Tag: pork roll

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Bakery Vietnamese

Happy Snack Cafe House – Homebush West NSW Restaurant Review

I found these photos on my computer from a year and a half ago, and realised I had never written anything about these porks roll. Searching through my Whatsapp chat with my girlfriend where sometimes feelings about banhs mi go, there was nothing noted, suggesting that these were neither memorably good nor memorably bad.

It doesn’t seem particularly fair, therefore, to even put up a post about Happy Snack Cafe, except for a fact that it acts as a reminder to myself that I’ve been here and that I don’t have to ever go back, unless it is to try some of their sit down options.

A completely unrelated flashback from the past is that it looks like we picked up these porks roll as we were actively worried about the possible impending death of our cat Evie. She had started wobbling all over the place, falling over, and had stopped eating. We had taken her to a couple of different vets who had given her IV fluids and each time she seemed to get better, but got worse again post-discharge.

Eventually we took her to the Small Animal Specialist Hospital (SASH) at North Ryde, where for the cost of $8,000 or so they put her in the MRI scanner under GA, took a CSF sample (from just under the occiput in cats!), and a bunch of other specialised tests. Seen by neurology, ophthalmology, dermatology, general surgery, and internal medicine, the presumptive diagnosis was thiamine deficiency based on increased signal intensity of bilateral basal nuclei. Some thiamine supplementation, and she didn’t have to die, and she’s been fine ever since.

These pork rolls were picked up on our way to pick up Evie from SASH. Shere she is, in the car, with her neck all shaved for vascular access. I love her.

I honestly don’t remember enough about the porks roll to recommend Happy Snack Cafe House, but I remember a lot about SASH and can definitely recommend them to a friend or colleague.

Happy Snack Cafe House
104 The Crescent, Homebush West NSW 2140

Categories
Bakery Vietnamese

Thuan Thien Bakery – North Strathfield NSW Restaurant Review

Not to be outdone by the banh mi my junior brought for me at work from Nguyen Hot Bread in Canley Vale during our last fortnight together, I picked up a variety of three options and an almond croissant to share on my way to work.

We had a selection of banhs mi. The first to be pictured and discussed is the roasted pork roll ($7), eaten by me, ultra fresh, walking through the hallway at work so that I can provide an accurate account of its quality for the internet. The bread was nice and fresh, slightly crusty on the outside and soft on the inside – no complaints or painful mouth cutting here. The filling sadly was not ideal, with the pork being really quite dry, and uninspiring (again, note that I’ve eaten it fresh in this case.) On subsequent visits the pork has actually been quite good, and I’ve now had banh mi from here at least six times.

The pate I will discuss in this subsequent paragraph dedicated to the original pork roll ($6.50), which was much better than the roast pork. Unlike most porks roll that I’ve had, the pate at Thuan Thien was very thin and spread with a spoon rather than a knife, which I didn’t find too problematic but my Vietnamese friend did not find satisfying. Whilst I agree the volume administered was on the lower end of the spectrum, she was quite disappointed by it. Luckily the standard collection of cold cuts in the original pork roll meant that there was little opportunity for error, and this is overall a pretty good roll, even eaten at our late lunch period after 6 hours in the fridge. There was no mention of the option of extra pate on the menu, but I suspect it’s something you could convince them to do for a little extra. but I now have learned to just ask for it, and it makes it all delicious.

It’s hard to know if this next roll, which I ate at lunch 6 hours after purchase, is the same roll as the roast pork roll, or in fact the BBQ pork roll ($7), which I had also ordered. I guess I should assume that it’s the BBQ pork roll which I had ordered, but it kind of looks nothing like the menu photograph, with not a smidge of crackling in site. Either way, it was surprisingly not as dry as the first roll I had that morning, so there’s a chance that it was in fact different. I should note the inclusion of red onion on this banh mi, which I feel is not that common an ingredient, whilst my friend and colleague, an influencer in her own right, decried the lack of daikon in this store’s offerings (not a problem for me.) I appreciated also the inclusion of a proper buttery Vietnamese mayonnaise, rather than margarine from a tub, which is passed off as acceptable at some establishments.

The almond croissant ($4) was pretty good. Lots of custard inside, and cheaper than Zouki.

Overall thoughts
Will I add Thuan Thien bakery into the rotation? It’s possible – but only because it’s somewhat on the way, now that I’ve started taking tolls to work and A) XCel Roll has dropped off in quality and B) Nhu Y Kings Hot Bread requires a more significant detour.

Update, mid 2025. The quality was better on every subsequent visit, and this is now my regular haunt.

Thuan Thien bakery
199 Concord Rd, North Strathfield NSW 2137

Categories
Bakery Vietnamese

Nguyen Hot Bread – Canley Vale NSW Restaurant Review

My junior/friend/colleague brought me these banh mi for lunch at work, not knowing that I am lowkey a banh mi influencer in the microsphere of Western Sydney. My thoughts, however brief, should be taken in the context of a approximately 5 hour dwell time within the enhanced post-operative care unit’s breakroom refrigerator.

Within limits of dwell-time, these were still only OK. The meat in the crackling pork roll ($7.50) was plentiful, especially for the price, but neither it nor the cold cut pork roll ($7) had adequate vegetable to carry moisture through the course of the meal. These rolls also lacked the deliciously unhealthy concotion of butter/Vietnamese mayo, instead featuring a rather more pedestrian and Western margarine-like spread instead.

I’m told there are a number of different hot bread stores in the area. Perhaps another, next time?

Nguyen Hot Bread
33 Canley Vale Rd, Canley Vale NSW 2166

Categories
Vietnamese

Mê Bánh Mì – Ashfield NSW Restaurant Review

These were the first banhs mi I had in the local area after moving to the Inner West. They were good, but I don’t know that I would say that they are as affordable as the headline on the website suggests.

The crispy pork roll ($11) was good, but $11. It had a good density of fillings when felt in the hand.

The BBQ pork roll ($10) had a unique and pleasant flavour that I’m having difficulty recalling whilst writing this. Worth a try, I think, but at $10-11 a roll I’m going to walking up the street to one of the multitude of other banh mi shops next time.

Me Banh Mi Ashfield
Shop 2/250 Liverpool Rd, Ashfield NSW 2131

Categories
Bakery Vietnamese

Bánh Mì Bảy Ngộ – Bankstown NSW Restaurant Review

I was on a banh mi kick recently, and Banh Mi Bay Ngo, very close to Nam Fong Hot Bread, was a natural option for a pre-work meal.

Like its nearby competitor, Banh Mi Bay Ngo’s traditional pork roll ($6.50) was packed with cold sliced meats at a very competitive price. I’d say that in comparison with Nam Fong, this particular roll had a greater and attractive crispiness to its pickled vegetables, which provide for nice intra-bite textural variation. Please note that the roll did not come wiht the grill marks – the bread was heated up in a sandwich press prior to consumption – a technique I learned from the SRMO who keeps making me feel jealous every time he has a banh mi at work.

The nem chua pork roll ($6.50) was less attractive to me, owing to the physically smaller quantity of meat, without much extra in terms of flavour. Still a good roll, but doesn’t beat the classic in my opinion.

Overall, both were good, and I can’t recommend either Banh Mi Bay Ngo or Nam Fong over the other.

Bánh Mì Bảy Ngộ
49 Bankstown City Plaza, Bankstown NSW 2200
(02) 9709 8106