Tucked away along MacDill Avenue in South Tampa, a white sign with the letters ‘BT’ stands above a sidewalk entrance that leads to an outdoor seating area.

  • Restaurant BT is in South Tampa
  • Chef prepares Bo La Lot, or beef in betel leaf

Just about everywhere you look — in the courtyard, in the back of the restaurant adjacent to the parking lot — there are container gardens.

BT is the executive chef of Restaurant BT. Her passion is to show the fresh and delicate side of Vietnamese food — not as fast food, but as fine dining.

She does it by growing the ingredients for one of the restaurant’s main dishes: Bo La Lot, or beef wrapped in wild betel leaf.

Bo La Lot is a seasonal dish for BT. Its frequency on the menu depends on how many leaves she can clip from the vine she grows behind her restaurant. For this recipe, the chef starts with local grass fed beef prepared by Providence Cattle Company.

Bo La Lot

(Beef in Wild Betel Leaf)

Make 26 to 30 rolls

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. of grass fed ground beef
  • 1/4 c. minced scallions (white part only)
  • 2 tsp. of fish sauce
  • 1/2 tsp. sea salt
  • 3/4 tsp. ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp. madras curry powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp. of oyster sauce
  • 2 tbsp. of minced lemongrass (1 medium stalk)
  • 1 tbsp. olive oil
  • Wild Betel leaves (can be found at Asian food markets)

Directions

  1. In a bowl, mix all the spices and beef together.
  2. Marinate for 30 minutes.
  3. Put a leaf on work surface, matted side up.
  4. Rub with olive oil on both sides.
  5. Put about 2 tablespoons of marinated beef and shape it into a small sausage.
  6. Place the meat on the leaf, about 1/3 of the way below the pointy tip.
  7. Roll up the meat in the leaf, poke a hole in the roll and tuck in the stem.
  8. Cook on the grill for 3 minutes on each side.
  9. Serve on a piece of butter lettuce with shredded daikon radish, mixed herbs and dip in tamarind sauce.