noodleoodle

Our philosophy is simple, Made to love.

The familiarity of a pho shop brings me untold comfort. The way you can just reach out a hand, and a chopstick will be there. Reach out the other, and there’s some chilli. If you need to fix your hair you can count on a mirror wall close by.

This is not the case at Love Pho, and Esther and I found it a bit unnerving. For a start this place is new, under a year old, the deco is clean and thoughtful (if not a big green for my liking). Perhaps the most disturbing of all, the tea comes in a teapot rather than one of those thermos flasks.

My neurosis aside, you can tell that they love making pho at Love Pho. It was really, really great. It was warming and spicy, with perfectly thin slices of good quality beef. So, although my usual comforts were absent, I’m sure I’ll be back soon, for a bit more pho love.

They also have a website - www.lovepho.com.au

Love Pho - 181 Swan Street, Richmond - 03 9421 2200

Duan Com Viet Nam - 69 Alfrieda Street St Albans 3021

• 11:48 Departed - Drove north along The Chandler.
• 12:12 Arrived - Alfrieda Street, St Albans.
• 12:18 Duan Com Viet Nam - Cafe run by a couple from Central Vietnam. Bun Bo Hue is the specialty, there’s a large range of drinks. I couldn’t go past Bun Bo Hue, it came in small/medium/SPECIAL/xl. I asked what was in the SPECIAL? I was told it was “better than normal.” I had to have it!
• 12:20 Ordered Bun Bo Hue - Fully expecting stomach bits.
• 12:25 Soup Arrived - It had a beautiful citrus fragrance, and was accompanied by a lovely plate of shredded lettuce and herbs mixed together. To my surprise no offal, only large chunks of braised pork and beef… and some processed cakes of untraceable animal origin.
• 12.40 Soup finished - I see others drinking Vietnamese style coffee with condensed milk.
• 12.41 Coffee Ordered - I’m a big fan of this style of coffee. Too often, people compare it to the type of coffee we drink in Melbourne. I don’t think it’s a fair comparison. It’s a totally different thing, and I could think of nothing worse than having a cafe latte after the meal I’d just had. Somehow though this coffee works and I enjoyed watching it drip slowly into the glass. I stirred it and drank the sweet dark liquid. Haven’t seen it anywhere else in Melbourne.
• 12.53 Paid, left, departed
• 13.24 Arrived home - Resumed work.

Only a couple hundred meters from the previous eating halls is Dixon House Food Court. Choose one of the three entrances and descend into a sensory stimulation overload. (depending on time of day I suppose).

It was late afternoon and the place was packed, the noise a cacophony. I counted over twenty vendors in this dim wood paneled basement … and there’s a bar! I grabbed a Singha. E and I perused the food stalls. Of note were two Indonesian places and a Cambodian stall. God knows why we ordered a beef noodle soup from a Chinese joint. I guess I’m using this dish as a bench mark. I strangely see a link between all these soups. Each one filling a small gap in a giant beef noodle soup puzzle, which all leads to pho. (I’m getting ridiculous).

Anyway, with all the interesting food about, I was disappointed with this offering. It was of the thickened stock variety and not much care was put into it’s construction. Underneath a crude pile of ingredients was a block of egg noodles that hadn’t even been separated from it’s factory manufactured square.

It was good to have a Singha though, and E enjoyed the atmosphere. Soup was $7.50.

Dixon House Food Court - Corner Little Hay & Dixon Haymarket Sydney

Midmorning breakfast at the Sussex Centre food hall. The lunch rush hadn’t kicked in, but vendors were still busily handing out a steady flow of product. Due to the early hour, E and I decided to try the pho stall, Siagon Pho. We’ve sniffed out four Pho joints around Chinatown and three of them have Siagon in the title. Doesn’t look like well see any Pho Bac on this trip.

This particular Siagon Pho sells a range of rice dishes and offers noodle soup as combination or rare meat. I expect the combination would include a few bits of offal. Our rare beef was of a good standard, there was plenty of them being sold. I noticed a number of staff from other stalls eating here.

The proprietor seemed like a nice chap. I asked him what he thought difference between Southern and Northern Pho was. He noodled (nodded) enthusiastically as if this was a question he had often asked himself. He pulled out a strange electric tennis racket and swiped at a fly. It disintegrating in a zap of electronic flash. E and I ducked. “Sugar!” he said, and went on to tell me that Southerners like to add sugar to the stock in the cooking faze. He also said there was a particular spice that was integral but could not find the words in English, (maybe Star Anise). He told me to go to Cabramatta for pho Bac, I doubted we’d get there this trip. We finished our soup, he stalked more insect pray. Countless bowls of Pho were dished out.

The Sussex Centre food hall has a large variety of food stalls and a bar! There’s Korean BBQ, Malasian noodles, Chinese BBQ/noodles, Japanese Ramein joints and a whole lot of other stuff. I doubt there would be a dish over $10. Our Pho was $7.50.

Sussex Centre Food hall - 401 Sussex Street Sydney

I remember a food hall I used to go. It fed me when I was a student. Ongs, was on Little Burke, a dungeon really. Stairs descended into a low ceilinged maze, housing about a dozen or so Asian food vendors. It was good and cheap. It had a bar, which was a big draw card in those days. What’s changed?

Since the demise of Ongs there has been little of this kind of venue in Melbourne. In Sydney, they seem to be abundant. Our first expedition started badly. E and I had an altercation about our mode of transport. Eventually, I won, and got her into her pram, but in the confusion I forgot the directions.

We entered Chinatown blindly looking for food courts. Without much trouble we found ourselves on the top floor of the building that houses Paddy’s Market. Here there is a complex of more than a dozen mostly Chinese vendors selling a vast range food stuffs. Knowing nothing about any of them, we chose randomly. Golden Towers Seafood Noodles. Glossy photographs behind the counter spoke to us, and it wasn’t a conversation about seafood.

It was Beef Noodle Soup. This one came with pork wontons and braised brisket. The soup had a great tasty stock. It made the previous one I’d had, (cattle-meat-noodles), seem as it at come from a can. Included was Chinese greens, E polished most of these off, which surprised me, she eats mainly pork these days. Our noodle soup cost $7.50.

In the under pass on the way home we had to stop and watch a busking classical violinist. I was seriously paranoid that some journalist was doing a story on how we are all uncultured yobbos. (Today Tonight also copied this story that very day). So in case of hidden cameras, we had to nod some appreciation and chuck in a bit of cash. E really enjoyed it and cracked it when I made her leave.

Market City Food Court - Level 3 2-13 Quay St Sydney