Whenever it’s raining, I always see rainbows as a sign of something good to come. Symbolic perhaps of a lesson learnt after a hardship or a silver lining in a cloud. Rainbow themed anything from cakes, biscuits and cupcakes adorn my blog and when I see a sign saying “Double Rainbows All the Way Across the Sky” beaming at me from a yellow neon sign as soon as we walk into Chi Chi Asian Kitchen, I see it as the reward at the end of a long drive.

I was with my usual partners in crime Mr NQN, Miss America and Queen Viv. The latter two are the friends that best like an adventure to a far flung suburb and on this torrentially rainy Sydney Saturday, Mr NQN and I bundled into the car avoiding fat drops of rain and picked up Miss America from Potts Point and Queen Viv from St Peters and went on our way to Canley Heights (on the way buying twelve blocks of butter but that’s nothing new). We were running a touch late and perhaps we were over optimistic with the travel time to Canley Heights. The rain doesn’t help traffic conditions and Chi Chi isn’t actually on Canley Vale road as the address says but we stumble upon it on Derby Street while trying to find a park in this busy little suburb.

Inside, it’s quite different from the large number of Vietnamese eateries that line Canley Vale road. There’s a large Manga style wall complete with a waving lucky panda alongside an exposed brick wall and pink metal cut outs of pandas in sunglasses partition off the marble bar from the main restaurant. They tell us that Chi Chi just means chic and the idea was to introduce a Melbourne sort of vibe to Canley Vale. One of the owners Les Huynh of Chi Chi also owns Blue Ginger in Balmain. Every table is taken this evening and I’m glad that they take bookings. Service is very friendly and they take time to explain things to us and give us recommendations.

Liquid Pavlova $18 (left) and Hello Chi Chi $8

It’s funny how one ingredient can evoke a whole dish. The passionfruit in this cocktail and fluffy top brought forth memories of pavlova immediately. My choice was the Hello Chi Chi which was a delicious mocktail tasting of sweet strawberry and lychee. The only complaint was that there was a lot of ice in both drinks and they were gone rather quickly within a few gulps.

Spanner crab, pomelo, caramelised coconut, galangal and peanuts on betel leaf $4.80 each

It’s a short wait for the entrees that arrive all at once. We start with the two betel leaf items which are always crowd pleasers. The spanner crab, pomelo, caramelised coconut, galangal and peanuts on the betel leaf are perfectly balanced, with just the right amount of sour pomelo and rich, sweet caramelised coconut never overpowering the crab.

Smoked trout, galangal, roasted chilli and fried shallots on betel leaf $3.90 each

We follow the crab with the smoked trout (on their recommendation) and it’s also good with the strong smoked trout flavour dominating but out of the two betel leaf toppings, the crab ones were just that touch more balanced.

Son-in-law eggs with house XO sauce $5.90

I originally found Chi Chi from Tina’s blog Bitemeshowme and I recall that she was smitten by these on her blog and I’m in total agreement. They’re simple enough, boiled eggs lightly dredged in cornflour and deep fried so that the outside gets a crispish coating. Inside the yolk is runny and golden and topped with house made XO sauce, that powerhouse spicy sauce flavoured with dried scallops and pork. “I could have eaten a dozen” Miss America says to eating lifting the last mouthful to his mouth.

Steamed dumplings of seafood and vegetables with ginger soya sauce (5) $11.90

On the drive here Miss America had made several requests for us to stop in Ashfield for dumplings. It was rainy weather after all and that means holing up with a plate of steaming dumplings. These were filled with seafood and vegetables with an egg pastry wrapper. Drizzled on top was a ginger soy sauce. They weren’t bad but they also weren’t very distinctive in flavour in terms of the seafood and I couldn’t tell what seafood it contained.

Crispy skin baby chicken with house satay sauce $20.90

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Sometimes, when you’ve spent all your pennies on things (for Queen Viv: an overseas trip, for us: home renovations and a new computer) you may want to eat out but you don’t want to spend a small fortune. Which let’s be honest in Sydney, is quite easy to do. So I consult my oracle, aka Queen Viv, and she suggested Yen’s Vietnamese in Waterloo. It’s her go to for a quick lunch or a quick dinner.

