How did I resist not calling this the Best Bun Bo Recipe?! You have the internet to thank for everything being called the best x, by the way.My family is from the deep, deep countryside of Vietnam – a tiny fishing village along the coast where no tourists ever visited.My mom kept baby ducks and baby pigs as pets and forebade my grandma from killing them for dinner.

Like in France and anywhere else, countryside-folk and seaside-folk take food far more seriously than city-dwellers do, and this dish is a very important one in my family.In her part of the world, my mom is famous for this dish.When she was younger, it’s what she would make for dinner parties and celebrations.

A few years back, she visited some old friends in Melbourne.They invited a large bunch of people who all came from the same little village, and, you guessed it, asked her to make it for them.On one of our family lunches, my parents went on a long discourse over the differences in Australian baby-grass-finished beef vs USDA prime.

I’ve heard a lot of stories centered around, or tangentially related to, this lemongrass beef.(Steph doesn’t really know it, but it was even a housewarming gift my mom gave us when we moved in together: a giant 5lb brick of the chicken version of this stuff to be kept in the freezer and made as-needed.Steph always asked for more, but it never happened because my mom essentially retired from cooking.) I would love to say that this recipe came from my mom, bu

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