Awesomeness Alert: Charbroiled Beef Short Ribs at Vietnam Palace

I'm not sure how I ended up taking sides on in long-standing rivalry that exists between Vietnam Palace and Vietnam, restaurants directly across 11th street from one another in Philly's Chinatown. But somehow, I ended up in the Vietnam camp, and I still stand by their huge barbecue platter as one of the best appetizers in town - heck a friend and I will sometimes just share one as a meal. But as a result, I hadn't thought to cross the street in years.

But we recently dared to venture across 11th street to visit Vietnam Palace, and it's there where we stumbled upon our current appetizer obsession: Suong Bo Nuong - Charbroiled Beef Short Ribs. They're sticky, they're sweet, they're salty, smoky, a little chewy, intensely beefy. They're addictive. We've been back three times in recent weeks, sometimes just to get a couple of orders of these. They're a little like Korean Barbecued shortribs, specifically the L.A. Kalbi cut that is strangely hard-to-find in Philadelphia, featuring that distictive cross-bone cut. The sauce is a little thicker and sweeter than one usually finds at Korean restaurants, but the grill char and general flavor profile is reminiscent of that style.

We'd actually oniginally returned to Vietnam Palace to have their "Beef Carpaccio," officially called Bo Tai Chanh. It's thin slices of raw beef, marinated in lime juice, accented by basil, peanuts, raw and fried onions, and hot peppers. We'd been disappointed in some other versions we'd tried around town, and remembered this one as being especially good - and it is - maybe even better than we'd remembered - far and away the best rendition of this dish we've found in Philadelphia.

So that makes two compelling reasons to go to Vietnam Palace, and we haven't even gotten off the appetizer page yet. We've been so obsessed with these dishes that we haven't gotten too deep into the rest of the menu, but we can testify that papaya salad, broken-rice dishes and curries are very good. (I'd skip the fried spring rolls, the ones across the street are much better...)

Vietnam Palace
222 N 11th St (west side of the street)
Philadelphia 19107
(215) 592-9596

Ong's in Chinatown

UPDATE: Ong's closed in January 2009 -Although we don't have any replacement for the Chiu-Chow style of food that they served, its replacement, Sakura Mandarin, is a good restaurant, serving specialties from Shanghai, including Xiao Long Bao, so it's not a total loss..

We were reminded of this restaurant by a recent article in the Inquirer by Rick Nichols. Located on the corner of 11th and Race, we always forget about it, except when driving into Chinatown, thinking "oh, right, let's check that place out!" then forgetting about it again...

We finally got around to it on saturday, and Im sure we'll be heading back. According to the Nichols piece, they specialize in "Chou-Jou" style cuisine, often referred to as "Chiu-Chow." It's a specific regional style of Cantonese, but the menu is also heavy with Vietnamese offerings. Apparently the cook's family is ethnically Chinese, but had emigrated to Vietnam, so both styles are represented.

We started with a Beef Satay soup. The diner can choose from a variety of noodles in the soups, we went with the rice noodles that were suggested. The broth was fresh and clean, and a little spicy, but we were expecting a little more intensity. The beef was impossibly tender and flavorful, despite being in slices much thicker than one might see in a Pho. And the noodles were terrific, so the whole thing added up to a very enjoyable soup, just right on a chilly day.

From the Vietnamese side, we got Fried Spring Rolls, which had a hearty pork filling, and perfectly crispy wrappers. We also got a dish of Pork with Caramel and Black Pepper. They did a great job with this Vietnamese classic: the pork was tender, pleasingly still a little bit fatty, and the sauce had a sweet edge, but was not tooth-rottingly sugary, offset by the subtle heat of the black pepper.



In the interest of being at least passingly healthy, we also got some Chinese Broccoli with garlic. This was very nicely done, and served as a great compliment to our other dishes, offering some crunch and bitterness alongside the sweetness and spice.


The place itself is much fancier than I had perceived from the outside. The decor, furniture and dishes are a step-up from the average Chinatown place, as are the prices, although they're not bad at all. But this is not a cheap, basic, $5 noodle soup joint. Service was quite good.

I'm looking forward to going back and trying to explore more of the Chou-Jou offerings, if only because it's not all that common, although the Vietnamese stuff is quite tempting too!

Ong's
1038 Race St.
215-625-8393
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