Basil & Mint

Recently (in Perth's terms), the daggy but quite comfortably so! suburb of Morley welcomed the $60 million Coventry Square Markets to its vicinity. It houses a whole variety of stores within, ranging from fresh fruit and vegetables and butchers to homewares, toys, clothing, jewellery and the usual clutter of items that have a million or no apparent use that you expect to find at markets.
And unlike many of the other markets in Perth, this one opens 7 whole days.
And being open for 7 days in Perth, is quite a big deal.


But of course, I don't care about any of that.
I care about the offer of food and drink from the cafe strip out the front, where an army of eateries are the focal point of the markets. Though boasting a sleek and contemporary exterior, the market's outer shell is quite a stark clash with its monotonous, under-furbished interiors.

And even MORE recently, a small scale tornado flurried through the area and disturbed the usual peace and quiet of Perth's oasis of serenity. It picked up some roofs and trees along the way and wrecked anything else it fancied during its short visit, noisily proving that things do visit Perth once in a long while.

And it seemed to take a liking to the relatively new Coventry Square Markets.

Beef Green Curry served with Jasmine Rice - $14

Although a simple dish, Green curry is an addictive feed that attracts me to keep coming back once, twice, three times to a restaurant. It is that medley of subtle spiciness, mild creaminess but fullness of flavour that contributes to a perfectly made dish of curry.


Basil & Mint's fusion of Vietnamese and Thai cuisine delivers up a scrumptious Green curry set lunch, loaded with sliced capsicum, bamboo shoots, broccoli and snow peas in a fragrantly creamy curry sauce. Diners can choose out of a protein selection of beef, chicken, pork or tofu and vegetables for $14 or pay a bit more for lamb or prawn curry.


That sauce! Paired with steaming hot steamed rice, you can even omit anything else inside the bowl because rice and damn good curry sauce, is all you'll ever need.

Green Curry (Beef)

But of course, having a dish full to the brim of tasty curry-soaked vegetables and tender beef is always nice too.
And is way more acceptable than being served plain curry sauce and rice.

Pho Dac Biet - $14

Vietnamese restaurants claiming to be Vietnamese restaurants without the expected bowl of pho or the like to be seen on their menu very much so confuse the hell out of me. Yes, that does exist and I was disbelievingly impressed at this absurdity when I saw it!
How is a hot dog a hot dog with no sausage?


Thankfully there are a lot of familiar Vietnamese terms at Basil & Mint, however not many waiters on that day who could understand them. Life isn't always perfect and you can't always hire authentic waiters on top of authentic food.


Pho Dac Biet gives you a big porcelain bowl of combination rice noodle soup with raw and cooked beef slices, beef balls and tendons, submerged in a beef stock that could have a more intense flavour as its soup base. At the bottom line, they can improve on quality at this inflated price.

Bun Bo Hue - $13.50

This visibly red hot soup dish is usually a combination of sliced protein and liquid fire. Pork and beef meats and pork balls replace the usual appearance of Vietnamese processed pork loaf pieces and pork hock. The carbs in this heavy proteined dish is rice vermicelli, in an otherwise meat laden meal. 


Compared to other versions you can find, Basil & Mint's Bun Bo Hue borders along a watered down creation of a strong, fiery Bun Bo Hue. More suitable to milder tastebuds, it is a more subtle hot and spicy soup and doesn't taste as full flavoured as the numerous ones I have come across.


The chef himself came out and we told of our honest opinion, to which I hope he takes the feedback as constructive and not just plain faced criticism of his ability from undeserving diners.


...


A concoction of 2 cuisines in the one restaurant has proved quite well for Basil & Mint. It is not the most authentic of food you can possibly find, but after weighing up your options and without putting too much weight on Basil & Mint's plates, it does quite satisfactorily. You do alright.


Food is not short of tasty yet you could possibly feel like your hard earned dollars deserve more, especially if you've tried and grown accustomed to the restaurants scattered around Northbridge. Prices are higher than par while portions are at par, but settings and decor are anything but below par. At the same time, there's a hollowness that I can't describe, perhaps due to the emptiness of the restaurant on a lazy Sunday afternoon.


The fit out is a polished, neat and fresh dinig area with modern decor that differentiates it from other plain and homogeneous Vietnamese restaurants, which only seem to capitalise on food. I have absolutely no problems with that, but it doesn't hurt to eat your food in nice surroundings, at which you pay the price with higher prices.


Everything comes with a price, but not everything comes with a price you are willing, or need to pay.


