Food File: Suon Kho

It’s time to share a secret with you, a dirty little secret that will potentially expose me as a picky eater.

I don’t eat beef.

I haven’t eaten beef since I was at high school and I discovered our dog would swiftly and silently dispose of the leathery grilled steaks my Mum so lovingly prepared.

When the world was gripped by beef-fear during the mad cow disease outbreak, I felt super-smug.

When I realised that Vietnam specialises in vegetarian fake meat, that feeling of smugness bubbled up again. I realised in Vietnam, I can eat fake beef and experience the wonders of beef dishes without that yukky beef taste. Score!

But there is one dish that taunts me: bò kho, Vietnamese beef stew. It looks and smells amazing and I have half-eaten bowls, picking out the vegetables and using pieces of baguette to soak up the rich broth. The chunks of beef are left to languish in the bottom of the bowl.

The times I have half-finished a bowl of bò kho, I have felt distinctly unsatisfied. I know I am missing out on something great but I just can’t eat beef.

So when I saw a sign in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 5 advertising sườn kho (pork stew), I was across the road and seated in a tiny chair quicker than you can say “it’s not beef”.

Oh my. Sườn kho is fantastic.

This version was actually hủ tiếu sườn kho, meaning that there were hủ tiếu noodles hiding in the broth.

But the noodles weren’t enough for me. I sent Darling Man off on a baguette-hunting expedition so I could soak up every last drop of the broth, which was thick and hearty and lemongrassy.

Even if you eat beef, I recommend you track down some suon kho.

This version is sold at 63 Pho Co Dieu, District 5, Ho Chi Minh City. (I was so deeply in my street food trance that I missed the name of the place.)

If you haven’t done so already, like The Dropout Diaries on Facebook

By: Barbara

A career girl who dropped out, traveled, found love, and never got around to going home again. Now wrangling a cross-cultural relationship and two third culture kids.