I didn't have any ground bean sauce. I looked in 3 different supermarkets and an Asian grocery store. So we settled on a black bean and garlic sauce. Luckily for me, it tasted fantastic, and Hamsely was most impressed!

Aromatic Vietnamese Beef Curry
Australian Women's Weekly
2 tablespoons peanut oil
800g beef strips
1 medium brown onion (150g), chopped finely
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 fresh long red chilli, chopped finely
10cm stick fresh lemon grass (20g) chopped finely
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
4 cardamon pods, bruised
350g snake beans, cut into 4cm lengths
2 tablespoons ground bean sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh corriander
1/2 cup (40g) toasted almond flakes


1. Heat half of the oil in wok; stir-fry beef, in batches, until browned. Cover to keep warm.


2. Heat remaining oil in wok; stir-fry onion until soft. Add garlic, chilli, lemon grass, star anise, cinnamon, cardamon and beans; stir-fry until beans are tender. Discard star anise, cinnamon and cardamon.


3. Return beef to wok with sauces; stir-fry until heated through. Remove from heat, stir in coriander and nuts.


Serves 4.

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You know a place is worthy of trying if Matt Preston has eaten there before.
Katie and I decided it was time we caught up on all the gossip with each, other over some pho. I asked Katie to choose the place as I was flat out and suffering from man flu; thus affecting my ability to think straight.

I picked Katie up, and we plotted our destination in the car GPS.
Like many of the restaurants on Victoria St, Richmond; they have classic 70s décor. Co Do did have freshly painted, vibrant walls, which made the place feel a little less 70s than the usual. However, mirrored walls were still a prominent feature.Not to mention the Vietnamese karaoke playing on the TV.

Katie isn’t a big fan of prawns, and I didn’t want to make her anything she didn’t like. So we started with some shredded pork rice paper rolls. The rice paper was a little bit chewier than normal, but they were pretty good, with the tasty dipping sauce.

We also shared some vegetarian spring rolls. I found the filling to be a little mushy. They tasted alright, but they weren’t as traditional as I was hoping for. I only just realised, I forgot to photograph them! So just use your imagination...

Katie got the wonton soup. Her feedback was that the broth was very tasty, and the bbq pork was delicious.

I ordered pho. I do love my pho! I got my usual order of rare beef.
The broth was pretty tasty, not as good as my usual pho haunt, but still very good. A good serving size too.

With the meal costing $14 each, we were very satisfied, and even had leftovers.
There is a VERY extensive menu. I remember flicking through numerous pages, even though I knew I was having pho. I’d go back to try other dishes.

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My friends and I needed a cheap feed before going to the Ross Noble arena spectacular. I picked a restaurant near the venue so we didn't have to drive across town and co-ordinate everyone.
None of us had been to Saigon Rose before, and decided it was about time we gave it a try.

We started off with some mixed spring rolls and some rice paper rolls:

The spring rolls were alright, a bit average. They weren't bad, but they weren't the best I've ever had. They were still good on a cold wintery night.

The rice paper rolls were pretty flavourless, so the sauce was the real saviour. Packed full of filling though, but lacking in flavour.

The one thing that grabbed me was, they had Pipsqueak cider on the menu, my favorite drink!
The Singapore noodles were great, lots of noodles, and flavour. I wish we didn't share them, because I could have eaten the whole plate.

Beef with chilli lemongrass was lovely and tender, a nice amount of spice, plenty of capsicum to accompany it.
The chicken curry is similar to how my mum makes it, but a bit watery. Great flavour, gorgeously cooked chicken and delicious flavour.

The vegetarian claypot, packed full of veges, I didn't try this but it did look yum!

Everything was fresh, the service was friendly, just the rice paper rolls could have had a bit more flavour. I'd go back though, I want to try the traditional chicken noodle soup that wasn't available for Friday and Saturday evenings.

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Mid week cooking postings have been a bit rare as of late haven't they?
This week I attempted a very easy pho recipe from the new Donna Hay magazine.


I am a big fan of pho as you may remember from my previous pho adventures.

Most recipes I've seen have about 600 different ingredients to get the stock right, where as this one just uses beef stock and a few spices.
It was just way too easy to cook and to have dinner on the table in no time!