***
(08)9275 8883
Lunch & Dinner: Tuesday - Saturday


***

Phong Vinh Noodle House

Usually you know your own strengths and weaknesses. When confronted with the question, our
conscience is temporarily lost and most of us lie our hearts out and butts off, but with no guilt whatsoever.

But I won't lie. One of my - oh so many! - innate strengths that I am so fortunate to be born with is -
my appetite. That's about it, really. As I don't think I'm good for much else.

But I'm oh so proud to call it mine when people gawp in awe (or disgust, I'm not sure) at just how much I
can fit into my little tummy - which many call, to my horror, "the bottomless pit".
It's like it's expandable. Always handy.

Why I say all this? It's because sometimes I myself marvel (yet quite horrified) at this strength of mine.
It took me from eating at home, to the Twilight Food Hawker Markets, to Phong Vinh - one after another.
Hopefully one day, it takes me places. Conquering the world, one cuisine after another.

Satay Sticks - 5 for $6

I quite miss the presence of the Twilight Hawker markets that lingered for about half a year or so in the CBD centre. They stuck around because of its popularity, the delicious aromas that wafted into the air against a twilight backdrop made perfect scents - HA! - to attract the crowds that created its success.

It was not just the food (albeit being the biggest attraction no doubt) but the sights, the sounds, the smells of large masses of people after one thing but the same thing. The atmosphere of it all, of hungry people congregating together and appreciating the simple but nourishing food that our beautifully isolated city has to offer.

The satay stall evidently attracted the biggest crowds with the biggest cloud of smoke fumes from cooking, with impressively but annoyingly long lines that warrants the wait for freshly grilled and caramelised meat lollipops laden with crunchy peanuts in a sweet chunky satay sauce. On the small side, so gives justification as to why you can eat, and eat, and eat and eat and eat some more.

Pho Dac Biet - $11

I felt inclined to name this my favourite Vietnamese restaurant after my first visit. I've tried a few of their dishes which don't fail to impress in terms of price, quantity and taste. Personally, the way I judge a Vietnamese restaurant is through its pho. If they don't do a good pho, I am skeptical. But still welcoming.

My particular bowl of Combination Beef Hofan Soup was no different to how I remembered it to be - generous, warming and filling. Combination beef really does means a combination of beef parts: different cuts of raw and cooked beef, tendon, omasum, balls...and starting to sound a tad sensual (or disgusting).


This contains pretty much ZERO vegetables besides spring onions, if that can be counted. It becomes a subconscious action of mine to load up my bowl with the bean sprouts provided just so it magically transforms into a nutritional meal.Beef stock is full of flavour but definitely doesn't leave the dry mouth feeling that MSG is so good for.

Mi Bo Kho - $10.50

We did temporarily swap our dishes but after digging into this, I decided it to be a permanent swap. Another winner of a dish is this rich, flavoursome, hearty combination of egg noodles in a gluggy soup, abundant with soft cubes of braised beef and carrot chunks that have fully absorbed the juices they are stewed in. I can't believe I'm saying this, but there really was TOO MUCH BEEF!


As with most of their dishes, you are spoiled with the choice to switch between springy egg noodles, chewier rice noodles, rice vermicelli or if you get excited by smooth textures, hofan would best answer to that desire. Each noodley strand is a different texture from their shape, size and form - the variety to be expected from a "noodle house". So use your noggin and select your noodle :)

Sinh To Bo - $5

I really love a good Asian style smoothie full of unconventional flavours of same old strawberry, creamy chocolate and very ordinary vanilla. All the smoothies you see at a Vietnamese restaurant are those of Asian inspired ingredients. And yeah avocados may not come to mind first or even connotated with anything Asian at all, but you probably can't play I spy an avocado shake anywhere else.


Very likely you'd think UGH! but I assure you it is very MMM! It's not a full on gluggy mashed up avocado made into a drink, but a lighter flavoured smoothie with a creamy consistency and similar to ice cream if it were more solid. I love avocados and I love ice cream so mathematically speaking, I love this. And I do.


I'd say it's like an avocado sundae, but then even I think that sounds revolting. So nah.

Sinh To Sau Rieng - $5

Perth's William Street was transformed into an entertainment strip on a March weekend for the annual William Street Festival. Held in celebration for the arts and cultural diversity that characterises the street, the amount of artistic fare and local designers' creations on display outshone the presence of the small number of food stalls.


