, and sù mai is the Chinese transliteration. The Chinese in the Cho Lon area still maintain the traditional way of preparing them.

Meatballs are made from minced pork, vegetables (cassava, chopped onions), crushed breadcrumbs, green onions, seasoning, kneaded, rolled into small, even balls and steamed in bamboo steamers. The dipping sauce is made from minced tomatoes, oyster sauce, sugar, and the juice from the steamed meat.

Meatball sandwich bakeries usually have a secret family recipe for meatball sauce. It is unclear what spices they add to that beautifully colored, fragrant, and fatty sauce.

A student like me back then only needed to buy a loaf of bread with meatball sauce, without any meatballs inside, and it was still delicious... painfully so. The deliciousness of that loaf of bread during those difficult times, until now, still remains intact even after enjoying all kinds of the most luxurious bread.

Special dishes of the land of thousands of flowers

Through many “drifting clouds”, the fragrant meatball chose Da Lat as the place to display its most attractive identity. Da Lat meatball gradually became “localized”, it is so familiar that sometimes people think this place is the real birthplace of this popular but quintessential dish.

Since before the 1960s, meatballs have been present here, gradually becoming popular, then changing with different types of pickles, the accompanying soup also has a few pieces of fatty pork skin.

Da Lat meatball sandwiches are famous far and wide, partly because of the way they are eaten, which is somewhat similar to the French: dipping the bread in soup. A dish that is the “quintessence of convergence” of Eastern and Western cultures but popular among the common people in Vietnam, meatball sandwiches make visitors from far away admire this interesting fusion.

In the latest essay “Da Lat - the city in the album” (Tre Publishing House - 2025), author Nguyen Vinh Nguyen gave the following compliments to this famous delicacy: “When the common people of Da Lat eat breakfast with bread dipped in a bowl of soup with a few pieces of shredded papaya, green coriander sprinkled on top, and each meatball meticulously carved, then the life of the “sù mai” has been completely localized. The pork skin in the broth is often added free of charge by the restaurant owner for customers who prefer healthy, Renaissance-style delicacies.”

One thing in common is that people from Saigon and Da Lat both like to eat bread and meatballs for breakfast with a cup of coffee, and if it is filtered coffee, it is even more "authentic".

So, even though at first, meatballs were just a side dish ordered during tea parties of businessmen and traders in Son Tay; through Vietnam, drifting to the land of thousands of flowers, they naturally became a main dish that is no less favored than regional specialties.

With its loyalty, meatballs are considered a perfect “companion” to the familiar sandwich. The round, soft and fatty steamed meatballs have helped Vietnamese people redefine the way to eat sandwich in a comfortable, refreshing and delicious way.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/vien-xiu-mai-bien-tau-theo-khau-vi-viet-3155015.html