Donna Hay did get a few things wrong though in her recipe, in my opinion. She uses only 200 grams of rice stick noodles. The traditional noodle used is the flat rice noodles, and well 200g for 4 people would just be not enough! I used a 375g packet and it was enough for everyone.
She also uses regular basil, when in fact you need to use Thai Basil.

Beef Pho
Donna Hay with Iron Chef Shellie alterations.

375g flat rice noodles (similar to ones used in pad thai)
1.5 litres beef stock or consomme
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 cardamon pod
1 spring onion, cut into 0.5cm pieces (I like to cut mine using scissors)
200g eye fillet, cut paper thin (the best way to do this is to freeze, then cut with a very sharp blade)
1 cup bean sprouts
1 cup Thai bail
2 small red chillies, sliced
fish sauce lemon wedges, to serve

1. Cook the noodles according to packet instructions. Drain and divide between serving bowls.

2. Place the stock, cinnamon, star anise and cardamon in a saucepan over high heat and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 5 minutes. Top the noodles with the spring onion, beef and pour over the stock. The stock will cook the raw eye fillet.


4. Top with the thai basil, bean sprouts and chilli.

5. Add fish sauce and lemon juice to taste.

Serves 4.

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Cup eve in Melbourne, 2 chefs dateless, what did they do? They got together in search of Pho.

Now I have explained what Pho is in a previous post but Iron Chef Katie has a cute little poem on her website, and it goes a little something like this:

Do not say Foe
Do not Say foo
And especially don’t
Say the word which describes “number two”.

Start with a fff To be followed by an urgh.
Once it becomes un-phố -gettable
you’ll get with the slur.

To see Katie's Vietnamese adventures visit her blog.

Whilst it is nice to visit the same restaurants, it's always fun to try somewhere new. So we decided we would head down to Victoria St in Richmond, famous for it's Vietnamese community. We got on google and stumbled upon some good reviews of Chu The Pho. It seemed both cheap and reliable so we headed down to try it out for ourselves.

We are instantly greated with tea and ordered straight away as the menu is on the wall. There are limited choices but it's clear you only come here for Pho and possibly spring rolls if you are in the mood.

The Pho comes out within minutes of ordering, steaming hot with the usual side dish of bean sprouts, lemon and basil. The broth smells good but there is a very powerful star anise scent.
We both agree it's pho-tastic Pho and gobble it up.

We tried to order vegetarian spring rolls but they only have pork and prawn, so we get a mixed plate to share. They are lovely and fresh and the dipping sauce is a lovely accompaniment.

Great for a cheap eat, our meal which consisted of 2 bowls of Pho, springrolls and a can of coke set us back $25.

Chu The Pho Bo Ga
270 Victoria Street
Richmond VIC 3121

Pho-ne: 9427 7749

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No mid-week cooking this week again, sorry folks, being haven't a bit of a random week with lots of things not going particularly to plan.

So I had been craving my favourite Vietnamese dish, pho. For those who aren't familiar with pho, it is a traditional Vietnamese rice-noodle soup. The key to a good pho is all in the broth. I've only tried this dish at one other place and it just wasn't the same. My whole family goes to this one place just for this dish; it's cheap and reliable.

As soon as we walk in, we are shown to a table, given a thermas of chinese tea and menus. We already know what we want, and order some springrolls and pho.

After a few minutes these piping hot springrolls come out and they are delicious, I was almost tempted to order more!

You can get pho with different kinds of meat. I stick to the sliced beef, whilst Iron Chef Rob got the sliced beef and chicken. My mum and aunties usually get the one with everything in it from blood pudding to weird jelly looking tendony things.... not really my cuppa tea I'm afraid.

We get a plate of bean sprouts, thai basil, chilli and lemon. All things you can add to enhance the flavour. I love lots of lemon in mine and tend to stear clear of bean sprouts unless my mother is around stuffing them into my bowl! I also don't take the basil and I love the flavour of the soup on it's own.

You may be thinking, "eww raw beef" but give it about a minute and the hot soup cooks the beef. It is so tender it melts in your mouth.

So by now you might be asking me what the name of this place is... well for the life of me I can't remember what is called! I was meant to right it down since I'm doing a blog entry about it but I forgot! And the yellowpages isn't being much help either!
I can tell you it is in Bayswater, Melbourne on Mountain Hwy near the shops. I will post up the details when I get them!

7/7/08 Edit:
It is called Hung Voung Saigon

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