It was a sunny day (too sunny!), I was starting to sweat like a pig and with Phong Vinh conveniently located on that very street, we popped inside for a bit of people watching and a lot of air con. The thought of a durian smoothie ignited my tastebuds more than that of the watery slushees up for sale on the street. 


The distinctive durian aroma (so tempted to describe it as stinky) and flavour resonates throughout the glass, making the tall, slender icy cold blended durian fruit shake the perfect accessory for a stinking hot day.

Bun Thit Nuong - $11

I love Vietnamese cuisine for its refreshing flavours which make good use of the fresh raw ingredients that go into compiling the dish. It's not too heavy and fish sauce is THE prominent addition used to flavour the food, an intense tango of salty & sweet.


The compilation of this dish revolves around crisp textures of the raw vegetables and salted roast peanuts sprinkled atop. Paired with rice vermicelli and morsels of grilled pork, there's nothing really unhealthy about this meal. It's even bordering healthy. And believe it or not, miracles do happen and healthy food can be quite delicious.

Bun Thit Nuong - $11

Probably as close to eating a salad I'll ever get.

...

Some people do believe you can suss out a restaurant based on its clientele, but with this place you can't really tell. It has a mix of different people eating different types of meals for dinner from its many choices from the menu. Foods whipped up are well flavoured, and while nothing is really bland, self serve condiments are within reach and the all important hoisin sauce can save the day any day.

Unlike many places where staff are hit and miss, here it is consistently helpful and accommodating. It's akin to a no frills no spills system - well, no frills but yes spills, with a minor accident involving scalding hot soup spilled onto us - but with spills mopped up and subsequently showering us with apologies, all was forgiven.

A brightly lit, spacious, airy dining room creates a casual atmosphere where you can slurp your noodles loudly and to your heart's content without being stared at. With the standardised and recognisable thermos of hot tea given to you upon sitting down, the familiarity of Phong Vinh to Tra Vinh up the road - from similarities in its menu to the tea flasks used - CAN be justified: related owners, apparently. So the food is on par, on the better side of good.

You know you're in the vicinity of Northbridge when your dinner is interrupted by the hardworking guy, adorned with lights and other flashy devices strapped to his body, persistently selling overpriced flowers day in day out. Too bad flowers are only reserved for special occasions and dates these days, meaning I got downright rejected when I casually asked A for some flowers on a particularly normal night.

But even with its tainted reputation, you can always rely on Northbridge restaurants to stay open and dish out nourishing, good value meals. So unlike someone who won't buy you flowers, you can count on the restaurants. At least they will never let you down, or reject you.

***

Sun - Wed: 10am - 9pm

Friday - Sat: 10am - 10pm

(08) 9228 8238

Tra Vinh Vietnamese and Chinese Special Noodle House

You probably have a special person in your life, someone who gives you gratification, provides comfort when you need it, makes you happy. They never really disappoint you, and if by rare chance they do, you forgive and forget in a heartbeat. There's something about them that makes you keep going back for more.

And indeed I do have something special in my life that I can turn to, give comfort when I am needy, and rely on in times of HUNGERRRRRR! A place where you can come back again and again, to give you an all rounded satisfying experience and you never really leave disappointed. And even when it does screw up, you let it go, telling yourself it's just a one off bad day. No no not biased at all.

Tra Vinh is one of those eateries we have been going to frequently for yearsss without getting bored of the same things on the menu. It's not like you can get sick of your other half in a relationship right? RIGHT? 

And because I was catching a plane that night to schmancy Gold Coast, I aimed to maintain a good palate and didn't introduce any new foods that might have shocked my very weak digestive system. And for that, Tra Vinh was a safe bet as it has been an old favourite hunch for as long as I can remember.

Bun Bo Hue - $11

Of all the different Vietnamese restaurants I've tried, each has their own version of the bun bo hue and they all taste different - some spicy, some salty, some as bland as water boiled with chilli and seasoned with salt. To each their own at the end of the day.

This bowl filled with deep red stock suggests a rich, flavoursome broth with a chilli bite to it. Quite a traditional Vietnamese dish of Rice vermicelli in spicy soup with pork and beef, along with the inclusion of a pig knuckle which you may or may not eat. It's not that hot if you can brave chilli foods but on a hot day, you'll probably eat this with your sweat.

Hu Tieu Mi Tra Vinh Dac Biet - $11.50

Here we have a bowl that has a little bit of everything, a combination of animals from land and sea. In this Tra Vinh Special, there are rice noodles, there are egg noodles, there is seafood, there is meat, and then there is offal. Along with the very tantalising pig liver pieces, there exists pork pieces, prawns, fish balls and squid, topped with a deep fried golden cracker embellished with a prawn shell.

