My Second-Youngest Uncle's Wife's Bun Rieu Cua (Vietnamese Shrimp and Crab Noodle Soup)

My cousin asked me if I knew how to make bun rieu cua (Vietnamese shrimp and crab noodle soup). I said I didn't but that her mother made the best so why was she asking me? And lo and behold, the other night when I was over, my second-youngest uncle's wife was making bun rieu. I had already eaten so she sent me home with this. There's a Ziploc bag with shredded cabbage, tia to (Vietnamese purple perilla), kinh gioi (Vietnamese balm), and lemon quarters, and another bag of rice vermicelli noodles.

And a big container of her special bun rieu, a tomato broth with chunks of shrimp and crab paste, pieces of shrimp, imitation crab meat, oc (Vietnamese water snails), tofu, and tomatoes.

When soups are homemade, I tend to go easy on the broth so nothing is wasted. But otherwise, quite tasty isn't it?

Here's a close-up.

With such homecooking readily available, then's been little incentive for me to learn how to make my own. Afterall, the family wouldn't cook for me if they thought I knew how to cook, would they? ;) January 4, 2010 update: I finally made my own version of bun rieu cua tom oc (Vietnamese crab and shrimp paste rice vermicelli noodle soup with sea snails).