Bo Tung Xeo, Ho Chi Minh

Jeffrey, being the good host that he is, gave us the choice of having dinner on a river cruise (mediocre food) or eating a popular local fare; grilled food, but will end up smelling of smoke and food..

Not such a hard choice, we chose the popular fare over popular cruise..haha..pigs that we are..

He brought us to Bo Tung Xeo, a restaurant famed for grilled meats; and as suggested by the restaurant name; grilled beef.

The menu was in Vietnamese and English, which was good; still we left Jeffrey to do the ordering.

Surprisingly, he didn't order grilled beef, he thought we should try other dishes that's different..

So we had the sauteed pumpkin flower with garlic..I like this dish immensely, it was sweet, refreshing, had a nice bite to it. Not much salt to it, hence we could just chomp it down without any rice as accompaniment.

Next was sauteed deer's tendon (luk kan) with spinach. I've tried cow tendon (ngau kan) in Malaysia many times, but deer's was a first. The texture was very different compared to cow's. Deer tendon texture is very similar to jelly fish; had the QQ (springy) texture. It is a tad bland, hence sauteed with some vegs and sauces is does justice to this dish perfectly.

The whole reason we came to Bo Tung Xeo; Jeffrey's favourite; grilled goat's breast. Yeah, that's how it was written in the menu. After some probing, it's actually grilled goat udders..Interesting, though Dragongirl, who is not into such food, took one piece and that's that. I must say that it's tasty, the marination was delicious, the meat was a tad chewy, very much like chewing calamari. There is a gamey aftertaste, for those who hates gamey lamb/ mutton dish may wanna skip this. To be eaten with with their special sauce, mix of chili, fermented beancurd (fu yu), fish sauce; which is also tasty (unless you don't like fu yu)

I saw some exotic food stuff that involves balls and poles, decided to skip that; but I could not pass the chance of having some fried scorpions.

I was thinking that I'll be serve some pop sized scorpions..just pop in mouth..crunch crunch and swallow. Imagine my surprise when I saw this...
The length of one scorpion was about 15cm.

I started with the claws, which was rather hard and erm, prickly? Tasted like fish crackers, but coarser in texture. I decided to eat the back abdomen first as the glistening eyes looks sorta creepy. The abdomen was not crunchy, heck it was slightly pasty. And it had bitter after taste. I did not like this. Jeffrey finished the remaining scorpions..thanks dude ;p

The grilled saba (mackerel) was good though..Crispy skin, juicy meat..yums

We ended with a bowl of very fresh steamed clams..Really sweet and fresh; goes well with the sauces too..

We decided to have our food fast, hence we ordered our grills from the cook. For those who prefer grilling your own food, well, you get to do that too :)

Oh, do wear thin clothing; obviously this restaurant is not with aircon..And no perfume required..You'll leave with the restaurant's home brand perfume..haha

Bu Tong Xeo is located at 31, Ly Tu Trong, P.Ben Nghe, Q1. Ho Chi Minh