The Pho Files: Beef Stew at Uyen Uong

Beef stew Vietnamese style #yegfood, a photo by raise my voice on Flickr.

Uyen Uong has a variety of soups, rice, and noodle dishes, but the selection of soups in particular seem more exotic to my Western tastes. I noticed there was no Pho Ga (chicken pho) or Pho Tai (medium well steak pho), which are my two usual standbys when I try a new pho house. If you like beef balls, tripe, tendon, and spleen (the first time I have ever seen the latter on a pho menu), you will hit the jackpot here. If you like more basic kinds of pho, you might have to do some back and forth with the staff to have something made up for you, which may prove difficult because of the language barrier.

I had a Carrot Beef Stew with Rice Noodles. It was a generous portion with lots of huge chunks of beef, cooked carrots, and a mountain of noodles. Vietnamese style stew is more like a soup, and the broth is different than pho in that it has a lot of paprika and lots of aromatics like anise and cilantro. There are hints of both spiciness and sweetness, and Uyen Uong's version was excellent. I found myself drinking up as much of the broth as I could. The meat could have been leaner, but it was no worse than other places where I have had this dish. And at less than $9, it was very affordable.