Located in a small alley at 194 Vo Van Tan, Ward 6, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, Auntie Ut's Bo Kho restaurant is a familiar destination for food lovers. The restaurant has been around for over 30 years and has been passed down through 3 generations. The beef stew here is unique because of the combination of two familiar yet strange Vietnamese and Indian flavors that diners cannot help but love.
As soon as you enter the small alley, you can immediately smell the unique, extremely attractive aroma emanating from the steaming pot of broth. Without a flashy facade or a bright sign, Aunt Ut's Beef Stew restaurant attracts and holds customers from near and far with its unique flavor that cannot be found in any other beef stew restaurant.
The beef stew here is unique because of the combination of two familiar yet strange Vietnamese and Indian flavors.
The Vietnamese-Indian beef stew restaurant, over 30 years old, is a familiar destination for many diners.
Diners dine on small plastic tables and chairs set up in front of the house by the owner. On the small table are a variety of spices such as lemon, chili, pepper, fish sauce, chili salt, herbs, etc. to adjust to their taste. The front room is used as a kitchen where the charcoal-fired broth pot is placed, along with many other spices and ingredients. The back room is where the family lives.
The restaurant space gives diners a nostalgic feeling of the old days with the green walls stained with the years, the wall of the broth cooking area has turned gray-brown due to the smoke rising from the kitchen.
On rainy days in Saigon, sitting on a small plastic chair and enjoying a hot, delicious bowl of beef stew will be a wonderful experience. The first impression of this bowl of beef stew is the broth with a super eye-catching deep orange-red color and a very attractive layer of shimmering fat, a color that we often see in Indian dishes.
Beef stew conquers diners with its delicious, rich flavor of broth and sweet, soft beef.
The ingredients are still the usual ones in Vietnamese beef stew such as: beef, onions, green onions and carrots, but when you enjoy it, you will feel a very special and strange yet familiar flavor because it is a perfect combination of Vietnamese and Indian flavors. The way to enjoy this dish also has many Vietnamese features when adding lemon, chili and herbs. This is something we often see when enjoying dishes such as: pho, hu tieu, bun rieu...
Diners love the rich, delicious flavor of the broth, the sweet, tender pieces of beef, and the peaceful atmosphere of a small alley in the middle of a bustling, noisy city, with the radio echoing, taking us back to the old days.
Mr. Nguyen Khac Hieu, 52 years old, District 7 shared: “I have been eating at this beef stew restaurant for about 15-20 years. I often stop by to enjoy the restaurant at noon, because many days the restaurant is sold out by 3 pm. The beef stew here has a particularly delicious flavor, and the color is also darker than other places."
Mr. Nguyen Khac Hieu has been a regular customer of the restaurant for many years.
Sharing the same feeling, Mr. Tran Hanh Nam, 40 years old, in Binh Thanh district shared: "I have been eating beef stew at this restaurant for about 7 or 8 years. The flavor of the beef stew here is very easy to eat, not too strong smelling because the owner has adjusted it to suit Vietnamese taste. I stop by every day on my way to work, because I am not used to eating at other places."
Mr. Tay, the son of Aunt Ut, shared: “The beef stew restaurant was opened in 1993 by my grandparents. My grandfather was Indian, my grandmother was Vietnamese. Later, the restaurant was passed down to my mother. At first, this dish was cooked for family members to enjoy. Then, the family realized that in Saigon there were many types of beef stew from Chinese and Vietnamese people, but few people sold Indian ones, so they came up with the idea of selling this dish. From there, the Vietnamese-Indian beef stew flavor was born."
The beef stew restaurant was opened in 1993.
The beef is carefully selected, the cook also needs to pay attention to the meat fibers when slicing to ensure deliciousness.
During the cooking process, to suit Vietnamese taste, the family reduced the spices somewhat. The Westerner explained that if it followed Indian standards, Vietnamese people would have a hard time eating it, as the beef stew was very rich and spicy.
Tay’s family spends the morning preparing the ingredients, cooking the broth… From 4 or 5 am, Tay goes to the stove to choose the best beef that is not too tough, not too soft. Then the beef is cleaned, sliced, stir-fried with spices and ingredients until firm, and stewed with broth.
According to Mr. Tay, the broth is the most important and time-consuming part because it makes the soul of the dish. The family does not use stewed bones but mainly beef and other ingredients and spices. He shared that to make a pot of delicious broth, it requires more than ten different spices.
For more than 30 years, that flavor has remained lingering, attracting diners year after year.
The restaurant opens from around 12 noon until sold out. Diners can choose dishes to go with beef stew such as: Hu Tieu, Pho, Banh Mi, and Mi, all priced at 50,000 VND/serving.
More than just a dish, diners enjoying Vietnamese-Indian beef stew will feel the cultural exchange, cuisine and family tradition, where the flavor is preserved from generation to generation. For more than 30 years, that flavor has remained lingering, attracting diners year after year.
