Noodles with beef stew (Hủ tiếu bò kho)

Another star among the best street food in Sài Gòn!
The smell, the color and the taste of white noodles with beef stew or hủ tiếu bò kho are just so amazing! It would be one of those favorite street foods by many Asians living in Vietnam. I have an old Japanese friend who came here to work. He just fell in love with hủ tiếu bò kho! He has it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I asked him what he likes the most in this dish? When our beef is not that good as your Kobe beef! Surprisingly he said - Beef! It's tender (sure because we stew for hours!), so tasty (of course as we marinate beef with many species!) and it's good!

           White noodles with beef stew (hủ tiếu bò kho)  

And I do love beef stew too! Either with white noodles (hủ tiếu) or with bread! But for bread, the soup should be thicker! Specially I love beef tendon (gân), the feeling to chew a tasty tender tendon in the mouth is always nice! We can have beef stew with yellow noodles as well!

              as famous beef noodles (phở) hủ tiếu bò kho tastes better when some aromatic herbs added...

              as duck-tongue herb (ngò gai) or Vietnamese basil (húng quế) 

Actually I have no idea where the noodles with beef stew comes from! Chinese ? I guess it could be created by some chef after tasting another dish called "bò nấu lagu"(beef stew ..in lagu style???), if  lagu dish requires mostly western ingredients like red wine, tomato paste, potatoes, carrots...while beef stew (bò kho) - oriental spices and only carrots! 

              I'm not a big fan for spicy taste, but my friend is, he loves those small and super hot chili 

But I realized that the way to cook beef stew is similar to beef curry but without only curry leaves, beef stew requires exactly same spices...as five spice powder ( star anise, cardamom, lemon grass...)!

Anyway, we may have different recipes for this super popular dish as it's easy to prepare at home for family weekend gathering, but at the same time the white noodles with beef stew - hủ tiếu bò kho is surely in the list of those street foods that we can't live without!