cattle-meat-noodles
April 17th, 2007
According to Wikipidea, beef noodle soup or cattle-meat-noodles, is common through out East Asia and Southeast Asia. Apparently the Vietnamese Bo kho, is a version of this Chinese dish. It was first made by the Ethic Chinese Muslim group, Hui. I had a bowl at Blue Sky this week.
I plan to eat many of these soups. It seems that it’s a very popular dish in many countries. Loved enough in Taipei to inspire the annual Taipei Beef Noodles Festival. The one I had at Blue Sky was not fantastic, I’m hoping to find better.
The soup consisted of a dense beef stock, that seemed to me considerably flavour enhanced. It was slightly thickened with rice flour or something similar. This didn’t help it’s over all look, making it seem a little congealed. The egg noodles were nothing to rave about. They were of the common commercial dried Singapore variety. The bowl was stacked with large chunks of cheapish stewed steak.
The most interesting part of the soup were a number of Star Anise pods in the stock. These were surprisingly pleasant.
The Beef Noddle Soup was $7.00 with a tall glass of tea. Good value.
Blue Sky Chinese Restaurant - (03) 9663 9888 - 7 Waratah Place Melbourne 3000
April 22nd, 2007 at 5:21 am
Love the paisley cow.
April 22nd, 2007 at 6:20 am
Thanks for reading R.
April 22nd, 2007 at 6:29 am
Are you straying too far from home noodle?
I just had a delicious bowl of rare beef noodle soup at my favourite pho shop on Victoria Street. It’s called Hung Vuong 2 and is quite close to the Nicholson St intersection.
The pieces of beef in their soups are always juicy and tender. After my bowl arrived I spent the first minute of dinner time watching the bright blood-red tops of the rare meat pieces that floated on top of the broth turn first pink and then into the grey of just-cooked beef.
Have you strayed too far from pho with your cattle-beef-noodle dish so beloved in Taipei? Come back to the pho-ld.
April 22nd, 2007 at 7:21 am
Yes Spencer J, I do seem to be getting a little distracted by rival noodle soups. I’m only trying to understand pho and it’s origins. I think researching other dishes that may in some way be connected is reasonably valid.
Anyway it’s called noodleoodle, not phởodleoodle.
I need to get back to Hung Vuong 2 asap!
April 23rd, 2007 at 10:00 am
Think your blog clock is wrong - I definitely was not writing at 5:21 in the morning!
April 23rd, 2007 at 10:02 am
damn it must fix that clock!
April 25th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
You’re right and I’m enjoying your comparisons of beef stocks used in other forms of noodle soups, although (sorry to be critical again) I would like to hear a bit more about dishes made from pork stocks. In my experience noodle soups made with pork stocks have a far sweeter twang to them and work wonderfully with dumplings of all persuasions.
April 25th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Pork stock sounds great to me. Any recommendations?
I went to Hung Vuong 2 yesterday. It hasn’t changed. Thank good! Rare beef was excellent! They do Bun Bo Hue there as well.
April 26th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
I haven’t had a bowl of dumplings in a good pork broth since my days in Ha Noi. When I wasn’t eating pho or dried eel soup I’d pop into a street stall on Dinh Liet that specialised in one dish, can’t remember its name but it was a very simple pork stock with freshly-made pork dumplings popped in at the last minute. The mince never cooked right through, so a bite would take you into its juicy, pink heart. Two women guarded a huge steaming pot of stock, occasionally skimming the crap from the top in between feeding a hungry clientele. The dish was finished with a couple of bits of pork crackling, that would slowly soften and sink into the soup as you ate it. Maybe it’s time I started looking for a good pork stock in Melbourne, but where does one start?
April 27th, 2007 at 8:39 am
That sounds fantastic. I am making it my lifes ambition to visit this food stall. I also want to know more about the dried eel soup you mentioned.