Chả lụa

Chả lụa
Giò lụa

A plate of giò lụa
Type	Sausage
Place of origin	Vietnam
Media: Chả lụa Giò lụa

Giò lụa before being peeled

Sliced chả lụa served over bánh cuốn, and garnished with fried shallots

Chả lụa (Saigon: [ca᷉ lûˀə]) or giò lụa (Hanoi: [zɔ̂ lûˀə]) is the most common type of sausage in Vietnamese cuisine, made of pork and traditionally wrapped in banana leaves.

Production and consumption

Giò sống

Traditionally, chả lụa is made of lean pork, potato starch, garlic, ground black pepper, and fish sauce. The pork has to be pounded into a paste; it cannot be chopped or ground, as the meat would still be fibrous, dry, and crumbly. Near the end of the pounding period, a few spoonfuls of fish paste are added to the meat for flavor. Salt, black pepper, and sugar can also be added. The meat is now called giò sống, meaning "raw sausage", and can also be used in other dishes than sausages.

The seller is cutting chả lụa

The mixture is then wrapped tightly in banana leaves into a cylindrical shape and boiled. If the banana leaf is not wrapped tightly and water leaks inside while it is being boiled, the sausage will spoil quickly if kept at room temperature. The sausage has to be submerged vertically into boiling water; a 1 kg sausage typically takes an hour to cook.

Chả Huế in a bowl of bún bò Huế

Chả chiên

Chả quế

Other variants include:

• chả bì – containing shredded pork skin along with typical chả lụa ingredients, then steamed
• chả bò – beef sausage with herbs
• chả chiên – where the entire sausage is deep-fried (instead of steamed, omitting the banana leaf wrap)
• chả Huế – contains whole black peppercorns and more garlic and then steamed
• chả quế – sausage seasoned with powdered cinnamon, then fried, another variety of chả chiên. In Northern Vietnam, chả almost exclusively refers to this variant

Correctly made chả lụa can be stored at room temperature for about one week. Refrigerated storage is preferable; it will keep for 3 to 4 weeks.

Many Vietnamese started immigrating to the United States in the mid-1970s. Banana leaves are not readily available in the US, so Vietnamese chefs made chả lụa wrapped in aluminum foil. Where banana leaves are available a small strip of leaf is used for flavor, while still using aluminum foil to shape the sausage.

The sausage is normally sliced and eaten with bánh cuốn, bánh mì, or xôi, or braised in fish sauce and black pepper with other meat dishes. If fried, it is called chả chiên.

Popularity

Chả lụa has been incorporated into Thai cuisine under the name mu yo, and is widely eaten all over Thailand. Here it is shown with a som tam style dressing.

Yam mu yo thot khai dao is a spicy Thai salad made with fried mu yo and khai dao.

Chả lụa, also known as mu yo (Thai: หมูยอ, [mǔː jɔ̄ː]) in Thai and (Lao: ຫມູຍໍ, [mǔː jɔ̄ː]) in Lao, the term is a combination of the word mu, meaning pork, and the word giò which means ham or sausage in Vietnamese.