#19 Vinh-Ky (114 Victoria St)

Attendees: Beata, Steph, Craig

This restaurant has a black and white theme and after a few moments of absorbing the surrounds I discern it to be one of the more upmarket eateries on the strip. Steph sighs in exasperation at yet another encyclopaedic menu. There are banquets offered but we create our own in yet another excessive sampling of dishes.

There’s a few odd service elements. The waitress memorises our order and impressively doesn’t miss a thing. When I ask for spoons for the pho, we only receive two, leaving Steph to eat with the ceramic spoon in the main bowl. Having left the lid of the teapot upturned as the universal symbol for more tea, the waitress simply turns it back over without refilling. At a random point during the meal, the waitress brings out steamed rice and dishes it into bowls for us (without waiting for consent) only to bring out the fried rice we actually ordered two minutes later.

The table next to us has a dish come out wrapped in foil ...flaming. The waiter lifts each side up with tongs fanning the purple and orange flames. Not sure what it was but I wish we’d ordered it for the theatrical value.

There are no pork and prawn rice paper rolls so we opt for the straight prawn which come with a dark and very soya sauce-flavoured peanut sauce. The spring rolls look fresh and crispy but have an oddly sweet filling of mashed corn (or pumpkin, as Steph suggests).

Pho is served without its usual accompaniments but even myself, a lover of condiments, acknowledges it doesn’t need anything added.

Number 27 is from the entree section and is grilled beef with lemongrass and comes on a bed of thin rice noodles. It doesn’t look like something that would feature in a Donna Hay cookbook but has a wonderful chargrilled flavour.

The scallops which we chose from the specials (opting for XO sauce) look magnificent. Still in their shells they are lightly cooked with an oily and spicy dressing. For a moment we wonder where the sixth one is and discover it under a forest of coriander.

Finally another special (restrained of us considering initially Steph wanted to order the whole specials menu) – seafood hotpot. The seafood is squid, fish cake and some prawns topped up with tofu, carrots and sweet corn. I find the texture somewhat off-putting. It is stewed in a viscous, bland sauce. The squid is rubbery, the tofu is saturated and the whole thing is slimy.

We are stuffed but satisfied with the overall quality of the evening's meal.


Ratings
Prawn rice paper rolls 7.7/10
Beef pho 7.5/10
Vegetable spring rolls 6.2/10
#27 (grilled beef with lemongrass) 7.3/10
Daily special (fresh scallops with XO sauce) 8/10
Daily special (seafood hotpot) 6.5/10

#18 Thy Thy House (118 Victoria St)

Attendees: Beata, Steph, Emma, Bo, Bobbie, Jimmy, Lodgey, Richie-Rich, Jamie

Who am I and why am I at dinner with these people? And why is Chuck Bass here? It is Anzac Day and my friends from Queensland are down. We have been to the footy and consumed the requisite amount of beer. Nevertheless Chopstick Chowdown Challenge must go on. We gather at the Aviary and collect a group of rag-tag individuals with beer-soaked palated to sample the food at Thy Thy House.

Thy Thy House looks a little classy for the likes of us on this particular evening with its rendered feature wall and mood lighting. Our group of 9 is bustled up the stairs. There are also tablecloths which is a novelty. There is no tea provided though this could be on account of us already being laden with alcohol.

There is a fair amount of chaos with the ordering and eating this week. Random dishes start flying out in all directions.

There are some crispy wonton, spring rolls and rice paper rolls – nothing particularly memorable about those.

Bo declares herself as the ultimate litmus-test of pho as she has never eaten beef before. She gives the broth the thumbs-up but declares the beef as leathery. Although I point out that she has nothing to compare it, the beef is thicker than we are used to in pho.

On the other side of me Steph keeps telling me how much she loves Mongolian beef and this one is a winner. Across the table Lodgey is talking about his job as a swimwear designer. I'm confused.

The small piece of crispy duck I manage to salvage from the eating hoards is delicious – battered and fried but tender with a light sauce. It is also Bo’s first ever taste of duck and she seems very pleased with it.

Those that try it are divided about number 27, which is a tomato rice with beef. A pile of slightly red-coloured rice with wedges of raw tomato and chunks of flavoured beef. Bo continues on her red meat eating rampage and pulls a face at the “leathery” beef. I challenge this, “you don’t even know what it is supposed to taste like!” For me the whole thing tastes randomly like Mexican. Perhaps the wine is getting to my taste buds…

Unfortunately Thy Thy House may end up being an anomaly in this little experiment but here the ratings anyway…for what they are worth…

Ratings
Rice paper rolls 7.1/10
Spring rolls 6/10
Pho 6.8/10
Mongolian beef 6.9/10
#27 (tomato rice and beef) 6.4/10
Special (crispy duck) 7.3/10

#17 Thanh Ha 2 (120 Victoria St)

Attendees: Beata, Steph, Emma, Imogene, Paddy, Penny, Andrew

Chopstick Chowdown Challenge was back with a ravenous vengeance this week after a leave of absence. Thanh Ha 2 was the location and one of the best overall tasting experiences on the route thus far. The menu is like an encyclopedia complete with pretty pictures. We make quick work of it though, following the ChChCh formula, along with some of our favourites – duck and squid.

