Vietnamese Meatballs

Picholine's Note:

We made a delicious meal of these, Chinese eggrolls, Thai corn fritters, and nuoc cham dipping sauce. I found variations of this recipe on the web, but adjusted the amounts for the best flavor. These can also be grilled. UPDATE: I can't vouch for it being authentically Vietnamese, though the recipes I combined to make this were labeled that way. Also, I don't think fish sauce is a particularly Korean ingredient. I'd change the name to Asian Meatballs but that would mess up the URL.

• Total Time: 22 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 7 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 20 meatballs

• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef or 1 1/2 lbs pork
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon rice wine
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 egg white
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients until well blended.
2. Make 1" meatballs.
3. Put them on wooden skewers (about 4 per skewer--you kind of have to mold them on to the skewer).
4. Broil (or grill) until thoroughly cooked.

Reviews

[SarahGartland]

I made this with ground turkey and broiled them (without the skewers, I have bad luck with those!). Wow! Yummy. I served with an assortment of sauces (duck sauce, pineapple chili sauce, teriyaki, and hoisin), fried rice, and wonton soup. These were a hit!!

[Cluich]

These are quite tasty, but as a previous reviewer pointed out, they're not really Vietnamese, as pork is the common meat for such a dish in Vietnam. These are more similar to Korean-style meatballs. In fact, I even posted a recipe for Korean meatballs on this site a long while back that's similar to this one (though it also included a dipping sauce).

[FuzzyKiwi]

Hmm, I have never come across nem (meatballs) made from beef growing up as a Vietnamese American in the largest expat Vietnamese community worldwide (five cities in "The O.C." in southern Cali), or when I spent over half a year traveling throughout Vietnam recently either. As far as I know, meat nem is traditionally only made from pork. The closest thing we have to a beef nem would be Bò Lá Lót, where beef is wrapped in betel leaves and grilled. :)