At the risk of quoting Austin Powers in Goldmember, when I see the smiling face of the man at Pho Bac Hai Duong, the first thing that one notices is, aside from his smile, is the mole on his face and the good 2-3 inches of hair growing from it. In Vietnam, it is said to be unlucky to trim the hair from a mole and having hairy mole is said to be good luck – indeed the longer the hair, the luckier you are. And with a full restaurant every night, perhaps he is.
The famous Pho Tai
The Pho is where we are feeling lucky, and the broth is said to be amongst the best in Sydney with the flavour deep reaching with a dizzying array of spices and herbs with star anise featuring prominently. Tonight we’re dining with The Second Wife, Gravy Beard, Tess, Naomi and Francesca. And the most popular vote is for their signature dish, Pho Tai – the raw beef noodle soup. The menu is full of the usual delicious Vietnamese offerings like Crispy Pancakes, Bun and Pho but there are also offerings like a Sea Snail Noodle Soup (I so wanted to order this but I chickened out going for something more familiar and recommended to me). Surprisingly, there’s also an offering for Pho with Free Range Chicken for $10.
Milk and Soda with egg yolk $3.50
Read More
There’s something I know for certain: it’s pie season. The cooler temperature and shorter days signal to me, the need for comfort food and even thought the temperature itself hasn’t dipped that much, it’s low enough for me to yearn for the heat of the oven. I’m a different creature in Winter. During Summer it’s all about salads and water but in Winter, it’s a pastry and soup fest. And this comparatively cool Sydney evening made me hanker for some pies.
We try and eat vegetarian a few nights a week for health reasons and to reduce our reliance on meat. That’s not a sign that I am about to go full time vegetarian – I tried that once and it wasn’t for me but it feels healthier and better for the environment to do so three to four nights a week. It also lightens our grocery bill which is a nice bonus for my husband who tears his hair out at the things I like to put in my trolley.
If you’re a hardened carnivore, you could certainly add some chicken to these but I do think that they are perfect as is although by all means substitute it with whatever vegetables you have to hand – 3.5 cups will do. One thing that I never really saw any point to was making your own pastry. That is, until I found an amazing Pâte Brisée shortcrust pastry recipe. I will say that if you are not so inclined to make your own, you can use store bought but this Pâte Brisée pastry is to die for. But don’t worry I haven’t lost the entire plot, I still bought the puff pastry. That would probably signal a descent into utter madness if I were to make my own puff pastry. Feel free to call the authorities to pick me up should that ever happen.
Read More
Bill, Madonna, Cher. Yep Bill – that is Bill Granger – is know by a single moniker. I spoke to Bill on a cold Autumn morning where he had just stepped off a plane from London – something that would resoundingly reduce most of humankind to something akin to zombies. However Bill greets me with a sunny “Hello! It’s Bill Granger!” as if crossing multiple time zones doesn’t affect him at all. He laughs easily and is enthusiastic and chatty, an interviewer’s dream in fact. This is what he had to say.
NQN: Your father was a butcher and your mother was a vegetarian. That must have made for some interesting dinner table debates!
Bill: (laughs) The strange thing was, we never really used to sit down and have meals the way we were brought up. We’d always eat separately and dad would always come home late and eat separately with mum so food was never a huge part of our family considering that it was our business as dad was a butcher.
NQN: I would have thought the opposite considering you have such a focus on family (and a lovely family at that).
Bill: You know I think that’s why I do it. I think it’s that thing of I didn’t have it enough. Dinner is such an important time to sit and relax and talk about your day. Especially when everyone has such disparate days with school and working, those moments of shared experience are great.
NQN: Wait til they get to uni!
Bill: I know! I think one’s going to be a vegetarian. I know that’s going to happen just to annoy dad I’m sure (laughs). My wife was vegetarian until she met me and then she turned.
NQN: You’re originally from Melbourne but I always associate you with Sydney.
Bill: Everyone just thinks of me as so quintessentially Sydney but I’m actually from Melbourne. I was brought up down near Mentone then we moved out to a place called Berwick which is near where Kath & Kim do the series. That was my first job – at Kmart Fountaingate!
Read More
I had one of those moments, you know the ones that occur every now and then when you try on your jeans – you know the ones that if you can’t fit into them, you know you have to cut down on the cakes – and they were a little too snug for comfort. I knew exactly why they were too snug, and I knew exactly what I needed to do. It was to make this dip and to snack on it instead of snacking on other less healthy options. I find that when I am peckish, especially around the witching hour of 4pm, I need something crunchy and this dip is great as it gives a nice plain cracker some pretty colour as well as a fabulous taste. It’s also pretty easy with a total of 3 (or 4) ingredients although I will say that most of the work is in the actual preparation of the beetroot.
This is a seriously great dip and I think this was helped along by two things that I bought in the Easter Show’s Best of Show Deli bag: the fabulous Pane Croccante by Brasserie Bread that I served it with from and the ambrosially creamy Country Valley Lush natural yogurt. I didn’t use any fresh herbs as I only had basil and I wasn’t sure if that would work but rest assured it is good without them. Something that I do find is that with beetroot you do get an “earthy” or “dirt” flavour but I didn’t detect any with this dip. And did I mention the jeans now fit again?
Read More
A couple readers of mine (Carolyn and angevb) recommended Sakae to me and as I always do, I write all restaurant recommendations in my black moleskine notebook. This evening, Mr NQN, The Assman and I are in search for good food after an afternoon geo caching (geo caching for them, reading cookbooks in the car for me – yes I am not an outdoorsey person). As a student, the Assman’s criteria was that it needed to be less than $20 per person and it had to have some vegetarian options. Realising quickly that we might have to travel a bit for our meal given these conditions, we decide that Sakae it is!
Complimentary noodles
A small rectangular shaped room it’s busy with diners. We’re given our complimentary appetiser, a little bowl of noodles. These are not too bad although a little sweet and a bit bland. But it’s free and we’re hungry so we aren’t complaining.
Ramune (Lemonade) $3
My husband tries the Ramune – that is Japanese for Lemonade if you sound it out and he and the Assman are both intrigued by Katakana and how the Japanese pronounce western words for which they don’t have a sound (eg the “Le” in Lemonade is “Ra” here). They’re also a bit intrigued by the bottle where you take the top off and push down the glass ball to break the seal and are rewarded with sweet, bubbly lemonade.
Read More
What is NQN up to now? 
NQN on Facebook
RSS
