Fresh lemon juice with soda water and sugar $3.50
I’ve always thought that you can always tell how much fun you’re having at dinner by the number of times a waiter has to come back for your order. Going out with The Second Wife and Gravy Beard is a good example of this. There are always funny stories to catch up on and our poor waiter comes back several times to get our order but we are busy catching up on things to decide what to order. It doesn’t help that everything sounds delicious on the menu.
We’ve been coming to Bay Tinh for years – my parents love it so there’s always a trip with them and now that it has been bought by Harry Hoang and renovated, it has been spruced up. Gone are the High School essay plastic folders for menus which were not without their charm – there’s now a proper menu.
Young Coconut Juice $3.50
We start off with drinks, young coconut drinks for some and a fresh lemon juice with soda water and sugar for me. The Young Coconut drink is refreshing and sweet (although a long spoon would have helped in the quest to eat the deliciously slippery young coconut). The lemon drink is very tart with more emphasis on lemon than lemonade.
Crab Pate 6 for $7
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| June 28th, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
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
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| May 6th, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
Trust me when I tell you that I am not a satanist. Nor that I am judging being a satanist, but as I am queasy at the sight of blood a future as a Satanist is not in my cards, nor is being a doctor (aversion to bodily fluids also cancels this out). But when my blogging buddy Christie and I drive past the Goat Meat restaurant on our way to the Harry’s Bar event, we squeal with excitement. A Goat Meat restaurant you say? Yes. One with drawings of goats frolicking outside? Yes. And just like that we cancel our dinner plans elsewhere and make a last minute decision to go Goat Meat.
In the restaurant there is another large table of people mid-meal. We ask to see the menu-just in case-just in case of what I am not sure. We are intrigued by the offerings so we sit down and ask the waitress for her recommendations. We’re not well versed in goat meat, both of us only having it in curries, so she recommends the grilled goat meat and the raw goat meat (stay with me, hold onto my hand, it’s not as scary as it sounds). There’s a page of more traditional (and non goat-ey) dishes and a page of the more bovine kind. The waitress asks us if it is our first time here and indeed it is and she smiles and says proudly that this is the only Goat Meat restaurant in Australia.
Salted Lemon juice and Salted Plum drink $3 each
We order some drinks, a Salted Lemon drink and a Salted Plum drink. We’re not sure what to expect but they’re actually quite delicious albeit quite salty. I don’t find them as thirst quenching as I’d like though but they are very flavoursome.
Grilled Goat Meat with rice vermicelli $18
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| March 3rd, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
Tropical Night cocktail
The opening of a new bar above one of my favourite restaurants, Bay Tinh is always cause for a cocktail. And tonight in the room above the Bay Tinh restaurant my friend Christie from Fig & Cherry and I are sipping some gorgeous little cocktails called Tropical Night which is a delicious combination of Frozen Soursop a creamy cocktail with Cointreau, Bacardi Rum and Vanilla ice cream. For those of you unfamiliar with the Soursop fruit, it is a creamy fleshed green exterior fruit with a fruit salad-ey taste and a creamy texture.
Harry Hoang, carrying a rice pancake to the food critic Cherry Ripe
Who is Harry? Harry is Harry Hoang, the owner of Bay Tinh, a man who came over in 1980 as a refugee boatperson he’s an immigrant success story. The food is Southern Vietnamese which is different from Northern Vietnamese cuisine due in part to its French influences. Harry spent the last 6 months perfecting the dishes here and removing all additives and ensuring that it is replaced with all natural ingredients. Indeed, the food is MSG free which he says, despite its use, is a flavour suppressor as it suppresses the natural flavours of food. Harry is an adorably enthusiastic man whose passion is evident. He tells us of his quest to serve fresh and good quality food and an example is the grain fed only beef used in all dishes.
Vietnamese beers
The trays of cocktail food brought around by a girl in a traditional Vietnamese costume are delicious and a great range showcasing the range and healthiness of the food on offer. It’s almost impossible to choose a favourite.
Lighting fixture, yes you know I love a good lighting fixture…
The decor is chic with gorgeous textured walls and patterned wallpaper and Christie and I particularly like the Zambelli shirts that the staff wear. The crowd tonight is a mix of press, family, friends and locals-even the renowned food critic Cherry Ripe is here.
Pork mince spring rolls: Cha Gio
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| February 25th, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
After our meal at A Taste of Egypt we had a wander down the main mall area of Bankstown. Most of the vibrantly coloured shops that I’d walked past a couple of hours earlier were closed while one remained open where we introduced S and In to the concept of a Bubble Milk tea. Having never tried it before they are intrigued by the concept. And of course being Bankstown it’s incredibly cheap at $2.50 per cup. We try a Mango flavoured Bubble Milk tea, it’s mildly Mangoey flavoured and S and In try sucking up their first bubble pearls slurping up 3 or 4 in one go.
Mango Bubble Tea $2.50
We also buy a Pandan waffle with small shards of coconut throughout for the princely sum of $1. It’s not bad at all, moist with a mildish coconutty taste giving it a distinct taste from a regular waffle.
M spies a Lebanese Sweets shop and as these are some of her favourites kinds of sweets we go in. It’s air conditioned to a cold fridge temperature inside and its glass display cabinets house all manner of sweet honeyed treats dusted with green ground pistachios and nuts. I choose a Baklava, not exactly adventurous but always my favourite. My husband declines a sweet as he prefers fruit to pastry and he’s too busy with the Bubble Tea but we also get some deep fried cream filled syrup drenched rolls, a Eish El Boulboul (Bird’s Nest) and a Burma Pistachio.
Baklava $1.30
I take a crunchy syrup soaked bite into the baklava and it’s delicious, and despite the sweetness from the drenching in syrup it never appears too sweet. Even my husband likes this and tries to eat the rest of my piece (no luck!).
Bird’s Nest $1.30 (front) and Burma Pistachio (bacK) $1.30
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| October 25th, 2008 by Not Quite Nigella
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