Archive for the ‘Vietnamese’ Category
V-Rating: VVV Before I go any further, I have to confess a special attachment to Tudo. You see, it’s the site of my first date with my now-husband Andy on a wintry Canberra evening in June 2002. It was a great choice for such a nervous occasion - low-key, cosy and ten metres away from local pub, All Bar Nun, ensuring just the right amount of Dutch courage. There’s still plenty to like about this small suburban restaurant. For one, it’s a resisted the trend to ‘funkify’ its interior, sticking to the unassuming combo of sparkling white walls, blue carpet and an outdoor toilet that’s accessed via the carpark. More importantly, unlike so many Canberra restaurants, its prices have stayed low, making it possible for to have a filling dinner and bottle of BYO wine for under $15 per person (trust me Sydneysiders, that’s good value by inner-suburban Canberra standards).
Tudo is not the kind of restaurant where vegetarians have to scratch around to find something to eat. My friend swears that Tudo’s Vegetarian spring rolls are some of the best she’s come across, and certainly they are plenty crispy on the outside and yet stuffed full of still fresh veggies on the inside.
There are five vegetarian mains, so you won’t go hungry. I went with a group that included four vegetarians, so we ended up trying four of them, including the red cooked tofu above.
My favourite was the curry vegetables with tofu. It cames in a coconut milk sauce, and had a lovely richness without being too hot.
The rice noodles with vegetables and bean curd was quite bland, but made a good accompaniement to the stronger curry and satay dishes.
The satay vegetables was my second favourite dish - the sauce was nice and peanuty, and not too rich when consumed in moderate quantities. The only catch with Tudo’s vegetarian menu is that the tofu and vegetable base is the same in all of the vegetable dishes. If you order a few of their dishes, you can’t help feeling that you are getting the same meal just dressed in a different sauce. Still, with a decent vegetarian selection and great prices Tudo is going to stay on my favourites list.
V Rating: VVVVV At a time when vegetarian restaurants like Vegal Kitchen and Celestial Palace are closing down, it’s great to discover a new kid on the block. Thien is a Vietnamese vegetarian restaurant just down the road from @newtown RSL and the Enmore Theatre. Tres convenient! I think its origins are Buddhist, but it allows BYO. I ate there a couple of weeks ago when Andy took part in the 20th anniversary performance of his old gospel choir, Cafe of the Gate of Salvation (COTGOS). Unfortunately we were running late for the performance, so didn’t have time to relax and appreciate Thien. However, I liked what I saw (and ate) and will definitely head back there next time go to see a performance on Enmore Road.
Thien’s menu offers a good choice of food, much of which uses fake meat and (quite imaginative) seafood. There are 12 entrees and 48 mains. We tried the soy prawn rice paper rolls, the tofu lemongrass and a stir-fry. The huge spring rolls were lovely and fresh. The rice paper skin was cool, setting off the fresh herbs in the filling. I haven’t tried fake prawns before, but they added slightly firmer texture to the filling without overpowering the other ingredients.
The tofu lemongrass was spicy and juicy, and gave off a beautiful lemongrass aroma. We chose the stiry-fry to get a dose of green vegetables, and to compensate for the oiliness of the tofu lemongrass dish. As you can see in the photo, the vegetables in the stir-fry were cooked just right, so that they didn’t lose their colour or flavour. We ended up over-ordering (especially seeing as we were in rush) and had to take a couple of rice paper rolls away in a doggie bag. Fortunately, they survived the trip and still tasted good the next day! While we didn’t have time to try them, Thien also seemed to have a delicious range of desserts with some cakes supplied by a local bakery. I gather Thien is only a few months old. The staff were lovely and very eager to assist, despite the small restaurants quickly filling up with walk-ins. While occasionally the staff were a little flustered, I have my fingers crossed that in a couple of months they’ll be accustomed to success and Thien will have a long future. (Just for the record, COTGOS were amazing. I was blown away by the power of the voices, the beautiful arrangements, and the strong sense of love and community emanating from the choir. Happy 20th anniversary!)
V Rating: Super V Cabramatta was the location for our excursion today to celebrate my 35th birthday. As the centre of Sydney’s Vietnamese community, Cabramatta offers food and shopping possibilities which are unmatched. The prevailing ethic is one of vibrant entrepeneurship – best summed up by the epithet on the gates to the city as you enter the pedestrian precinct: To be renovative and integrate.
Once regarded as a honeypot for drug addicts, polite Sydneysiders tend to still avoid Cabramatta – but to do so is really to miss out on one of Sydney’s best kept secrets. It is likewise with the restaurant An Lac on John Street, Cabramatta’s main shopping strip. One of at least three nearby Vietnamese vegetarian restaurants, I think we’ve eaten there every time we’ve taken the trip to Cabramatta over the last few years. An Lac is a simple family restaurant of the wholly authentic Vietnamese kind. The first thing to notice is that each table is set with condiments and cutlery, kitchen-style. While most of the clients are local Vietnamese folk, the menu makes concessions to the occasional English-speaking guest with the inclusion of English names for the dishes and short descriptions of each of the ingredients. Jasmine tea is provided as a courtesy to guests in thermoses which sit on each table.
We chose the stuffed tofu with chinese white cabbage in a brown savoury sauce, the imitation roast chicken with dried lily flower black fungus and our favourite for the afternoon, vermicelli with chopped-up spring rolls, cucumber, bean sprouts, mint and a traditional sweet vinegarette. Each dish was beautifully done – but the vermicelli was truly exceptional.