The service, on the other hand, is ineffectual. We’ve become accustomed to the quick 'in-out' approach of these eateries, where waiters are anticipating your order as soon as you open the menu, dishes are whipped out at lightning speed and waitstaff are attentive. Being busy isn’t an excuse as many of the restaurants seem to become more efficient the busier it gets.

As Paddy says there appears to be a “tea allowance” which we used up within 5 minutes of arrival. It takes four requests to finally get another pot of tea which turns out to be as simple as the waiter picking it up off the counter where they are all ready to go.

The wine list is also a lie. After attempting to order two different types of white by the glass, we are informed they only have the house wine.

When the spring rolls come out we notice the lack of bowls and chopsticks as Penny ponders using her tea cup as a bowl. We finish the rice paper rolls by the time we get any napkins. Just as puzzling is the Masterfood squeeze bottle of tomato sauce that is put on the table. I was convinced it was a Chinese BBQ sauce in a ketchup container, but no it is in fact tomato sauce.

However I am on good terms with the food from first bite. The vegetable spring rolls are delicious with finely shredded filling and a peppery flavour. The rice paper rolls are the best we’ve had, juicy and all the ingredients coming together, warm and perfectly shredded with enough mint and a tasty peanut sauce.

From the specials on the back wall we get the Vietnamese pancake. Crunchy bean shoots, shredded carrot and other vegetable are combined with prawns and pork, enveloped in a crispy savoury pancake. On the scale of small to large, this is massive. Accompanying lettuce, vietnamese basil and mint means you can wrap it up like a spring roll with some sweet chilli dipping sauce. An excellent example of this traditional dish.

Duck with plum sauce gets extra points for presentation but is rather fatty. The squid with tamarind sauce from the house specials tastes odd. I would say more like a fish cake than squid.

Last but not least is our proxy number 27. Since number 27 was the rice paper rolls we are already obliged to get, we order number 13 – mung bean pies. Having no idea what these would look or taste like, I don't expect them to look like fried muffins and taste like samosa filling. But there you have it. With a dollop of chilli sauce these are addictive!

It's clear we all agree on the quailty of the food. Consistently high ratings on all the standards is a testament to the taste.

Ratings

Rice paper rolls 8.1/10

Vegetarian spring rolls 7.9/10

Beef pho 7.6/10

#13 Mung bean pie 8.7/10

Daily special (vietnamese pancake) 8.6/10

Duck and plum sauce 6.3/10

Squid and tamarind 5.8/10

Detour #2: Trang Restaurant (59 Hardgrave Road, Brisbane)

Attendees: Beata, Bobbie, Bo, Candice


A combination of work and pleasure brings me up to the sunshine state. A visit to a Vietnamese restaurant in Brisvegas provides an opportunity to give the ChChCh formula another whirl outside Victoria St. Bobbie and I impulsively take on the challenge single-handedly. Bo and Bobbie swear by Thy Thy from their Melbourne visits and it's time to see how Brisbane's Trang shapes up.

On a warm autumnal afternoon we have drank ourselves sober with a carton of cider and are hoping some Vietnamese food and a couple of bottles of red will serve as a pick-me-up.

It's lucky a reservation has been made as all the outdoor tables are full and people are spilling out onto the footpath. I am desperately thirsty and wanting to wash the taste of cider out of my mouth but in our tucked away corner table it seems to take forever to get the waiter's attention.

Bobbie and I embark on the challenge with rice paper rolls. These are of the average variety, relatively tasty but nothing to change states for.

Next up are the mussels with chilli from Trang's specials. They seem to be fresh and have the taste of the sea. The sauce is more on the sweet-chilli side with bits of red capsicum. These are taken care of quite quickly.

For number 27 we have counted down the Chinese section of the menu and ended up with braised duck with mushrooms. The duck is quite fatty but the abundance of vegetables is notable. There are 3 types of mushroom (button, shitake and chinese) and as Bobbie says these are "juicy and delicious".

It seems that all the food has come out and is practically finished. A bottle of wine has been consumed but where is our pho? I fin

ally manage to get the waiter's attention and it seems it has been forgotten. Chopstick Chowdown Challenge will not be complete without pho! It comes out a few minutes later and is very enjoyable.

