A quick pickle of daikon radish and carrot in a sweetened rice vinegar brine — the standard Vietnamese pickle that accompanies bánh mì, bún chả, cơm tấm, and many other Vietnamese preparations. Unlike the traditional fermented pickle (dưa muối — brine-fermented vegetables), đồ chua is made with vinegar rather than through fermentation, producing a pickle ready in 30 minutes and stored for up to 2 weeks. Its function is identical to the French cornichon or the Burmese pickled mustard greens: acid and crunch as a counterpoint to rich, caramelised, or fatty preparations.
**The vegetables:** - Daikon (củ cải trắng): peeled, julienned to 5mm × 5mm × 8cm matchsticks. If julienned thicker: the brine does not penetrate to the centre in the 30-minute rest period. - Carrot: julienned to the same dimensions. **The brine:** - Rice vinegar: 125ml (mild white rice vinegar — not Chinkiang black vinegar). - Sugar: 3 tablespoons (the brine is notably sweet — the sweetness moderates the acidity of the vinegar and produces the characteristic sweet-sour Vietnamese pickle flavour rather than a sour-only Western-style pickle). - Salt: 1 teaspoon. - Water: 125ml. Heat to dissolve the sugar and salt. Cool. **The salt-wilting step:** Before adding to the brine: toss the julienned daikon and carrot with 1 teaspoon of salt. Rest 10 minutes. The salt draws surface moisture from the vegetables through osmosis, slightly wilting them. Squeeze gently. Rinse under cold water. This step removes excess moisture that would dilute the brine, and slightly pre-softens the vegetables so they absorb the brine more rapidly. **The brine:** Submerge the salt-wilted, rinsed vegetables in the brine. Rest 30 minutes minimum before serving. After 30 minutes: the vegetables should taste distinctly sweet-sour and slightly translucent at the cut edges. After 1 hour: more deeply pickled, slightly softer. Decisive moment: The sweet-sour balance of the brine — the ratio of vinegar to sugar. Vietnamese đồ chua is significantly sweeter than most Western pickles — the sugar level is what distinguishes it from a pure acid pickle. Taste the brine before adding vegetables: it should taste like a very slightly diluted sweet-sour candy — immediately sweet, with a clean acid follow.
Naomi Duguid & Jeffrey Alford, *Hot Sour Salty Sweet* (2000); Naomi Duguid, *Burma: Rivers of Flavor* (2012)