The rice noodles used to form the above dish are...as above. They are springy and light with a satisfying chew to them, cooked to just the right level of "done". They are good in retaining their texture even when being soaked in the hot broth, which continuously cooks them. Makes you wonder at times what the hell goes into making it and how well (or unwell) you can digest it.

Hu Tieu Tra Vinh Dac Biet - $11

So I wasn't joking when I said we wanted to keep it simple and basic. This is just like a duplication of the previous dish minus the noodles and substituted with different rice noodles. Very exciting.

So as you can see, these noodles are the ones that replace the transparent kind. They are less chewy so require less mastication before swallowing lol. Another addition is the mini quail egg and cashew nuts in the soup, along with bits of fried pork lard and caramelised onion bits that do their magic in enhancing the fragrance and flavour of the dish.


Many of the noodle soups have chives as a topping and surprisingly, a while ago back when chives were supposedly unknown to mankind, I'd came across a customer who came back with their bowl of soup with a horrid, shocked, disbelieving and utter disgust expression on their face demanding a refund because,
"THERE IS GRASS IN MY SOUP!"


...


The location of Tra Vinh, although seeming to be a bit lonely and separated from most of the other restaurants in the heart of Northbridge, turns out to be quite favourable for them and the customer. Being on the outskirts of the entertainment district of Perth means there's less hassle and headache for the diner to find parking. A meal is much more enjoyable when you don't have a sky high parking ticket as accompaniment!


It is also open all day morning to night, and around peak hour it usually overflows with Asian clientele - always a good sign. Menu has all your usual dishes you'd expect, and all taste pretty good without the help of much MSG...but that is a guess that I'm making based on the fact that the mouth doesn't go all dry and you don't need to gasp for water afterwards. Fair prices that you'd expect from a casual eatery with basic and no fuss furnishings. But the abundance of mirrors in most Vietnamese restaurants always has me wondering, WHY!


Like the decor, the service is also no fuss, but it's there when you need it. Frankly, we all know it, places like this sprout up to give you the good food, good service is a bonus! You get what you need, no more no less. Serving sizes are good and are in proportionally correct sized bowls unlike ones that use huge bowls to give the illusion of generosity. You're also presented with free tea as you sit down! - a nice gesture that immediately scores brownie points :)


Mmmmm...brownies...

Ngoc Han Restaurant: Vietnamese and Asian Cuisine

I love my parents. I know I can be a brat sometimes but I know they still love me all the same.
That's the good thing about parents, you know you've always got them when you've got nothing else.
I love you Mum n Dad. I don't know why the easiest things are so hard to say sometimes.

As we grow bigger & bigger, they grow older and more frail. It's an undeniable fact that scares me because it's just so true, so unavoidable. I try to spend more time with them nowadays. Cherish them. Obey them. Missed them when they abandoned me and went holidaying for a month and subsequently meant me eating takeout for a month. Got accustomed to life without parents. "Whaaaaat, already?" when it was time for them to come home. Have lunch with them on their first day back home. Realised I was glad to have them back with me :)

But not before I left them stranded outside the house with their luggage ringing the doorbell for 10 minutes, yelled at them for waking me at 11am and tumbled back into bed.
I was a much more pleasant daughter when I awoke at 2pm.
Love you Mum n Dad :)

I love how my menu changes when they are back. I also love how my wallet changes when they are back. From mine, to theirs. Heh. Yes I use and abuse and I mooch off my parents just like the rest of you do =]

Bun Bo Xao - $10.50

Back when I didn't know variety or how to read, I would go for pho as the staple dish, every single time without fail. Now that I want to try everything and can read, I go for the bun bo xao every single time without fail. Now that itself, is pretty fail. Considering I can now read and aim for variety.

I find a good dish, overdose on it, get bored, find a new good dish, fall in love, spam it, get bored, find a newer good dish etcetera etcetera. It's a vicious cycle and now my current stop is at the bun bo xao's of the Vietnamese cuisine train. I hop around places hunting for the best version of it. Yet to reach final destinations or come to any conclusions thus far though!

I enjoy this dish because it's so light and tastes so fresh and healthy and doesn't make me feel crap after eating it. With a good mix of protein to vegetables, I feel like I'm eating a salad. Vaguely. Which I hate cause salad is like...eating grass but at the same time, grass does my health and body justice so I feel good for eating the stuff. I know the tender braised beef, crunchy roasted peanuts and salty, probably calorific Vietnamese sauce wouldn't be in a Dietician's good books, but plain rice noodles and the abundance of lettuce and bean sprouts probably would be!