Halfway through the meal I pondered aloud whether this was the best vegetarian restaurant in Sydney. There is no doubt that it is a strong Super V. The whole meal came to $21.70, which left plenty of money for the shopping trip – among Cabramatta’s dynamic blend of fruit, flower, clothing and bric-a-brac shops jammed closely together in the tight arcades that come off John Street.
V Rating: VV (but almost a VVV). Friday night came around and Andy and I headed to Libertine with our ex-housemate and his girlfriend. It certainly upped the glamour stakes from our usual Friday nights in - although I guess it’s not hard to out do beer, TV and tracky pants.
After sampling a cocktail we moved on to the restaurant for dinner. Some of us weren’t quite finished when the waiting staff came to shoosh us on, but I guess beautiful people wait for no-one. The restaurant is decorated in an opulent, rich style. Intricate chandeliers fall from the roof, their sparkles reflecting in the gilt-edged mirrors. What I liked most was that the designers haven’t sacrificed warmth for ostentation - Libertine has a feeling of openess, generosity and fun. For example, the restaurant is divided into different sections, including an outdoor area, but they all open onto each other. While Libertine is tagged as a French / Vietnamese menu, it’s more accurately described on the website as Vietnamese food with French influences. That suits me because I prefer the lighter Vietnamese flavours. There’s one vegetarian entree - a crispy noodle salad with nuoc xoat (a vegetarian version of a traditional table sauce with lemongrass, garlic, spring onions, chilli and soy). However, we skipped the not so veggie friendly entree menu and went straight for the mains. I was happy to see that three of the ten main options were vegetarian. We ordered two - the crispy spiced tofu and the Southern style vegetable curry with okra, sweet potato and eggplant. We also tried two of the side dishes - (chef) Ryan’s magic mushrooms, and wok-seared Asian greens.
For dessert Andy had the lemongrass creme brulee and I had the more traditional rhubarb, pear and Vietnamese mint crumble with vanilla ice cream and creme anglaise. Unlike Ed at Tomato I like my old faithful vanilla, and have been hankering for rhubarb lately (we used to have it a lot when I was quite young) and the crumble hit the spot.
The creme brulee produced more mixed feelings. I really liked it - I can’t remember having lemongrass in a dessert, so initially the sweet creaminess of the brulee was at odds with the strong lemongrass aftertaste, but once I was accustomed to it I enjoyed the combination. The others were less convinced - perhaps they have more of a sweet tooth than I do. I really enjoyed Libertine. I loved the decor, ambience, and combination of restaurant and refined cocktail lounge. I thought that the food was tasty and happily unpretentious. I’d rate Libertine as a borderline VV / VVV for food - the only downside for vegetarians is that there’s only one entree. However, making up for this is a great range of unique, all vegetarian salads. Definitely one to try again.
V Rating: VVV I love going to motley invitee dinners where everyone at the table does something that they’re passionate about. It reminds me that being a grown-up can be fun. Last Tuesday, Andy and I joined three friends at Saigon Bay on upper Oxford Street. A friend was visiting from Alice Springs, and she’d invited along a friend back briefly from Cambodia and another friend who works in an education-can-be-fun type job. We had a lot to talk about, and Saigon Bay proved to be a great place for good food and catching up.
For entree we had huge rice paper rolls and crispy pancakes wrapped in lettuce leaves. These were helpfully put together at the table by our accomplished waitress. For mains we had the genuinely chilli lemon grass tofu and soft combination noodles. Saigon Bay gets bonus points because all dishes are cooked in pure polyunsaturated vegetable oil, and use no animal fats, artificial preservatives or MSG. How good is that? KP. 16/5/06.
V-Rating: VVV Friends of ours recently invited us to their house on a Saturday for a carefully planned gourmet dinner. Rude guests that we are, Andy and I changed the date at short notice to a Thursday night. And that’s how we ended up at Chu Bay II. Chu Bay II is a small Vietnamese restaurant that flirts happily with gaudiness. The tablecloths are deep red and the walls are covered in traditional art. Except for the back wall, which has a neon waterfall sign with water that flows hypnotically at the flick of a switch. More art should move, I think. The menu treats vegetarians kindly. There is a a separate vegetarian section including lemon grass vegetables, vegetarian pancakes and stir-fried vegetables. We began with the rice paper rolls, which were fresh, flavoursome, and much more colourful than my dodgy mobile phone photography suggests. For mains we chose the vegetable curry and then the fresh steamed vegetables on the recommendation of our friends. We also had the vegetarian special noodle dish. Rounding off the pleasant eating experience and great company was the friendly and familiar service that you only get in small, local restaurants. For example, our friend, Rebecca Huntley, has just had her first book published. (It’s called The World According to Y and is available at all good bookstores. I recommend you buy it.) Rebecca brought along a copy to leave at the restuarant for the owner’s daughter who was interested in the topic. The daughter was then called to the restaurant just so she could say thank you. As we were leaving Rebecca and her husband Daniel mentioned they were thinking of a visit to Vietnam. The owner unhesitatingly offered to put them in touch with Vietnamese friends and offered helpful tips on things to do in Hanoi. Chu Bay II is not a restaurant that is immediately striking. However, it was tasty, good value, and a great venue for a casual and intimate night out with friends. |
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