First Visit – Cabramatta

I HEART PHO. I MISS PHO.

Where can I find Pho and delicious Vietnamese food in Sydney? My cravings were finally satisfied after a trip to Cabramatta with Mister, Billy (Half Eaten), Jess and a our special food guide, Thang (Noodlies).

Does this look familiar? If it’s not, then you can still watch this documentary, Once Upon a Time in Cabramatta on the SBS website. I applaud the team that has put this together. What a great concept and a documentary so well produced. The storytelling was true, touching and an eyeopener to many.

First stop – Thu Phung N. Best sugarcane juice in town! $2 for a small and $3 for a large. We have to pay $5 in Melbourne and I remember how it used to be $8 and it is usually filled up with ice and more ice. Oh! Apparently, they grow their own sugarcane? There is a handwritten sign in front of the shop. I can’t wait to head back to Cabramatta and this will definitely be my first and last stop.

sugarcane

Pho stop – Pho Tau Bay

I think most of us had the Special beef (S – $11, L – $12.50) which is suppose to be laden with offal goodness and of course, served with almost rare beef which will cook itself to perfection in the subtle heat of the broth. I was excited when the steamy bowl was set in front of me. My first sip of the broth and I felt at home. It had a much stronger beef flavour than the ones in Melbourne which is stronger in aromatics. I really like this. It is different. First you get the beef flavour and then followed by the sweet aromatics. I want more than one tendon though… please?

Pho Tau Bay - Special Beef

Walking on the streets of Cabramatta made me a really happy girl. There are stalls here that are open for 24hours and or till 11pm in the evening! Super jealous. And one of these stall is the infamous Ngoc Duc. This shop sells drinks, snacks, desserts, fruits and full takeaway meals.

Ngoc Duc

Look how colourful all these desserts and sweets are. I did wish I brought my trolley along. I would have wiped out this place. LOL

I ended up getting some takeaway for @mamajeroxie and some sheets of flat noodle for mid week stir fry dinner. The items seems to fall between $4 – $7 I think?

I can’t believe that I missed out in taking a photo of the banh mi thit! And I did not even get the name. I was just excited to eat and it was right after we had pho! It was so good. How do I begin? The bread was fresh, the pate was moorish, the pickles were perfect and writing about this makes me want to drive over right now and have one. Yeap! They are open 24 hours a day! FTW!

Still can’t believe no photos. Please head over to Thang’s blog for a video review by Billy. You will catch me in embarrassing action as well.

We headed towards Bau Truong for dessert but was slightly disappointed that they only serve dessert at the Marrickville outlet. And so instead, we headed to our last stop, Cafe Nho or also known as Coffee to Remember. No food is served here, only drinks! It seems quite a big space to serve only drinks. I settled for the avocado milkshake. It was seriously full on. I ate the drink with a spoon! This drink is a meal by itself.

We all rolled home after a very delicious Sunday afternoon. I can’t remember if I had any dinner that evening. Maybe a fruit? I have to get used to having to travel for good pho. The ones in the CBD and Marrickville is, unfortunately, not up to scratch. Lack flavour, lack love. However, I have found the hole-in-the-wall Banh Mi stall in Marrickville! Will have to write that in another post. It is good. Really good.

Thanks again to Thang for the tour as well as Billy and Jess for the company. And also to Mister for being our driver.

Till the next time Cabramatta!