It's an awesome array of flavours, textures and temperatures in your bowl, and same goes for your mouth.

Bun Bo Xao serving

It's good how most places serve that additional sauce on the side so that you can have as much or as little as you please. So in easier language, if you want your dish to taste better you add more, but you'd have to deal with it stinking more. Stink less, add less, taste...less.

I wouldn't go as far to say it stinks cause this wouldn't be my own thoughts and fish sauce is a prominent ingredient as far as Vietnamese cuisine goes and I'm glad it is. It does have a distinct recognisable odour which to some may be pungent, strong and offputting. And that's enough to get me excited and lure me in LOL. Cause to me, it just smells...like Vietnamese =)

Savoury fish sauce yet sweet and slightly tangy with a tinge of hotness from the addition of chilli, it's a combination of different flavours that gives food a real boost in flavour, if Viet food even needs that boost at all.

Pho Tai La Sach - $9.50

When one thinks of this Asian cuisine, one would probably think of pho - pronounced fur said in an accentuated way. I am fluent in food-speak in many languages, such is the talent that I possess =p And such is the appetite that I possess in order to nurture that talent :)

With the variations of pho, this is one that includes raw beef slices and offal with flat hor fun in a typically flavoursome beef based stock. If you dislike beef, this is your nightmare. This particular dish has beef ev-er-y-thing and I mean it. I just googled offal and the results were enough to amuse me:

1. Waste parts, especially of a butchered animal
2. Refuse, rubbish

Oh dear. I have a deep profound love for garbage and waste. Animal waste, to make that sound even more delicious.

Pho Dac Biet - $10.50

This is the variation to choose to get a well-rounded taste of what the fuss of pho is all about. This is the pho combination of meats and bits and pieces of "rubbish" in that same beef soup. It has a bit of everything beef, plus more beefy products. Like I said before, this is living hell if you hate beef.

It's in all its forms here - soup, sliced, rare, cooked, venison, beef tail, balls (not the kind you immediately thought of). Though I gotta say I vaguely remember eaten something rather putrid which I was unaware at the time as I was told it was innocent meat and I so innocently believed. I'll spare you the details.

I especially love the garnishes with all the sprigs of mints, abundant and always making an appearance in Vietnamese cuisine. The coarsely ground pepper cracked into the soup gives it an extra bite, or maybe its just me thinking adding pepper makes anything more extravagant.
(Which is what I feel when I say YES to pepper offers at restaurants... so I never refuse.) =p

Goat Curry

Usually if I sight something other than beef, chicken, fish, pork, any usual suspects you'd expect in a menu, I would order it. GOAT?! I'd jump on that. How often would you come across weird and wonderful things like that in Perth?

This came out in a shallow dish with a gravy puddle so vividly red that it looked somewhat unnatural. But it was tasty all the same regardless of how much colouring went in to produce that result. I could also do with more meat, seeing as most of that dish was big chunky bones everywhere.

The meat was tender and nice to eat, when it wasn't bone that I was eating instead. This was one skinny goat. I wish it ate more, so that I got to eat more!

Steamed rice & sides

As far as presentation goes, this didn't go very far, but its simplicity makes it go a long way. There's something about the way everything is arranged on this plate which made me want to leave it be. All the colours were vibrant with visually soft and hard textured ingredients together.

Ok, I'm aware I just made that sound a bit overdone. If there was no picture to go with it, you'd probably imagine something resembling a work of art and then scoff when you see the picture, since this was merely rice, tomato, cucumber, lemon, salt, chilli sauce and cracked pepper on a plate. There, I'm back down to earth now.

But still. It's pretty right?

Com Trang Carry De - $12.80

The curry gravy, albeit normal, was surprisingly addictive to keep eating. We were meant to eat just a little for breakfast (at 3.30pm...) since we had a buffet planned for dinner (planning your next meal during your current one is ESSENTIAL!) but we couldn't help and get another bowl of steamed rice to soak up the remaining bloody good curry juice, long after all the meat was gone.

Curry gravy on rice is as good as a meal on its own than any other meal. Simplicity here would taste good, but just won't look good. At all.

I quite like lemon based sauces and the like. I grew very fond of my lemony, spicy, salty and peppery dipping dish and proceeded to eat the sauce, as I usually do in a normal day of my life.
As I gulped it down from my spoon I'd realised how big the grains of salt were, and how many there were, and how undissolved they were in my sauce combination.
Oh man. I just swallowed a heart attack.

