The first stop on our tour was Pho Ba Ria 2. This place looks the real deal; replete with green paint, hanging red lanterns, tassels, and mirrored walls, you would be forgiven for thinking you had walked into any kerbside restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City. There are also the obligatory baskets of condiments - hoi sin sauce, soy sauce, brown vinegar, chilli oil and fish sauce - toothpicks and tissues on the table.

 

When Vietnamese people go out to eat they usually eat quick dishes like Pho. Eating-out in Vietnam is not the event it is in - say - China, where generations will gather around a large table every week to eat Yum Cha. Quick dishes are the order of the day in Vietnam and that’s why most of these restaurants are set up with tables seating only two or four. If Vietnamese people do get together for large gatherings it’s usually an evening at home with mum cooking up noodles, rice, or marinated pork dishes. There’s also very little frying in Vietnamese cooking; grilling is the preferred way to cook meats.

 

 

Pho Ba Ria 2 specialise in beef rice-noodle soup (Pho Bo) but also serve other tasty dishes such as Spicy Pork and Beef Vermicelli Noodles (Bun Bo Hue), Dry Egg-noodles with Tapioca and Seafood (Hu Tieu Mi Do Bien), Stir-fried Egg-noodle Combination (Mi Xao Thap Cam) and the classic Broken Rice Combination dish with roast pork, pork chop, fried eggs, omelette and shredded pork skin (Com Tam Dac Biet).

 

Serving sizes are more than generous and you can order your Pho dishes in Small ($7.50), Large ($8.50) 
or X-Large ($9.50) variations.

 

We were recommended the Vermicelli Noodles with BBQ Pork Ribs, Shredded Pork Skin, topped with broken Spring Rolls. This dish comes without soup and we later wished there was a bit more to it, so our advice is to order something with soup. We washed it all down with clear coconut juice and fresh lemon juice drinks.

 

The next restaurant was My Tho named after the home village of the owner, and coincidentally, our guide. They have recently updated the interior and it now looks like any other suburban Asian restaurant, save for the Vietnamese paintings and photos on the walls.

Pho is not available Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights here so we were a bit late at 7pm to order these, but our mission was to find other tasty treats for you to try.

 

We settled on wrap-your-own BBQ Pork cold rolls for the entree, followed by King Prawn in Coconut Milk and Lemon-grass (Tom Xao Lan), a Combination Steamboat of vegetables, meat and seafood (Lau Thap Cam) and Special Fried Rice (Com Chien).

 

This meal was more of a comfortable dining experience as the steamboat was fairly similar to those found in Chinese restaurants in Gouger Street. The real surprise was the king prawn dish that is particular to the Southern regional cuisine that My Tho specialises in. Rich, creamy and full of flavour this is a must try.

 

All the standard Vietnamese drinks are on offer including coconut juice with slivers of coconut 
flesh, grass jelly, and Nuoc Rau Ma (Green 
Pennywort Juice).

 

The final destination on our tour o’ food was Khang’s Noodles which is located just behind the Arndale Shopping Centre.

 

With funky orange and dark brown decor, tables and chairs set in rows, this joint caters to the eat-and-run crowd. They offer noodle soups, dry noodles and rice dishes alongside a few other borrowed Asian dishes presumably there to keep the less adventurous happy.

 

Spicy Beef and Pork (Bun Bo Hue) at $9.00 was the order of the day. The dish came packed with pork sausage and beef brisket. As with all Pho-style noodles it comes with a separate plate of additional vegetables that you add to your dish. These additions commonly include bean sprouts, coriander, mint, lettuce, banana plant, basil and lemon.

 

One interesting addition to the usual menu was Banh Canh Tom Gio Heo, a difficult dish to 
find in Adelaide, which is a special type of “drop” noodle soup with pork and prawns. Apparently the name comes from the method used to extrude and cook the noodles.

 

All up, it was a satisfying meal; one where you feel full but not gut-achingly full like you would after a meal of Indian curry. And I guess that’s the thing with Vietnamese food - all of it is made with fresh ingredients, lashings of herbs and vegetables, generous but not over the top cuts of meat, leaving you feeling healthy and satisfied.