We’ve driven on this street so many times and hadn’t even noticed it. It’s busy this evening and people are huddled over steaming bowls of pho or heaped plates of freshly cooked noodles and seafood. We take a seat at a table for four but it is underneath the air conditioner so when another table leaves, we take up residence there. The menu is just over one page long and features almost sixty dishes with pho, bun, noodle soup, fried noodles, seafood, beef chicken and pork dishes. There are some specials also on the walls (along with apologies for a $1 price increase) and the service is warm and lovely although the temperature inside is cold.

Fresh coconut juice $2.50

Our order came out quickly. With just the right amount of sweetness, the coconut juice came with large pieces of young coconut meat and a refreshing juice.

Rice paper rolls 4 for $7

This was an order for Karen who is a celiac. With the amount of soy and home made chicken stock they couldn’t guarantee that the menu items were suitable for her. The waitress was so lovely and went out of her way to make sure that the rolls were gluten free. The next night, lured by the promise of more addictive pho, we visited with my parents Rose and Ronald and this post is made up of both visits. The rice paper rolls  are soft and made fresh to order. The chicken and prawn filling is delicious and it comes with vermicelli noodles and a hoi sin and garlic based dipped sauce with a little sprinkling of ground peanuts.

Chim Cut Chien 3 for $9

As Queen Viv is a regular she knows the menu well and suggests that we order the quail. Marinated and crispy fried so that you can practically eat the whole thing and nibble on the larger bones, you squeeze some lemon juice in the salt and pepper mixture and then dip the quail in. There is an explosion of flavours, salt, tangy and soy and we wish we had ordered the serving of six.

Banh Khot 7 for $9

The banh khot, usually one of my favourite items come here less crispy and larger than what I’ve had. The taste is very much of coconut milk with bits of pork mince and prawns and whilst they’re pleasant, they’re not the little crispy sensations that I’ve had in the past.

Pho ba ga $9.50

The pho comes as a large bowl filled with rice noodles and we took the waitress’s recommendation of the beef and chicken pho. It comes with the regulation bean sprouts, purple basil and chilli and the soup itself has a generous amount of noodles and meat with thin slices of white onion. The smell of star anise and the herbs hits you as soon as it is set down and we go back for bowl after bowl of this wonderfully delicately fragranced soup with the slippery noodles.

Go Kho Gung $18

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What do they say is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again to get the same result. Over the years we had tried to get into Red Lantern and every time it was booked out. Granted we were trying fairly last minute on the busy nights but I was determined to get there eventually. When friend Ute suggested that we try it I repeated our tale of woe. I suspected the queues would be much worse now the owner Luke Nguyen has his own television show but Ute came back with a booking-we had a table there from 6pm-8pm!

Inside the restaurant, the walls are black and red and the lighting is dark. Items like a North Vietnamese radio sit on a bookshelf with the brand name “Red Lantern” written on the side. Vietnamese artefacts and tin robots sit on shelves. Service is lovely, our waitress steers us towards her favourites at our request and since we only have a two hour window we order and then proceed to talk and talk and talk.

Chef Luke Nguyen

Seeing my camera the waitress mentions “Luke in the house tonight” and we look at each other. I guess I had presumed that once you get a television show your time in your own restaurant is minimal but then we see him bringing out dishes from the kitchen. “That’s very uncheffy” Ute says as he we overhear him asking a table how they found their food was and removes their plates.

Banh Tom $16.00

Luke brings over our entrees. “Aunty 5’s rice cakes” are squares of chewy, sticky rice cakes that are served with pieces of tiger prawn, caramelised pork, pork floss and shallot oil. Ute asks Luke about these and he explains that he fell in love with them during his time in Vietnam. When it came to putting these on the menu he sought the advice as to which of his aunts made the best rice cakes and it was apparently auntie five out of the twelve aunts whose recipe inspired this dish. “These are just what I needed” Ute says and she is a big fan of the sticky, slightly crispy rice cakes and the fluffy, sweet pork floss sitting on top.

Goi vit $26

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