There are so many Thai-Laos restaurants in the Cabramatta/Fairfield area that it's hard to keep up. Twelve Spices has been around for a long time, but under many different owners. This latest incarnation is ultra hip, a-la Holy Basil, and it seems to be working.
On a Friday night, Twelve Spices was packed and it's a pretty mixed crowd, young Viet lads in their trendy t-shirts, Asian families, local birthday party of twenty from a Caucasian background.
So, ok, the place looks good and the menu design is cute, but for me it's the relaxed and very friendly service that attracts. Young Asian and Caucasian waiters are unique enough. But these lads and ladettes are friendly too - that's unheard of! As you can see in the video, our waiter even sat down at the table to take our order.
Everything about Doytao Thai screams success: the deep, double fronted restaurant is packed, there's another six Doytao restaurants in Sydney and they have a legion of loyal fans. But what about the food?
Doytao Thai is a place to go when you're in a hurry (and you've booked) because the food comes out lightning fast. Despite the place being full, our four dishes arrived within minutes.
The food looks the part, nice colour, fresh ingredients, but I struggled to find flavour or challenge in the food. My taste buds couldn't find basil in the basil chicken, it lacked fish sauce and despite looking hot, it was very mild.
Tom yum goong soup was a little more to my taste, less coconut and more lime, but still the flavour was toned way down.
Probably the least successful dish in our order was the lamb salad. The lamb came out in cubes rather than thin slices, which didn't help because the meat was over cooked, making the cubes a tad tough. Celery instead of cucumber rendered the dish less Thai for me. Any strong taste also went AWOL.
The grilled chicken was the most successful dish for me. Well cooked, good strong flesh that was well cooked but not tough. No complaints about flavour here, because, well the dish is meant to be relatively clean.
It seems to me like Doytao made a conscious decision to tone down their food to make it more accessible to Australians. Maybe that explains their success in inner, southern and south western Sydney.
Doytao is the place to go for if you want an introduction to Thai or if you're not into strong Thai flavours. Here you also get very efficient, friendly and fast service. It's definitely not the place if you've eaten street food in Thailand recently or you feel like a challenge.
Across the Golden Buddha temple, Wat Po is a series of stalls that sell linament oils and lotions, blessed by monks, they come in all sorts of garish colours, orange, yellow, green. In their midst was a cute restaurant where we ducked in for lunch.
I ordered the closest thing I could find to a dish that I had once, an omelette wrapped around fried rice. Still can't find it. But this was kinda close, or sorts, a fried egg on fried rice. Delicious, especially with fish sauce and chilli.
Walter had the pad kha prow, which I didn't taste so I can't really comment, it looks very generous in terms of meat portions.
We shared some fish cakes, which was crispy outside not the type I'm used to. But doesn't mean it wasn't nice. The fish inside was fleshy and soft.
It's our last night in Phnom Penh and we really wanted to eat somewhere that is as Cambodian as you can get. Our friend Borin suggested Mother in Law's House a restaurant near us that has both great food and live Cambodian entertainment from some of the top artists in the country.
And the music was truly wonderful, soulful, true and so beautiful.
We had a bit to drink, being our last night and I dared Walter to try the Bull's Penis Soup.. and he did... it's the star shape you can see in the video.
I tried the soup but didn't dare eat the penis. It was cooked in the traditional Chinese medicine method, so I guess the idea was to make you 'strong', I think you know what I mean!
Also had fried frog, which was delicious, only slightly gamey, great dish.
Delicious beef larb above, spicy and tasty.
Chicken stir fried in basil, garlic and chilli was also very home-style but delicious. The basil well done the chicken was delicious, absorbing the garlic and basil flavours.
The Bull's Penis cooked in Chinese medicine.
The cocktail made from local spirits that gave Walter the courage to eat Bull's penis.
Convent Road in Silom contains an amazing number of street stalls that sell great food. I had these rice noodles that were extra spicy and extra pungent from prawn paste. It all came to 35 baht, around A$1.30, delicious and cheap.
Being in Bangkok means I eat often, seduced by the plentiful street stalls. Also on Convent Road I had pad kha prow gai (chilli chicken basil) what's different about this dish is that it has a fried egg on top. I've had it once at a Thai restaurant in Cabramatta that's now closed, I've been looking everywhere for it ever since. Utterly delicious, such a wonderful surprise, the rice was a lower quality rice, so was harder than I'm used to but actually it works with this dish, but then again, nothing could spoil finding the dish I've been aching for.
Those stalls are fixed with tables and chairs, then there's the mobile street stalls. They're great for fresh, tropical fruit like guava, paw paw, pineapple, persimmons and mango.
These mobile stalls also sell a wonderful selection of savoury meats too, even whole grilled fish.
The annoying thing about mobile stalls is that they move around, so you may find your favourite thing and you may never see that stall again. I had the best bbq liver on skewers last night... haven't seen that stall since.
Current lunch special: One dish + Thai tea for $10
We were in Newtown doing a few things on a warm, sunny, spring Sydney day. Years ago when we were living there, Bank's Thai was a regular haunt, we wanted to see what's changed.
There's a Thai-Lao kitchen in the BKK food court that is simply delicious. They have survived the intense competition over the decades and not only are they standing strong, they are thriving. It's still the most popular and largest kitchen in the food court.
We ordered pad kha prow, tom yum goong and beef larb to have with sticky rice.
Of the many Thai-Lao places in the area, and there are many, and many are good, my favourite is Yum Sab in Fairfield. As with many of the locals, you don't go here for decor, ambiance etc, but the food is honest and good.
The duck salad is probably my favourite, distinctive, but not too gamey, great sauce and crisp, fresh vegetables.
The Thai massaman beef curry is a melt in the mouth sensation - always perfectly cooked... watch out for the potatoes though.. often undercooked and hard; tonight they could have been in for 2-3 more minutes.
The pad kha prow (basil chili chicken stir fry) was a little too mild for me, fresh ingredients helps and the sauce thick and flavoursome.
