Introducing the Challenge

Victoria Street is Melbourne’s Little Vietnam. It is an ever changing landscape of eclectic restaurants, grocery stores and various other services all with lots of Vietnamese characters. At its busiest it is a bustling, lively community. At its quietest it is mishmash of darkened, dusty shop fronts and roller doors.

The challenge is to eat at every Asian restaurant along the strip. Along the way we hope to discover the best (and worst) eateries, as well as broadening our culinary tastes. And it’s something to do on often idle Sunday nights.

Like any good experiment we have set down the parameters:

1. We will eat at every Asian restaurant on Victoria Street between Church Street and Hoddle Road (once a week for however long it takes)

2. We will begin from east to west on the south side and return west to east on the north side, bringing our culinary journey full circle.

3. At each restaurant we will order the following:
i) The designated standards (depending on the cuisine)
ii) One of the daily specials
iii) Number 27 on the menu

4. The standards are:
Vietnamese: rice paper rolls (or spring rolls) and beef pho
Thai: satay skewers and prawn green curry
Chinese: xiao long bao, fried pork dumplings, vegetable dumplings and greens with oyster sauce

5. Everyone must sample each of the dishes ordered

6. Each attendee will rate each of the dishes and an average rating out of 10 will be determined

We can’t take full credit for this. Our inspiration comes from an article in The Age’s Epicure.

Now you might think we are some sort of aficionados of Vietnamese food. Why else do this? Because it’s there. Because we like a challenge and doing things in excess! Let the culinary journey begin...