For some travellers to Vietnam, it’s all about the pho. I, however, am not one of them. Though this justifiably famous rice noodle dish is of course perfectly nice on occasion, especially for breakfast, I often find it bland and mushy, and, consequently, am not its greatest fan.

Not so it’s less famous, but for me far more delicious rice noodle sister, bun. Round, rather than flat, and of a texture with a little more bite than pho, bun is used in all manner of noodle soup dishes and a whole bunch of dry ones too; and, unlike its firmly Northern relative, is eaten up and down the length of Vietnam, with infinite varieties along the way. I ate bun countless times in Vietnam; here are a few of the most memorable.

I guess you could say the love affair began in Hanoi, where I fell head over heels for the city’s famous bun cha: patties and slices of barbequed, marinated pork, served in a light broth (sometimes with vegetable slices), accompanied by fresh herbs and of course, bun.

But it was the dish in the opening photo which really opened my eyes to the possibilities of bun. This is bun oc, snail and rice noodle soup. I’d been eyeing this dish up for a while before I had the opportunity to try it, which turned out to be on the afternoon of my 25th birthday, as I was wandering around the Old Quarter. On a bustling shopping street full of people making purchases for Tet, I saw this rather taciturn lady

ladling out a soup whose aroma made me instantly ravenous. I settled down on a teeny stool and waited with happy expectation – but, quell horreur! It turned out she’s just run out of snails!

Though disappointed, I decided that the broth smelled good enough to eat just on its own, and my goodness was I right: richly savoury, with a salty seafood-essence nicely balanced by tomato and the fresh herbs, it was probably the most flavoursome broth I ate in the whole of my stay in Vietnam – and seeing that I was enjoying it so much, the lady sweetly fished out a few stray snails from the bottom of the broth pot for me. They were, needless to say, amazing, but alas, far too few.

My next favourite on the bun trail was in the lovely, modest town of Quy Nhon, which, when I was there, was in full Tet swing, meaning that many eating establishments were closed. This one though,

a little streetside stall near the beachfront, wasn’t, and very lucky for me too, because the bun here (dish name unknown) was fantastic. Packed full of goodies – I wrote down ‘two kinds of sausage, barbequed meat, cucumber, shredded carrot and daikon, herbs, crispy things, peanuts, hard-boiled egg, various sauces’, but I’m pretty sure there was more – this was a bun that punched above its weight, and kept me coming back time and time again.

Finally, we come to the last, and best, stop on the bun tour – Hoi An in central Vietnam, where I ate extraordinarily well. This bun was at a stall just 5 minutes away from my hotel, which again, was so good that I had to keep on going back. The dish was bun thi nuong (grilled pork with cold rice noodles), and though I didn’t get to eat many other versions, I’d confidently say this would beat any competition hands down.

Isn’t that a mouth-watering sight? On top are deep-fried shallots and crushed peanuts; then a luscious mix of various sauces; then the meat (in this case pork); then the noodles and finally hidden away out of sight, fresh herbs and beansprouts. I’m still fantasizing about this one.