noodlies Cabramatta Food Tour, May 2011

noodlies Sydney food blog's Cabramatta Food Tour came and went today and it was a wonderful success.  We met at a local temple and were greeted by the nuns.  Walter gave everyone a brief tour of the temple and read an exerpt from his book Destination Saigon.  And the lovely nuns and their volunteers whipped up a storm in terms of wonderful vegetarian food.



We were shown how to make our own Vietnamese rice paper rolls (goi cuon) adding our own filling which included several types of home made vegetarian 'meat', vegetables, mint, vermicelli and more!

Pho Hanoi in Hong Kong

Ok, I promise, I didn't go to Hong Kong looking for pho, this was a case of pho finding me.  Pho Hanoi is like any other eatery around the Jordan area, small and narrow, blink and you might miss it.  In my search for a laundry this morning I stumbled by this place.  The owner is Nguyen Thi Thao and she's had the restaurant for two years.

The pho tai (raw beef Vietnamese noodle) was pretty good quality, the soup colouring darker than I'm used to, but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing, the broth isn't particularly salty or sweet but but it still packed good flavour.  I'm used to basil and bean sprouts being provided on the side, here it's already added.  We're lucky to have great quality beef in Australia, this cut was a little thicker and a tad tougher than I'm used to, but it's not a fatal flaw.

They had Vietnamese coffee on the menu and I wanted to test it's authenticity. I was very pleasantly surprised, it came out just like Vietnam, dripping and smelling of Vietnamese coffee, the condensed milk nice and thick at the bottom of the glass.  The rest was up to me to finish, see the video below.

A great way to taste Vietnam in the heart of Hong Kong.  And because all eateries are tiny and easy to miss, this is what it looks like from the street.

Pho Hanoi
61 Parkes St, Jordan (off Jordan Road, TST end)
Hong Kong

Cabramatta Moon Festival 2010: Progressive Eating!

Yummi Desserts

Cabramatta Moon Festival 2010 was on and we intended to eat our way through it.  Starting at 11am we eased ourselves in with coffee and sweets at Yummi on Park Road.  Walter had custard apple shake, while I had a Vietnamese iced coffee, which was sweeter than I'm used to, but very, very nice.

Banh Uot

Barely an hour later, lunch was at Que Huong in the Belverdere Arcade.  Walter had banh uot, which was thick rice noodles, with cha lua, nem, bean sprouts and other vegies topped with fish sauce.

Hu Tieu

The owner recommended hu tieu and that's what I had.  Glass noodles with a combination of meats, pork, prawns (quite a common mix).  The soup had a strong salty flavour which I really liked and the burnt garlic and onion really lifted for me.

Fruit salad

Only another hour later, we had dessert at a new place, Cafe The Duyen in a laneway off John Street. After so much eating I settled for a cleansing fruit salad.  It was fresh and tangy.  Washed it all down with Vietnamese hot coffee (made with a layer of condensed milk).

Vietnamese coffee

Yummi Sweets
Park Road
Cabramatta

Que Huong Restaurant
16/70 John St
Cabramatta NSW 2166
(02) 9723 9916

Cafe The Duyen
4/98 John St
Cabramatta NSW 2166
(02) 8764 8394