During the re-ordering of pho, spring rolls have come out and despite full bellies it is our duty to taste-test them. The main descriptor that comes to mind is 'stringy'. When asked to do the ratings, Candice comments "they're not very tasty, I give them an 8." Maybe Queenslanders are more liberal with their ratings!


Ratings
Beef pho 8.3/10
Rice paper rolls 7/10
#27 (braised duck with mushrooms) 8/10
Special (mussels with chilli) 8.3/10
Vegetarian spring rolls 6.8/10

Detour #1: Pho Cuong (3015 N Classen Blvd. Oklahoma City)

Attendees: Steph, Beata

Chopstick Chowdown Challenge was put on hold on a few weeks as two of the founding members hit the road in the U.S. of A. During Road Trip USA we take the recommendation of our trusty guidebook and visit a Pho restaurant in Oklahoma City.

“Oh-kla-homa! Where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain. And the wavin’ wheat can sure smell sweet...Okla-okla-okla-okla-homa!". We sing out the showtunes as we enter the panhandle end of the state.

Negiotiating our way into Oklahoma City our trusty guidebook initially fails us. The map directs us to the stockyards and then gets us stuck in road works construction. No sign of any Asian restaurants around here! I scrutinise the map and realise that the key has been numbered incorrectly and doesn’t correspond to the address in the restaurant description.

Like many American cities (but unlike the ‘wagonwheel’ that is Santa Fe), Oklahoma City is built in a grid with numbered east-west streets. We are quickly back on track.

It is obvious when we hit the Asian district with its Asian signs, archway and dragon statues. More puzzling is the Golden Dome that marks its outskirts and the waving, costumed Liberty tax character.

While Australia’s Vietnamese population is easily explained by its geographic proximity, I was surprised to find a burgeoning one in the middle of the American bible belt. Retrospective research tells me that tens of thousands of Vietnamese refugees fled to Oklahoma City in the 1970s. Time to find out how their pho compares to the ones we've been eating on Victoria Street.

The restaurant looks like it could be on Victoria St, Melbourne but much larger. Stock standard tables and chairs with a green theme.

The menu has a good variety of pho and is cutely divided into 'For the beginners', 'A little bit of fat?', 'Adventurer's choice', and 'Fortifying combos'. Our standard beef pho comes from the first category.

I find it lacks the tanginess I enjoy and tastes more like peppery beef stock. Like everything oversized in America the accompanying plate of bean sprouts and basil is massive. A nice American touch is the inclusion of a fat green chilli, which we are wary of after our last green chilli experience in New Mexico (which I won't recount in case you are eating while reading this!)

In America they call spring rolls, fried egg rolls so we take a guess that rice paper rolls are what is described on the menu as fresh spring rolls. They are fairly tasty and come with a generous serving of dipping sauce.

In general we have found the food in America cheap and this is another bargain at $5.95 for a large bowl (roughly $AUD 6.50).Refuelled and renegergised we were ‘back on the road again’ (lalalala) and onwards to Dallas, Texas and our next road tripping adventure. It may have involved a brush with fame and a ride in a limo but that’s story for another day…or blog…

#16 Bien Hoa (140 Victoria St)

Attendees: Beata, Steph, Imogene, Duncan, Sabine

Chopstick Chowdown Challenge continues its journey towards international renown with German and Sydney visitors to this week’s round. We are proud to have presented the first taste of Vitenamese for German Sabine. Conveniently timed for her as she is due to fly out to South East Asia in a few days to sample some of this food on its home soil. "ChChCh...expanding people's gastronomical horizons!"

With some delays in the visitors finding Vietnam town (if you you think the restaurant is in a hospital you're in the wrong place), Steph and I wait at a front table by the pleasantly open window. It smells good, the menu is colourful and number 27 is duck. Excellent!

The rules of the challenge are explained to the newcomers. Our order has pretty much been decided but we allow the visitors the liberty of choosing the daily special and an additional main. After I order Duncan questions, “did we just order enough to feed a small army?”

I feel something is missing. Although we have been offered two bottles of water there is no tea. This is the first place during the Challenge where there is a lack of tea and I miss it. Points deducted for that!

The dishes come out slowly. First the rice paper rolls. These are rather soft and juicy but as Duncan points out, perhaps it is the sauce that is the best part. Next out is the rare beef with lemon.

From experience we know this is a cold salad and it has become a favourite. Bien Hoa’s version is delicious with morsels of pinkish beef and a refreshing combination of raw cucumber, celery, carrot, spanish onion, mint, chillies and crushed peanuts. A spicy sweet chilli sauce accompanies. The dish comes adorned with crunchy prawn crackers that have cracked paper baked into them which works well. Mmm-mm!

