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Bo nuong ngoi (tile-grilled beef), a specialty of the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang, is now available at Ben Thanh night market in the city’s District 1 - Photo: Kieu Giang
A long National Day holiday gave me a great chance to discover new tastes in town. This time, I was lucky enough to chance upon bo nuong ngoi (tile-grilled beef), a popular specialty of Soc Trang Province at a shop on the sidestreet whilst I browsed the Ben Thanh night market in the city’s District 1 for new accessories.
A shop named simply B1, located on the market’s East gate on Phan Boi Chau Street, is where you can stop by to try beef served in a new cooking style. The waiter will bring diners a small coal cooker, a dish of beef soaked in sesame and lemongrass, a tile to grill beef, a bowl of cooking oil and set of bun (rice vermicelli), vegetables, banh trang (paper cake) and mam nem (a sauce made from fish or shrimp).
Diners need to wait for the tile to be burnt to maximum, then spread cooking oil on the surface of a tile and grill the beef as rare or well done as you like. During grilling, diners can pour cooking oil onto the beef to make it more delicious.
A note for gourmets is that they should put the cooking oil bowl right under the tile to catch falling oil drops.
What I like most about this food is the delicious smell of grilled beef on charcoal fire rising in the air and a savory taste as you dip a roll consisting of beef with bun and vegetables with banh trang in fish sauce. The juicy beef mingles with the salty taste of fish sauce and fresh taste of vegetables is a great delight.
Some guests will ask the seller to make the food ready to eat but it is recommended to cook yourself as the food is still piping hot when you take it and especially grilling the beef in a new way is very interesting.
Diners can find tile-grilled beef priced at VND105,000 per portion (it’s enough for two) at a food shop named B1 from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. There is free motorbike parking for guests at the shop.
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