noodleoodle

I returned to Pho Dzung in town this week. Mainly because of Millie’s reminder of how good the rare beef Phở is.

The cross section of people that go to these places is wonderful. Everyone is here, particularly in the city, office workers, students, and apparently a large contingent of blogging folk. There’s only one reason to come to Phở Dzung though. It’s not about decor. There is no pretensions to style or elegances. The staff are not there to wait. They are more like traffic wardens. It’s totally about the dish, or variations on it, Phở! They serve a great example of it here, and the large daily crowd slurps it up.

It’s great to watch the different people here, as you have a few cups of weak Chinese tea. Hard to linger though. Eating your soup is all you can do, before you sense it’s time to vacate. Every seat is in demand.

Jeez, I wish I could work out the key for the funny “o” in Phở.

Melbourne Vietnam Noodle House - (03) 9650 0172 - 251 Swanston street Melbourne 3000

I had soup with The Mug Punter today. We were going to go to Mekong. Instead, we decided to try a place a few doors up, calling its self plainly, Melbourne Vietnam noodle House Pho Bo Ga. The Menu here is far from plainly Vietnamese noodle soup. I’m not sure that’s a good thing. I find it disturbing when restaurants broaden their menus to temp more customers. It’s much better when they stick to their specialties. These guys had all soughts of things on the menu. The Mug and I ignored most of it, and went straight for the Phở Bo. It wasn’t bad at all. The medium size was generous and the soup was reasonably rich and flavorsome. Only $7.50 a bowl. They only gave us one plate of salad stuff though, and I accidentally used all the basil, leaving The Mug a withered twig.

No mirrored walls here. They seem to be going for a slightly modern look, but it’s a thin veneer.

Melbourne Vietnam Noodle House - (03) 9650 0172 - 251 Swanston street Melbourne 3000

The Victoria St Correspondent (silent at this stage), dropped by the other day. He came with treats! He’d been over Footscray way and had dropped by the Little Saigon Market. It’s something that I haven’t mention yet, another brilliant food introduced to Australia by the Vietanmese, Báhn mi, (they’re call Vietnamese Pork Rolls in Melbourne). My god, what an invention. Vietnamese ingredients in a French baguette. The variations are endless, generally they contain pork products, salad, and three more types of pork products. The ones The Correspondent presented me with, had egg butter, liver pate, cucumber, picked carrot, soy sauce, chili sauce, and Barbecued pork balls from a skewer, (very garlicky).

The Correspondent also picked up a few Chinese treats. A couple of combination steamed buns, the big ones with Chinese sausage and quail egg. He also got what is referred to by his son as “Footballs”, (real name unknown). These were deep fried pastry/batter casings around a spiced mince pork filling. OK, but after a pork roll and steamed bun, they were hard going.

Little Saigon Market - (9687 3505) - Nicholson Street Footscray