Neanderthal noshers will find some succour at the house of carcass, otherwise known as Luong Son Bo Tung Xeo at 31 Ly Tu Trong Street in District 1. The signature dish is Bo tung xeo. The name has a bit of a gory ancient history - something to do with ripping flesh from living beings - got the niche cannibal market cornered then. The semi-civilised 21st century version consists of a slab of tender beef, chockfull with garlic cloves and a soy/sugar marinated combo all self-grilled upon a scorching hot tabletop charcoal barbie. I'm not including any snaps of the restaurant itself, just filthy top shelf meatporn. Don't grill it too long, the fierce heat will tear the flavour from the meat. It really is tres tender, so 'flash grilling' works rather well.
This shack seats around 300 scoffers and is adorned with rice baskets stuck to the roof. It's filled night after night with mucho meatheads choking on sweet beef char fumes. Classy it's not. Everyone's here for the beef. You can also order scorpions, this guy did. The "Jumping prawns" amuse some, although the prawns don't seem to get the joke, and the mammoth menu includes 'milk pig', salmon sashimi, turtle doves and anything else that took the wrong path through the forest that day. The beef comes with quite a powerful sweet, light brown sauce which is probably best avoided. Unlike the Hanoi version, there're no chips (of the Walkers Ready Salted variety) here, although you can order a side dish of Khoai tay chien (Chip shop chips). The beef is cut smaller and is of a higher quality than that served in Hanoi. The restaurant is also cleaner and quieter. Costs 55,000VD a slab. View the business card.