Soursop Smoothie - $4.80

Om nom nom. Asian style smoothies are the absolute bomb! Unlike the boring flavours you spot in menus, you spot more exciting ingredients here in Asian restaurants like durian, avocado, jackfruit and soursop. Soursop. Soursop? Soursop! I can't get over that word. Its so weird but it tastes so great. I typed all that while saying it. It still sounds foreign as!

Smoothies of this kind always come in a tall glass and being all luscious looking, seduces me every time. It tastes so REAL and FRESH and I'm so attracted to those qualities. I down it ever so quickly and it always disappears too fast too soon.

Good things just never seem to last at all.

...

This place stays open from morning to night and doesn't close down during the epic quiet time from 2.30pm to 5pm like most restaurants. Which is something I appreciate a lot, considering my breakfast ranges anywhere from noon to about 6pm. I like to surprise my stomach by shoving food in randomly at unexpected times so it's nice to be able to get a feed and do that whenever I wish to.

It's never been busy when I come eat here but that's not to say the quality or anything is bad. I just come at stupid times because of my stupid body clock and stupid eating/sleeping hours. Its location is quite secluded but because of this there are HEAPS, PLENTY, TOO MANY parking spaces. Yay! Always a positive point when it comes to eating out.

The decor is quite modern and has quite a relaxing ambience to it, I like! Purple walls with abstract and vibrant artwork on the walls along with pretty, pretty lampshades all add a touch of difference to the interior, along with the furniture. One staff working the floor, laden with make up and tight clothing. Always! Lol.

To my understanding the establishment has changed ownership and so has also changed names. I've heard others say the quality and servings of food has dropped since, but I myself haven't noticed that significant of a change. Perhaps I am just a food noob. In which case this is a crap blog but...ah well, I have my fun still :) I think it's something worth being happy about as I have finally found something where my passion lies, and gives me a haven to escape from the world when I need to.

Thanks for the support, since you are reading! Truly grateful to have at least one person interested ;)

Tao Cafe

I was quite excited to be heading to another lunch buffet. That's what my life is for - buffets buffets buffets for breakfast lunch and dinner :D Too much of a good thing is a good thing.
Little Lamb had some promo flyers out advertising buffet lunch for $12.90 or something. I wanted to starve the night before in anticipation for this.

Sadly, very very sadly, I was going to see a circus the next day (lol? Exciting life huh.) and was running behind with times. As such, Tao Cafe became an appealing option instead. I was left with good impressions the last time I ate here. More on that later.

So when you hear of a restaurant as a fusion of 3 very delicious but very distinctly different cuisines, what do you think? The initial time I saw the combination of Thai, Vietnamese and Japanese cuisine PLUS A SUSHI TRAIN in the one dining place, I scrunched up my nose.

Multiculturally creative, yes. But also messy and risky, equally or even more yes.
How good are you, chef? Reminds me of me, unable to choose one so what the heck, lets just chuck them altogether and hope for the best shall we?

I wanted to try a dish from each Asian cuisine from the menu but the delicious memories of what I had last time wouldn't let me try something new. Had to have it again. Yes, HAD to! That's what happens when you've got a strong attachment to your foods. You get really clingy. And then you probably get sick of the same thing. Less is more, guys. Remember that.

Ended up choosing from the Vietnamese and Thai section. Sob. Japanese cuisine will have to wait. Can't believe I put my favourite on hold.

Rice

Lets start off with my number one favourite - rice! I'm such a rice bucket. I don't seem to get full without it and meals just feel...incomplete. Needless to say life would feel empty without this companion.

This came all pretty and round. Don't underestimate though, this dome structure cost $2.50. :( It's pretty smart to not include rice with meals, cause then people order it extra. It just sucks though.

Green Curry - $15.50

This dish was what I tried last time that I can remember polishing off entirely. A littleee bit salty but that's when the rice comes in to save the day. Personally I think more meat/vegetables should be thrown in for that price. But it IS nice.

You get the choice of chicken or beef or go vegetarian for this for the same price or choose prawns and pay an extra $3. Naturally I chose chicken, it's like the best thing on 2 legs ever. And the perfect accompaniment to a classic Thai green curry.

Vegetables - usual suspects being capsicum, green beans. More variety would have been even better! I took the sauce home and that was my dinner for the night. So sad :( So no, it doesn't really suffice for two meals.

