VN shortribs versus American countryribs

Pork is a common meat in Vietnam, many dishes use various parts of the pig. Even the blood of the pig is used in some dishes. One of the common dishes that is hard to find in a restaurant is the short rib.

The short rib is a rib cut by a heavy cleaver. It is big enough for a person to pick up with their chopsticks, place in your mouth and for you to chew the meat off the bone in your mouth and spit out the bone. Beware of the bone splinters.

The American country rib is a rib that is part of the infamous full and half rack of ribs that a person finds at a barbecue.

Here are the recipes:

Vietnamese Short Ribs

Serves: 2

500 grams pork short ribs
sugar
salt
fish sauce
pepper
2 shallots
2 cloves garlic
oil
1 young coconut

-Slice/chop the garlic and shallots
-Put the ribs in a bowl, place in a tsp of sugar and salt, about a tbs for fish sauce and mix it all together. Put the chopped/sliced garlic and shallots on top.
-Let marinate for 30 to 45 minutes.
-Heat up a pan, put in a small amount of oil and 1/2 tsp of sugar. Cook the sugar until it is a very light gold, remove from heat and put in the pork.
-Cook the pork ribs in the pan until the meat is cooked. As the meat is cooking, cut the top off of the coconut and pour out the juice in the pan.
-Bring the liquid to a boil, then lower the heat to low for a simmer. Cook the meat until the liquid is gone.
(You can eat the meat without cooking it in the coconut juice, but it is tough)
(You can replace the coconut juice with water, but the flavor is not as good)
(Do not marinate the pork ribs in sugar if you use canned coconut juice it is already sweetened)
(Make sure it is coconut juice and not coconut milk)

In Vietnamese tradition. You eat it with rice and fresh salad greens. I will detail the dressing/dipping sauce for the salad greens.

American BBQ Ribs

Serves 2

500 g (half rack) pork ribs aka country ribs
Barbecue sauce
Salt
Pepper

-Heat up the grill on a medium setting on one burner and off on another burner. Or mentally not the hot and cold spots if using charcoal.
-Rub salt and pepper on the ribs.
-Place the ribs on the direct heat or hot area of the charcoals. You want to sear the ribs.
-Once the ribs are seared, place them on the indirect heat or cod spot. Gently brush on the bbq sauce as they cook.
-Eat while hot
(If you can get Dave' BBQ Sauce from Kansas City, you are lucky)
(You can boil the meat first, it leeches out a bit of the flavor, but it makes the meat tender)

Americans are a bit more savage when it comes to ribs. We use our hands and even at the nicer restaurants we need excess napkins to keep ourselves clean. But we do not have to worry about splinters of bone. They are consumed with mashed potatoes and some vegetable that is usually pushed aside, unless it is corn on the cob.

VN BBQ Half Rack

Serves: 2

500 g pork ribs (country ribs)
sugar
salt
fish sauce
garlic
shallots


-Slice individual ribs and boil them in salty water for a few minutes.
-Chop the garlic and shallot. Marinate the pork ribs in sugar, salt, fish sauce, garlic, shallots and oil.
-Grill the ribs over direct heat.


If you are looking for agood quality fish sauce from Vietnam. My suggestion is Hanh Phuc Fish Sauce. It is such a good quality that it is used for dipping and not cooking (too expensive). There are many types of fish sauce from many different countries, each one will have a different flavor. Thai and Vietnames are the most commonly imported, maybe Korean fish sauce, but I am unsure.