I don’t often land in Bankstown, in fact this was my first visit, so when a friend had a 40th birthday party nearby I wanted to make sure that I managed to sneak a food blog post in. That’s me, obsessed with my blog. I’m the one who measures a place by its blog worthy status and cannot go anywhere twice much to my husband’s annoyance. We had intended to visit The Taste of Egypt on Greenfield Parade as we had never tried Egyptian food before but as we arrived at 10.30pm on a Saturday night, all of the Egyptian goodies were gone. We exited and found ourselves faced with the bright lights of My Canh, a large Vietnamese restaurant which was thankfully still open and serving.

Before we knew it we were seated and examining the huge and varied menu for goodies with over 220 items to choose from. Warm tea arrives in a cute little metal teapot and two small plastic tumblers. I see items such as Chicken’s Feet salad and Beef Fondue (I ask about this later and it’s not cheese but vinegar) but I wanted to try Special Beef Phở ($9) as the evening has a slight chill to it and I know my husband likes noodle soups. I peruse the menu for another less soupy offering and am a little stumped due to the myriad of options. My eyes rest on the Bun with spring rolls and BBQ Pork ($10), something through culinary kismet was featured on an episode of Food Safari just a few days ago. We order this and as for something to drink, the Avocado shake is just begging to be ordered by me and my husband sees the Durian shake and orders this ($4 each). Our waiter is friendly and efficient.

We’re not waiting long at all, within a couple of minutes, the bean sprouts and basil arrive along with plum and chili sauces for the Phở and the Vietnamese dipping sauce arrives for the Bun. In the Food Safari episode they explained that a girl’s marriage worthy status was based on her ability to make this dipping sauce and a prospective mother in law would be served this so she could inspect how well her potential daughter in law could make it. If the seeds and chili float, then it’s good. If not, well I guess you end up in dating Siberia. My Canh’s sauce of course floats.

Avocado and Durian Shake $4 each

Our Shakes arrive and the avocado is a lovely light sweet and frosty shake. It’s also incredibly rich yet still manages to be refreshing so a little goes a long way. I dislike Durian but for the sake of trying it, I sample my husband’s Durian shake. Yes, it’s that smell again. I quickly pass this back to him. I’m convinced my husband only orders Durian due to its reputation and like boys tend to do, he likes to order the most hideous sounding thing and live to tell the tale. He was seduced by the folklore and legend of the Durian being banned from the streets and my description of gagging and running away when my mother first opened one up in our home. He admits that he doesn’t like it and admits it may have been the idea of a stinky fruit that made him order it.

Our Bun and Phở arrives. I try the Bun first – it has nothing to do with an actual bread bun, its a noodle dish with the opaque thin vermicelli noodles underneath a tumble of salad, mint leaves, spring rolls and BBQ pork. I spoon the dipping sauce over the noodles and it’s perfect. I love the crunch of the vegetables and mint and the very fresh crispy spring rolls cut in thirds. The BBQ pork is delicious too and oops I may have found that I ate a bit more than my alloted half.

Special Beef Phở $9

I then try the Phở and the broth is richly flavoured yet light and sustaining. I add some bean sprouts which still remain crunchy and some lemon to give it flavour and its delicious. The fatty beef pieces I dip in the chili sauce which is very spicy especially given the presence of freshly chopped chilis. There is also tripe and meatballs as well as another thinly sliced leaner beef. For me however, adding the basil is overkill and I find it overpowers the Phở broth. My husband likes the basil in it but I pick out the leaves.

As much as I don’t want to move out of my safe, and what some may say is boring North Shore enclave, I do wish we had a late night haunt like this.

My Canh Vietnamese restaurant

29-31 Greenfield Parade Bankstown
Tel: +61 (02) 9796-7586
Open 7 days
11am-11pm
Surcharge for Credit card/add 50c per takeaway container

Make no mistake about this, this is a meat lover’s paradise. If the name doesn’t indicate that its for meatlovers, the concept will: an all you can eat buffet of meat (and salads). Ever since my favourite Korean BBQ restaurant closed down years ago, I’ve been in mourning. I haven’t been to a single Korean BBQ buffet restaurant. Mostly because when I mention it to some friends, they inevitably grumble at the idea of cooking at the table-why go to a restaurant if you have to cook the food they say? I say that they’ve missed the point of Korean BBQ. I know that my most adventuresome food adventurer friends Queen Viv and Miss America won’t mind though and reading about a Korean BBQ buffet place in Parramatta immediately brought back memories of the place in Little Hay St Chinatown. Parramatta was far for us, nearly an hour away but what’s distance in the name of good food.

Soba

Its fairly empty when we arrive at 7pm on a Saturday night with three other couples and a large family table. All the better to get our food. The cooking stations are Gas powered, not the old coals that when they brought them to your table, you’d sit so still in case they drop a lava-hot coal lump into your lap.

The selection is set against the back wall and features about 10 kinds of meat with several types of bulgogi marinated, ribs, lamb, tandoori chicken, chicken wings, giblets; 2-3 types of seafood (banana prawns, mussels and octopus), sushi, fried dumplings, honey soy wings, soba, jap chae, salads, rice, three kinds of soups, desserts and coffee. What is out there is in fairly small portions, I assume to deter people from overeating so whilst other places heave a vast amount of food out at one go, the trays are filled with only 5 prawns at a time which gives it a slightly forlorn look, unlike most buffets which beckon bountifully.

Bean sprout and potato salads

We go to retrieve our chosen dishes and dig into the salads and pre cooked food while our meat is frying. I’m the designated cook of the night and I am happy to tend to the grill. The Bean Sprout salad is ok, not quite as sesame-y as I like it. If its good, I could eat a whole bowl of this, if its not, I could take it or leave it. We don’t bother for seconds of this. The potato salad is good, sweet and just like your typical Korean/Japanese potato salad, with a slightly mashed potato consistency combined with soft potato chunks. I have plenty of this.

Spring Onion salad

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