Pad Thai Noodles - $14.50

Sadly this was nicer the first time I tried it. I can't pinpoint what has changed, but I was able to stop myself from eating it when I was full, unlike last time, when I just kept going. Sigh. See, don't know how to resist.

Again, got the choice of chicken/beef/vegetarian or prawn, but this time that's $4 extra. Just because.

It looks like a deceptively small serving size but noodles have got that real sly ability to make you think you can demolish everything, when you actually can't. Stir fried noodles with egg, bean sprouts, spring onion in tamarind sauce means the dish has got this slightly sweet, slightly sour taste that goes down easily. And crushed peanuts on the side! - that I usually just eat on their own in one go.

Cause I am so totally in love with nuts.
Any kind of nuts.
:)

Condiments

I know this is nothing special but I still had to take a photo. The lights fitted in the restaurant somehow gives all their decor and foods a sparkly gleaming finish. If you haven't noticed, all the photos here are like hell shiny and sparkly and practically GLEAMS on my camera display :)
And we all know food tastes better when it sparkles =p

Self explanatory. This is served because we ordered Pho. Some mint leaves, fresh bean sprouts, lemon, cut chilli and some Hoisin and chilli sauce.

Pho Tai Bo Vien - $13.50

I didn't really want to order this at first because I thought, man, I can probably get better pho at an actual Vietnamese restaurant and for a cheaper price too AND I can get the dac biet which includes all the awesome scraps of animals like tripe and beef tendon and cow tail and wow that just sounds like we are from the wild. But no, they are delicious scraps, really!

Tao Cafe's version includes rice noodles in a traditional beef soup with green onions, sliced raw beef, beef balls and coriander. You pay an extra $2 for those few beef balls, which they probably profit a heap from.

Verdict? Not too bad! Because there was something that probably made it so much more interesting to eat. Or eat out of.

Wow?

Bonus points for the bowl that this pho is served in. Its circumference was comparable to that of a normal bowl this dish is typically served in, but this is so so much deeper. This is one of the angles you can see cyclone shaped that bowl is. And damn, cyclones can hold so much at their core.

                                           So how often do you eat out of a flower vase?

...

Tao Cafe is *relatively* new but based on my personal judgement I think they will go a long way. Their decor is fresh and modern and offers a variety of seating options - conventional tables and chairs, booths as well as seating around the sushi train. Which I have yet to try!

Meal prices are decent, but if you really want to compare, then there ARE plenty of other cheaper options. Especially nearby. Decent, but you can probably get the same dish elsewhere for less. Staff are friendly and service is pretty efficient, which is always good, and should be a benchmark for restaurants anyways.

So anyway, I was a bit skeptical about the whole 3-cuisines-mashed-together idea. And contradictory to what I said before but I thought...too much of a good thing can't be a good thing. Like too good to be true sorta thing. But turns out pretty goooooooood! Just gotta have faith, peeps. Give everything a shot. And THEN only give it crap, if it's actually genuinely crap.

So anyway. Why did I have good impressions of this place?
One magic word: discount!
Like, free discount! Like, good-hearted no reason discount! Like, walked outside afterwards with a puzzled look and a thought bubble rising above my head saying "why did I just get that discount?"
I will never know.

That happened the first time I was there. The waitress charged the full prices of all meals and drinks (as expected) and the extra 50c/$1 or whatever it was for the extra takeaway container for my curry sauce (yes, I did the same thing last time...). No problemo.
Another guy came to the counter while we were paying and took over, presumably of a higher position, or maybe even the owner. He looked at our bill, put it aside, and did up a new bill for us. A nicer looking bill.

Mysteriously, a few dollars had disappeared. I'm not complaining. Noticably he had taken off some dollars off the meals or he didn't charge the drink or something.
Must be my charm.
Like...must be right? Ho ho ho what can I say =p
Maybe thank you to Tao, for their generosity :)

Phu Pho

Thanks to my epic screwed up times in which I eat my meals, I am constantly finding the need to search under the "open late" category under Urbanspoon when deciding dinner options. And then I used to sleep like an hour after that, which probably explains why I'm a fat sloth.

But nowadays I sleep at like 4am, which gives enough time for all that dinner to run around in my stomach and digest but that probably explains why I am the height I am. I think my sleeping pattern stunts my growth bit by bit, day by day.

