The contents of this blog are matters of opinion formed over one more visits. There has been some artistry applied and metaphors and similes should not necessarily be taken literally.
The grilled chicken roll ($8.50) was ordered not on purpose but because the BBQ pork roll was unavailable. It turned out to be pretty good, though with an unexpected amount of shredded lettuce. The chicken meat was tasty with a little bit of sweetness, moist, and plentiful. The bread, and this goes for the bread used in all three rolls, was a little bit crispy but did not cut the mouth. Pretty good all round, and not a type of roll filling I’ve ever ordered before.
The roasted pork roll ($9) was your classic roast pork roll with diced roast pork and crispy pork skin. It was good, and again extra fresh from the lettuce, which I don’t think you see as a common filling in these rolls. I do wish that perhaps more pork could’ve been in this roll, especially as it is on the more expensive side of things (compared to XCel Roll’s well filled $8.50 roast pork roll).
What can I say about this classic Vietnamese pork roll ($7)? It was pretty good, but in no way did it stand out against any competitor. It was standard to a standard tee, happily lacking the shredded lettuce of the two rolls above. It just tasted completely normal, and I can think of no other words to describe it.
Overall thoughts Dulwich Hill Pork Roll is a pretty standard pork roll place with banh mi of a reliable quality that do not really chart any new boundaries. The ladies who work there were really nice though, and I thought the bread was particularly good as it managed to be both crispy and not give me mouth pain.
Dulwich Hill Pork Roll 6/471 Marrickville Rd, Dulwich Hill NSW 2203 (02) 9518 1964
At the recommendation of my learned friend BCSY (who had the same dish in the same restaurant twice in one week) I visited Thuy Huong to have their famous (to him) Fish Cake Noodle Soup (bún chả cá – $15). Sitting as a solo diner next to some kind of nurse and her friend who were kind enough to share their table with me, I had this giant piping hot bowl of noodle soup, dilled to the max with a topping of fish cake and a crispy fried battered fish fillet. I enjoyed a number of things about this bowl of noodle soup, including its excellent high temperature,w hich allowed it to heat the random salad ingredients that I had put in it, the melon, with its general lack of any strong personality, and the dill, the taste of which permeated my entire body. My only qualm as an outsider was that I did not know that the bun rieu also had fish cake, and that the real difference between the fish cake noodle soup and the crab noodle soup was not the fish cake but actually the piece of fried fish on top. Even though the fish fillet was yummy, I wonder if might’ve chosen the crabby alternative had I fully appreciated this subtle difference.
One intrepid Google Maps reviewer proclaimed Pho Mom the best pho restaurant in all of Canterbury, if only by virtue of it being the only pho restaurant in Canterbury. While I don’t personally know this Johnny Wong gentleman after paying Pho Mom a visit this past week I can certainly echo his sentiments.
The beef special pho ($18.50) came with the standard assortment of rare beef beef balls, and beef tripe, but to be honest apart from this I did not find it to be very special. The ingredients are all fresh and of good quality, but I found the soup to be somewhat one-dimensional, watery and generally lacking in depth of flavour. Perhaps it is merely personal preference, and you can browse the rest of blog to find what kinds of pho I do enjoy, but this bowl just didn’t do it for me.
Though I was let down by the pho, the fried wonton ($13) were a surprise hit. These were incredibly meaty and juicy inside, with good flavour as well as a good sweet and sour sauce for dipping on the side. This was pretty much just a random order, without big expectations, but they truly did impress.
The rice paper rolls ($13) were of good quality with soft rice paper and fresh ingredients inside, but what was really stand-out about these was the great peanut sauce. I’m also happy that we weren’t locked into choosing 4 of the same roll as the menu might suggest, and they were able to give us 2 of 2 different fillings. We had the prawn as well as the pork.
OVERALL I don’t think Pho Mom really lived up to the name of being the mother of all pho. I found their pho to be their weakest offering, but thought that they exhibited unexpected strength in other areas. Given that they’re just down the road from me, I wouldn’t hesitate to go back and try some of the other options on their menu, but given also our proximity to other high quality Vietnamese restaurants I don’t think I will go back just for pho.
