Shaking beef originated from the sidewalk eateries of Saigon. When the dish was developed, though it used ingredients brought over by the French it also followed East and Southeast Asian culinary tradition, which calls for the meat to be cut into bite-sized cubes that can be easily handled with chopsticks and eaten without the use of cutlery. This detail gives rise to the first possible etymology for the dish. It was basically named bò lúc lắc because the small, cubed pieces of beef resemble playing dice.