Our waiter is more than attentive. As I cut the rice paper rolls with a spoon, a knife surreptitiously appears on the table. So covert is the waiter's operation that when Duncan finds himself holding a knife he is puzzled, "why do I have a knife?" A few minutes later when Duncan drops his chopstick, the waiter has materialised beside him holding a clean one. As we have a laugh about his proficiency, he informs us with a omnious smile that he is watching us and motions to his eyes.

With our ever viglant waiter hovering and the appearance of food ceased, we wonder if he is waiting for us to finish the salad before the next dish comes out. We finish it just in case. I’m starting to wonder if the pho is going to be dessert but suddenly the rest of the food comes in a sizzling flurry along with mountains of rice. Did they intepret 2 serves of rice to mean 2 serves per person?

The pho is lacking a bit of tang and is low on noodles but comes with all the extras including chopped chilli and lemon, which some of the other places have been missing.

Although I can't describe the duck as either hard or chewy, I find it on the ordinary side, lacking flavour. The green chicken curry has a nice sauce with just the right amount of hotness but lacks variety in the veggies included. The sizzling scallops with garlic and ginger, however come with a host of vegetables and delicate scallops in a light sauce.

For me Bien Hoa was marked by an interplay of the things lacking and the things added. The rare beef salad a cornucopian highlight and the pho a disappointment. For the record we did over-cater and that hungry small army would have come in handy at the end. Overall a pretty good way to spend Valentine's Day night.

Ratings

Rice paper rolls (pork and prawn) 7/10

Beef pho 5.7/10

#27 (duck with peking sauce) 7/10

Daily special (green curry chicken) 6.9/10

Rare beef with lemon 8.5/10

Sizzling scallops with garlic and ginger 7.5/10

#15 Thy Thy 1 (142 Victoria St)

Attendees: Beata, Steph, Imogene, Scotty T, Niki, Penny, Andrew Be

Thy Thy 1 is one of the most anticipated restaurants for the Chopstick Chowdown Challenge members. Thy Thy is familiar to Melbourners for its good cheap food. Some people have even been known to travel from interstate just for a fix of Thy Thy...but how would it stand up to the Chopstick Chowdown formula?

The entrance is simple sign garlanded by neon lights. It would be easy to miss, were it not for pink doorway. This leads to a narrow staircase, which might dazzle you with purply pink walls and flashing lights but this is part of Thy Thy's charm.

The decor is a wonderfully kitsch combination of pink, purple and maroon. Foilage, illuminated paper lanterns, yellow flowers and a checkboard pattern on the far wall complete the image. Even the bowls have colourful designs on the outside. Vinyl chairs make it a sweaty concept on a warm summer night.

The communal atmosphere is alive and well at Thy Thy as recommendations fly at us from the (slightly odd) blokes leaving the table next to us: "rice paper rolls, rare lemon beef and squid", one declares as we blankly stare back. There are rules to this challenge, people!

The rice paper rolls are of the green chive tail variety and contain Vietnamese mint making them quite refreshing. Spring rolls are of the extremely thin variety and have no discernable filling aside from a grey mince.

Number 27 lands us on chicken sweet corn soup for the second time during ChChCh. With 7 people sharing we get a spoonful each and I feel it is up there as far as chicken sweet corn soutp goes. I have high expectations for the pho and it is pretty good. I notice the noodles are different, instead of thin and flat we have square-shaped ones. Interesting...maybe...

Famous lawyer Scotty T ("you know...the one from that case with the woman and the baby") has joined us for the first time and shares his experience of travelling in Vietnam and how pho there is a staple breakfast food. He responds to Niki's barrage of questions, identifying Vietnam as the choice destination if travelling around South East Asia.

Niki is pouring out the tea in professional style ("high teeeea or low tea?"). High tea, I reply. I like my tea to be aerated. Later when Andrew fumbles with the teapot, Penny suggests men should stick to what they are good at. I assume that mean building stuff and not pouring tea or attempting child birth.

From the specials, mango chicken hits the spot. Crispy battered chicken with a bright yellow sauce, topped with mango slices. It is light and not too sweet. Also from the specials we take the salt and pepper prawns. We have them shelless and they come in a light, white batter and delicate flavouring. The same can't be said for the pieces of chilli that get caught up in the prawn eating and have some of our eyes watering.

There are no complaints about Thy Thy. The food is light, tasty across the board. The atmosphere is jovial and gaudy. Best of all only sets us back $11.50 each. Bargain!

Ratings

Rice paper rolls 6.3/10

Spring rolls 6.1/10

Beef pho 8.5/10

#27 (chicken sweet corn soup) 7.3/10

Special (mango chicken) 7.5/10

Special (salt and pepper prawns) 8.1/10