Anyways back to my dinner, so we found this Vietnameses Cuisines restaurant that supposedly opens late (but personally I wouldn't classify 9.30pm as late by any means). This was a restaurant I poked my head into recently and its classy interior definitely has a different appearance to most Vietnamese restaurants. Usually with walls adorned by mirrors and basic, plain decor, this place differentiates itself from a lot of other Viet restaurants; in its appearance that it features a modern style design, with patterned walls and such. It gave me the impression that it caters more to the Australian culture, rather than the Asian community. (Purely personal judgement of course).

Phu Pho - Menu

Surprisingly, a pretty filling meal, somehow.   :|

Vietnamese Coffee

This always amuses me, cause I never understand why the coffee is served this way. This vietnamese coffee was served the authentic way and had condensed milk nestled at the bottom of the glass cup supporting the dark, strong, sloooo o oo ooowly forming layer of drip - drip - dripping coffee from the strainer cup on top holding the compressed coffee beans. It is painstakingly frustrating waiting for the liquid to take its darn sweet (bitter) time.

Tests your patience. It can even seem like it's mocking you on purpose.

Finished coffee product

And finally, after half a decade later, it completed its long draining process. Even the ice cubes in the tall glass got bored of staying hard and disintegrated into a puddle that filled about 1/4 of the glass. So anyway, in went the coffee and milk with the melting ice cubes and out came a very satisfying caffiene drink. Sweet and creamy, I found myself making loud rude slurping noises that come about when you try to suck the last of liquid at the bottom-est of the cup.
By this time, I was drinking a very diluted and plain tasting coffee but ah, what the heck, it was good while it lasted.
Very good, in fact, since I kept trying to drink something that wasn't even there anymore.

Menu depiction of Pho Dac Biet

So the Beef Noodle soup that was shown like this...

Pho Dac Biet

Came out delivered looking like this. Not too bad, but I hate it when pictures are deceiving. Typically I expect Viet restaurants to perfect their Pho, cause it's such a typical Vietnamese dish. This was meant to include raw beef, beef balls, beef brisket and beef tendon in the beef base soup. Devasted when I was told they had run out of beef tendon :(

Surely enough there appeared to be no visible floating beef venison when my meal was given to me. But close investigation and digging around revealed a whole heap of small cubes of soft beef tendons scattered at the base of the bowl in the soup. I reckon it was probably a mistake.
A good mistake indeed :) I looove surprises.

This was ok, to say the most. Unfortunate, because the price of it was a bit more in comparison to a better bowl of Pho in competition. The soup lacked something I can't put my finger on but ...eh. Wouldn't say it captures what Pho entails and you wouldn't fall head over heels for Pho if this is the first Pho dish you try. Pho sure ;)

Not bad overall, but not mind blowing either.

Mi Bo Kho

I would rate this as the better dish of the two. Having a reddish/orangey appearance, the Mi Bo Kho is a beef stew noodle soup combining fatty beef brisket pieces, softened carrot and egg noodles, with a sprinkling of spring onions and crushed peanuts. Egg noodles can never go wrong, unless you overcook them, which these weren't. They still had a good chewiness to them. I'd say leave them in boiling water for about 30 seconds flat.
See that's why Asian cuisine has such a quick turnover customer rate. Cook fast, eat fast, leave fast.
I bet 2 minute noodles came about with this concept in mind. But these are literally 30 second noodles. Hmm.

But yes, noodles can never go wrong. Like instant noodle packets. They become your best companion when it gets late at night and the fridge looking sad and empty.

There was a generous inclusion of the meat in this dish, with still about 7 or 8 pieces hanging around after a good 10 or 15 minutes eating the dish. This is always appreciated, but due to the fatty nature of the meat from a fat cow, continuing eating of brisket may turn into an experience of eating lard. Yum yum.

By the end of this the top of my jeans tightened around my stomach. Nothing to do with me, somehow my jeans managed to just shrink.
...
Paid $31 for this. I'd have to say I'd rather another place and not have to pay as much and for *possibly* better food. On the tables were bottles of Mount Franklin water, which I dared not touch in case they charged like $5 as soon as it was opened or it accidentally fell into my bag.

There is also a larger range of options on the menu at various other eateries. This place has its flashy menu with slick pages and photography and all, but it was a surprise to see a list of about 10 dishes or so with about 8 of those with N/A scrawled beside them. Hmm. No ingredients or not know how to cook?

Service was friendly and welcoming, despite only getting into the restaurant about 5 minutes before its closing time. I love places who don't shrug you off for coming late. I loathe places who still tell you you can eat but then give you attitude because you're delaying their closing time and clean up.
Attitude check guys, and make the world a happier place.
:)