Beef and Carrot Stew, Vietnamese Style

Beef and Carrot Stew, a photo by raise my voice on Flickr.

A menu item I find quite frequently on the menus of Vietnamese pho restaurants is a beef and carrot stew. Since stew is usually considered a western meal, I am guessing this has something to do with the influence of the French.

Today, I returned to Pho Binh with a co-worker and I opted for the stew instead of my usual bowl of pho. The stew is almost like another form of soup. The noodles, hunks of well-done beef, and carrots are in a deeply flavourful broth that is almost like pho, with a rich, meaty flavour. One can opt for bread instead of noodles - again, this seems French to me.

I found the stew to be a hearty, delicious alternative to pho and vermicelli. The pieces of meat are quite large and I had to use a fork to navigate my way through them. There weren't many carrots, but the ones that were there were still firm.

Just be careful not to splash any of that broth on yourself or you will have orange stains on your clothes for the rest of the day. Trust me.