Exploring Springvale

Posted by Julie in Melbourne, Vietnamese April 25, 2012

I fell in love with Springvale on the first visit. Springvale is like the Sydney’s Cabramatta, although it might be debatable between Footscray & Richmond. It is the furthest away by distance after comparing it to Footscray and Richmond. But with food once again nothing beats the distance. It’s the pork roll that calls my name and the main reason I choose to constantly return back to Springvale.

First up, is a visit to Pho Hung Vuong. They pretty much only serve Pho here. The pho comes in 3 different sizes.
Small = $7.50
regular = $8.50
Large= $9.50

Vietnamese iced coffee $3

Three colour drink $3

Mr himself goes with the regular beef slice and brisket pho

I picked the regular beef slice pho. I love the broth here which is a winner for me. Mr also comments on the way I eat pho. I usually place the noodles/beef in the spoon with a bit of broth while Mr lifts the noodles up and eats it. How do you eat yours?

Before I leave Springvale, I stop by Golden age bread at Springvale Shopping Centre to buy some Vietnamese Pork rolls. I’ve been curious about the pork rolls next door to it so I bought their version for experiment purposes . So far in my opinion I believe that the golden age pork rolls is the probably the best pork roll I have tasted and this is also comparing it back in the pork rolls back in Sydney. But read on to see how it compares to to AN loi Deli (the place next door)

After paying about $17 at Golden age we left with 2 pork rolls, 2 fried dough sticks, 2 large pork buns and fried red bean paste bread/bun. This pretty much covers dinner and lunch tomorrow! The bread at golden age is crunchy and very tasty. It is a great steal at $3.50.

The pork roll at Anloi is also at $3.50. The bread is slightly more crunchier and still very tasty. But the taste of the bread I find is a lot tastier at golden age. I find the pork roll a bit heavy on the spring onions and very generous with the pate. Unlike most people I tend to like a more softer bread therefore less effort on the teeth . In end I find it hard to compare both. Both are very tasty but with the bread tastier with Golden age I still remain sided with them.

“Readers how do you normally eat your pho and have you found your favourite pork roll spot?”

Pho Hung Vuong:
Shop 2 / 15 Balmoral Avenue
Springvale VIC 3171
Telephone: (03) 95585147

Anloi Deli:
G4, No 46-58 Buckingham Av
Springvale VIC 3171
Telephone: (03) 9548 3768

Golden age bread & Cake:
Shop G5B, No 46-58 Buckingham Av
Springvale VIC 3171
Telephone: (03) 95742332
Fax: (03) 95478696

Momofuku grilled lemongrass pork sausage Ssam

Posted by Julie in Cookbooks, Momofuku, Vietnamese January 18, 2011

Mr Himself was hosting a pot luck party and I decided to make Momofuku’s grilled lemongrass pork sausage Ssam. In a way, it is kinda a twist on nem nuong. The pork is served with picked carrot and daikon radish, herbs, rice and fish sauce. I decided to leave out the herbs part out which consists of mint and coriander and the rice. I also stuck with using Luke Nguyen’s fish sauce recipe since I found Chang’s version ratio a bit strange, but I should give it a go one day and compare.

The pork requires cooking twice. The pork is placed in the oven to cooked the pork most of the way then grilled afterwards. I found the pork really dry afterwards but once pair with the carrot, daikon, butter lettuce and fish sauce you can barely feel the dryness of the pork. It was a bit fussy having people combine 5 components of it to make the ssam, is one part of the outcome I didn’t like. I figured that you probably combine everything and make a salad of it . The recipe is overall very simple and I would recommend it to make this recipe if you have the cookbook.

Hanoi Crisp parcels

Posted by Julie in Cooking, events, Vietnamese December 27, 2010

I made these vietnamese styled spring rolls for the Sydney food bloggers xmas Picnic. Sadly most people didn’t know about the sauce! It tastes much better with the sauce! Instead of spring roll wrappers there are made with rice paper.

I used a recipe from Luke Nguyen’s Songs of Sapa. He used a ratio of 1:1:1 of crabmeat, pork mince and prawns, while i adjusted it and used pork mince entirely.

Ingredients
40g dried wood ear mushrooms
40g bean thread vermicelli
600g pork mince
1/2 onion, finely diced
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 tsp ground white pepper
1 tablespoons of fish sauce
20 x 20cm dried round rice paper wrappers
1 egg white, lightly beaten
vegetable oil, for deep-frying

to serve:
1 iceberg lettuce, leaves separated
1 large handful perilla
1 large handful mint
1 large handful Vietnamese mint
1 head of iceburg lettuce, leaves separated
Nuoc Nam Cham (dipping fish Sauce)

1. Put the mushrooms in a bowl, cover with water and soak overnight, then drain and thinly slice. Soak the bean thread vermicelli in water for 20 minutes, then drain and cut into 4cm lengths.
2. In a food processor, combine the mushrooms, vermicelli, pork mince, onion, sugar, pinch of salt, white pepper and fish sauce. Process until combined.
3. Working with one rice paper at a time, submerge the rice paper in a large pan of warm water, then transfer it to a chopping board or work surface. Take 1 1/2 heaped tablespoons of the mixture and place it on the bottom edge of the rice paper. Fold the two adjacent sides, one on top of the other, into the centre. Roll the apex to form a nice firm roll, and secure with a dab of egg white. Repeat until you have filled all the rice papers.
4. Pour the oil into a wok and heat to 180°C. Fry the parcels in batches for 6 minutes, or until lightly browned and crisp. Serve with the fresh herbs and lettuce and dip into the nuoc mam cham.

Dipping fish sauce:
3 tbs fish sauce
3 tbs rice vinegar
2 tbs sugar
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 bird’s eye chilli, thinly sliced *I used 1 red long chilli
2 tbs lime juice

combine the fish sauce, rice vinegar, sugar and ½ cup of water in a saucepan and place over medium heat. Stir well and cook until just before boiling point is reached, then remove from the heat and allow to cool. To serve, add the garlic and chilli, then stir in the lime juice.

*Recipe slightly modified from Luke Nguyen’s The Songs of sapa.

Bottom photo from Tammi.

The Making of pho

Posted by Julie in Cooking, Vietnamese February 19, 2010

I am getting more traffic lately. I have no idea where you guys are coming from! (those blogs stats are helping but I dont know where the rest is coming from).

Do you remember when I made pho? I forgot to take step by step photos. I made it again this time! I took some photos to give you a clearer idea of the process involved. Was the pho any better this time? It tasted the same I think. This time I roasted the beef bones in the oven to see if it adds any more flavours. However I am convinced that doing this give my soup extra oilyness. I wanted to slow cook the pho in the slow cooker but it I just could not fit the bones in. Need a massive slow cooker for that!

So refer back here for the recipe, from steamy kitchen.

I dont mean to disgust anyone. But here are the leg beef bones roasting away in our turbooven. You should of seen the blood dripping from these but lets not get into that.