These were some wildly good banh mi, recommended by KS and ACHT as their favourites some time in 2021 and finally put into my mouth in May 2022. This was a couple who would commute all the way from Parramatta, where they lived, to Hurstville just for a couple of pork rolls, and while I wouldn’t necessarily go that far (Xcel Roll & Bowl in Parramatta is also great), I can see why.
I could tell you all about the sliced pork roll ($6.50) and what makes it great, but the words would essentially be the same as every other review of a pork roll that I’ve liked. The bread is crispy but not cutting, the salad fillings are plentiful and fresh, and the roll is not oversauced. What really sets out Phu Cuong King’s offering is the fact that extra pate is offered right off the bat as a main menu item. Just an additional $1 will get you absolutely loaded up on that delicious extra pate and Vietnamese mayo and send your mouth to a whole other sphere of creaminess and umami. It’s not something secret that you need to ask for, that you’re worried they might not do. It’s right there on the menu. And it’s glorious.
The $10 crackling pork roll was similarly good, though I made the health-and-self conscious decision not to load it up with additional saturated fats. A friend and colleague commented that $10 was too much to pay for a pork roll, which I used to agree with looking at the prices charged elsewhere for a similar item, but no longer do. No one blinks twice at paying $10 for a hyper-processed sub at Subway or $8.60 for a double quarter pounder made on a production line by high school students so why should we be so miserly when it comes to culturally authentic food made from fresh ingredients by ethnic workers?
THOUGHTS Big fan of the extra pate. Don’t care about the price. Don’t tell my healthcare team.
The weirdest moment of our meal at Gia Dinh was when some guy came in and started giving the kid working there the third degree about where the photos on the wall came from (his mother’s hometown), which part of Vietnam that was specifically (he didn’t know), whether the body of water depicted was a natural river or a viaduct (he didn’t know), whether he had ridden a motorbike in Vietnam (the kid was like ten, but he made sure to tell him that he hadn’t lived until he’s ridden a motorbike in Vietnam), and then later on asked another kid (I presume the first child’s brother) if he had ever ridden a motorcycle in Vietnam (obviously not). He sat down, opened his laptop for about three minutes, and then left when his takeaway order was ready.
We started our meal with the Bánh Phồng Thịt Nướng ($10), a small entree of mildly sweet BBQ pork, crushed peanuts and spring onion oil served on top of a sliver of rice noodle on a prawn cracker. There was a lot to like about this dish, with a great interplay of different textures (the crunchy peanut, the prawn cracker) and flavours. If I had one point of improvement to suggest it would be the temperature. I felt that this whole thing could’ve been a bit warmer, but especially the rice noodle which was cold.
The Bò Lúc Lắc Xà LáchXoong ($22), a shaking kind of beef cube allegedly in a pepper and butter glaze on a bed of watercress was next. While the beef was reasonably tender, I could not identify the watercress in this dish. My partner and I were both recognised within the state for our knowledge of agriculture as children, and this foundational knowledge, combined with our adept Googling skills through years of inpatient medical practice led us to believe that the greenery was indeed some kind of lettuce rather than watercress. Again I felt that the random mixture of warm and cold ingredients was harmful to the dish as a whole, though I understand that salads do exist.
Gia Dinh’s Bánh Xèo ($18) is perhaps what they’re best known for, but sadly did not quite live up to my expectations. While I thought the batter was extremely crispy and obviously freshly fried (we were their first customers of the day as they opened at 10AM), I found the filling to be a bit underwhelming. The prawns were on the smaller size and the pork was scarce, but I think the main thing was that it didn’t really have as much flavour on its own as I would’ve thought. The fish sauce was absolutely necessary for its enjoyment, and actually some of their chilli oil, which was a bit sweet and complex, went a long way as well. The online reviews denote Gia Dinh’s banh xeo as on the top tier of traditional reproductions, so it may honestly be my weak and uncivilised palate that cannot appreciate it, but at the end of the day I like what I like, and that’s what this blog is really all about.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: I liked the entree, but didn’t love the promised Sydney’s best banh xeo. Perhaps it is my horrible westernised palate (I did enjoy Banh Xeo Bar, take that how you will) but ultimately I just write this blog to remind myself more than anything about what I like and what I don’t like. Onto the next Vietnamese restaurant in Marrickville.
