Mascot, Sydney. Home of the airport and errrmmm…let me think what else. Oh yes, Vietnamese rolls! On the same stretch of street, a few doors down from each other are two Vietnamese roll bakeries, Hong Ha and Vee Vee. Hong Ha is the one whose queues are stretching out onto the street, VeeVee by comparison does a more modest trade but has been there for years so it can’t be doing too badly.
The selection at Hong Ha
The selection at VeeVee
We decide to do a blindfold taste testing challenge to see who does the best a) pork roll and B) meatball roll. There are also chicken and salad and cheese rolls but pork is the traditional one and meatball is the preferred one from the tasters. We dutifully wait in line for 5 minutes at Hong Ha where the rolls are $4.50 each while there isn’t a wait at VeeVee where the rolls are $3.50.
Hong Ha rolls
Veevee rolls
Hurrying back we have our blindfolds arranged and we carefully slice up the rolls into four and label them carefully. We needn’t really have labelled them as the look of the two store’s rolls are different. VeeVee’s are bulging with filling and topped with coriander and spring onion. Hong Ha’s are less filled with the coriander and spring onion at the bottom and topped with shredded carrot, the bread very, very crispy and warm to the touch.
All of us take turns in tasting these blindfolded and the votes as to the favourites are as follows:
VeeVee Pork: Rose preferred
VeeVee Meatball: Blythe, Ronald and Rose preferred
HongHa Pork: Blythe, Ronald and I preferred
HongHa Meatball: I preferred
The VeeVee pork is good but no match for Hong Ha’s Pork which is pure bliss with the crunchy roll and mix of pork and mysterious but delicious brown sauce flavour. The patient queue goers must undoubtedly be queuing up for these babies as they’re incredibly good.
However the VeeVee meatball is the majority winner as the roll is softer which lends itself better to the soft meatballs. The amount of filling in the VeeVee meatball is markedly more and the combination of vegetables, meatballs and mayonnaise tastes great together. The only reason I rate the Hong Ha meatball slightly higher is that I prefer the HongHa meatball itself. If I could swap the meatballs around it would be a Super Roll!
Overall HongHa is better if you like your bread crispy, which not everyone does. Indeed Rose preferred VeeVee for both as she doesn’t like crispy dry bread and my husband won’t partake of Hong Ha’s at all as he finds the bread terribly dry.
Other things that we noted:
- There was a very uneven chili distribution in Hong Ha’s rolls, one roll had a ferociously large amount of chili that would send anyone jumping up and down while another had hardly any at all.
- VeeVee’s had a generous amount of mayo which made it more enjoyable
- VeeVee’s were much more generous with the filling
- Hong Ha’s rolls were much crispier and fresher.
Hong Ha
1151 Botany Road
Mascot
Ph: +61 (02) 9667 2069
VeeVee
1177 Botany Rd
Mascot
Ph: +61 (02) 9317 2368
If you enjoyed this post, why not share it with your friends?
Follow me
on Twitter
RSS
11 Comments | Add your own
Hi NQN,
Thanks for another brilliant post! I do have a soft spot for pork rolls, and I love your scientific and critical approach. I too love to critique food. Most people might think “a pork roll is a pork roll is a pork roll” but as you have shown, that is clearly not the case. I like the crispy rolls, the kind that leaves crusty crumbs all over your clothing.
Hi Lori-Mmm yes the flakey crusted ones are so messy but they are good. I wish there was a place that made them a bit closer to me. Traveling to Mascot is a bit of a schlep for a roll (but I admit I have done it)
lol. The VV vs Hong Ha rivalry has always had me curious. We always end up at Hong Ha, altho’ yes, I too, sometimes find their bread rolls a little too crisp to the point of being dry.
Hi Helen-The difference in queue is so large but I’d think some people would be enticed by the cheaper and very good VeeVee rolls!
I came across a Hong Ha whilst having lunch at the Wintergarden food court (http://www.thewintergarden.com.au/) in the Syd CBD and is a chain store based on the Mascot store called RedRoll(www.redroll.com.au). I recognised it from this blog and had to try it out. Got the combo with the pork roll and rice paper roll. The roll was full of different types of pork and salad and made to order and the rice paper roll tasted fresh and was neatly wrapped in cellophane. Being vietnamese, I’ve had plenty of pork rolls in my time, these ones are pretty good in my opinion. This place is buzzing with people during the lunch hour rush but the wait wasn’t too long and the other food stores were really good too. Planning on going back to have frittata at Rossini’s. This food court is a good break from all of the junky takeaway food courts in sydney.
Hi Maria-I never knew that Hong Ha had a franchise business, although judging from the queues at lunch hour, it should have been a foregone conclusion! Glad to hear that it was good, they weren’t too liberal with the chili there were they? They are very fast at making them which is really good as fresh is really the best for these.
When they asked if i wanted chilli, I said only a smidgen. But yes, a smidgen is more than enough because they used pickled chilli instead of fresh chilli which can lead to it being very liberally spread across the roll. They always over do it!
Hi Maria-Yes I like a touch of chili but too much can obliterate the tastebuds and make it a less than pleasant experience! Interesting that they used pickled chili as they used the fresh sliced birdseye chilis at the Mascot store
I find that a lot of places use whatever they can get. Red chillis can get really expensive sometimes and out of season (.. i’ve been listening to my mother too much.. ahh!!)
Hi Maria-I had no idea chilis were expensive. I suppose since I get most of them from my mum’s tree!
One Trackback/Pingback
[...] I published my blogpost on the Vietnamese rolls, I didn’t realise that a few doors down from VeeVee was a cake shop that specialised in Greek [...]
Post a Comment