Pork floss substitutes

The same product from a different animal and by far the closest option. Chicken floss is a shade lighter and sweeter than pork with a slightly finer, softer thread. Fish floss, cha bong ca, is saltier and drier with a clear seafood note that is very good on rice porridge and a little odd on a sweet banh mi.

Best for

banh mi, xoi and sticky rice, congee, rice paper rolls and snacks

These sit next to pork floss in Vietnamese and Chinese groceries and cost about the same. If a household avoids pork for religious reasons, chicken or fish floss is the direct answer.

The best-tasting option and cheaper than buying it. Shred cooked pork shoulder very fine along the grain, then dry-fry it in a wide pan over low heat with fish sauce and a little sugar until it is completely dry and fluffs up. Fresher and much less sweet than commercial floss, with a rounder pork flavour, and the strands are coarser and shorter.

Best for

banh mi, using up leftover roast or braised pork, controlling the sugar and salt, sticky rice

It must be bone dry before you take it off the heat, twenty to thirty minutes of patient low-heat stirring. Any remaining moisture and it clumps into damp threads within a day and will not keep.

This does not look like pork floss but it plays a remarkably similar part on a sandwich or a bowl of xoi: dry, savoury, sweet round the edges, and crunchy against something soft. What you lose is the meaty depth and the fluffy volume, and what you gain is a sharper allium sweetness and more actual crunch.

Best for

banh mi, xoi and sticky rice, vegetarian versions, congee

Buy the ready-fried shallots in a tub rather than making them, and add them just before eating so they stay crisp. Toss with a scant quarter teaspoon of sugar and a pinch of salt per two tablespoons.

Purpose-built for exactly this position on a bowl of rice or congee: dry, salty, deeply savoury, sprinkled at the end. It tastes of sesame and seaweed rather than meat, so a congee finished with it reads as Japanese rather than Vietnamese, but the salt-and-umami function is fully covered and it is far easier to find.

Best for

congee and rice porridge, plain rice bowls, no-meat versions, kids

Many furikake blends contain bonito or dried fish, so check the label for a vegetarian version. Use less than you think, because it is much saltier by volume than pork floss.

Right on salt and meatiness, wrong on almost everything else. Bacon is smoky and greasy where floss is dry and sweet, and that grease is a real problem on a banh mi because it defeats the moisture-barrier job the floss was doing. On congee it is actually good, just clearly a different dish.

Best for

congee and rice porridge, savoury toast, when it is the only cured pork in the house

Cook it past crisp, blot it hard, and crumble it as fine as you can. A pinch of sugar tossed through helps it read closer to floss and less like a breakfast.

The honest answer for a banh mi that already has pate and cold cuts in it: the floss is a layer of extra savoury interest, not a structural component, and the sandwich survives without it. On plain congee or plain xoi, where the floss is most of the seasoning, leaving it out gives you a genuinely bland bowl, so you do need to replace the salt from somewhere.

Best for

loaded banh mi with several other fillings, avoiding a special shopping trip

For congee, a half teaspoon of fish sauce, a spoon of fried shallots and a scattering of scallion covers most of the gap with things you probably have.