Tan Viet, Cabramatta

 

Our Southern Highlands day trip had come to end and on the way back, a sharp pang of hunger came over me in the back seat.  Being the good friend that Noodle Boy is, he happily made a detour to Cabramatta that was on the way back to feed a very hungry me.  We all ended up having an early dinner and Tan Viet was the destination of choice after being highly recommended to me by Pho Girl.  

I have to say that it's truly a small world at times because when we arrived at the restaurant who should we bump into but Pho Girl herself with Camera Girl, who were both tucking into Tan Viet's specialty of dry egg noodle and crispy chicken.  Anyway, I had to say cheerio as I was starving and some quick ordering was definitely on the agenda.

 

MasterChef Live - Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park

Last year, Cheesecake Boy and I missed out on MasterChef Live, and I thought we would miss it again this year.  However, that was until we received a call from our dear friend Mrs. G when we were in Perth, who had some complimentary tickets, and so it was decided that the very next day after returning home to Sydney, Cheesecake Boy and I would get ourselves out and about.  It was better then our initial intentions of just sleeping the day away.

We got there quite late as Cheesecake Boy and I had slept in, and it was crowded, but it was not unbearable.  However, we were too late to attend some of the classes as they were booked out, but other classes that had a first come, first serve policy seemed to have a minimum 45 minutes waiting period.  You see, we are definitely not the patient type so waiting was not going to be an option for us.  However, after a small stroll our rumbling tummies decided that it was time for a quick and easy lunch.

Pho Pasteur - Chinatown, Sydney

Apologies for the lack of posts lately.  Cheesecake Boy and I have been super busy, and then we both came down with a terrible bug late yesterday afternoon, so we really hit the bed hard.  We're definitely the couple that eats together, and gets sick together.  Today's post is special to Cheesecake Boy and I, so I wanted to do it justice.  You see, Pho Pasteur is where Cheesecake Boy and I started our food journey together.

Cheesecake Boy and I always think fondly of Pho Pasteur.  Besides being the place that serves Cheesecake Boy's and my favourite combination broken rice with fried egg to date.  More importantly, Pho Pasteur is where Cheesecake Boy and I had our very first friends/more than friends dinner together.  I think he bought me here, to impress me with his ability to order in Vietnamese.  I am still impressed, but probably more amused now.  There were a couple of other group dinners prior, that found us conveniently sitting next to each other every time.  However, six years ago, just the two of us met up here.  Now we're practically inseparable, truly we are. 

This place later became a regular lunch haunt for Sushi Girl, KFC Girl and I.  We would need to get our fix weekly, and eventually learnt that the abrupt waiter whom we would eventually refer to as Grump Grum, was actually a kind man who only wanted me to brush up on my terrible Cantonese.  Later he even knew our orders off by heart.  However, things change and the regular visits stopped, but I still come on occasion.  This time I had a serious combination broken rice with fried egg craving, and Pho Girl likes to get her pho fix here, so it was the perfect choice for lunch.

Pho Toan Thang, Flemington

Back in early April on our way up to the Hunter Valley, I was reading a post on Pho Toan Thang by Gastronomous Anonymous, and it made me feel quite nostalgic.  When I was growing up I really had the best of all food worlds, a father who would take me to noodle shops and hidden eateries  and a mother who would indulge me with her love of cakes, pastries and cafes, and to top it all off, they were both excellent cooks in their own right.  It was one of those days with my father in Flemington that I tried my first combination pork chop rice.  It was love at first bite, and I have never looked back.

After coming back from the Hunter Valley, I was a bit rice deprived.  You see, I am one of those people that need to eat rice at least a couple of times a week.  Otherwise, I don't feel quite right, which is  probably why my mother, when I was younger would call me 'rice bucket'.  Basically, if there was rice, I was there.  Cheesecake Boy could see I was needing a rice fix, and since he is obsessed with pho, it didn't take much convincing to end up at Pho Toan Thang.

The last time I was at the same spot where Pho Toan Thang is, was about eighteen years ago.  It was opening week for a Vietnamese restaurant, but if it's been the same place for the past eighteen years then I'm not sure.  However, I do remember having to queue, and eighteen years later I was doing it again. 

Pho Sam Noodle House, Epping

Since our last visit to PHD Vietnamese Restaurant, Cheesecake Boy has gone a bit pho tai crazy, but the issue is that Marrickville is a bit of a trek for us, especially when we're both exhausted from a long day at work.  This is how we ended up at Pho Sam in Epping.  Now, Pho Sam is not purely Vietnamese and they do have the Westernised Chinese dishes available too.  However, we had a Vietnamese feed in mind that day.

The entrance

PHD Vietnamese Restaurant, Marrickville

It's another Friday chill out dinner night and a couple of Friday's ago we ended up at PHD Vietnamese Restaurant. Now PHD Vietnamese use to be Pho Bac Hai Duong a couple of doors down.  Cheesecake Boy had a bit of a panic when Pho Bac Hai Duong closed as he rates their pho tai as his favourite. Cheesecake Boy had been  going to Pho Bac Hai Duong  for his pho tai fix since he was 18, so he has a  huge attachment to this place.  

PHD Vietnamese was the obvious choice for a Friday night pho craving for us, we miss the old decor of Pho Bac Hai Duong but as long as our favourites were still on the menu we weren't going to complain.  There was an ulterior motive for going out this Friday night though, we have been in the process of looking for a new camera as Cheesecake Boy has been bitten by camera envy since we visited the zoo, so a lovely friend of ours lent us her G11 for a test drive.  We are still undecided whether to go for the convenience of a super compact or the quality of an DSLR, we are leaning towards a DSLR at the moment.  Lucky for us that night, the staff were more than obliging with my happy snaps.

Cheesecake Boy always goes for a coconut juice here, and I joined him for once, usually I  just sip his. I love the coconut juice here and it's by far my favourite coconut juice.  As the coconut juice here has just the right amount of sugary goodness, whereas some other places don't get the sweetness quite right.

Coconut juice