FoodieChat

Winter means beef noodle soup time. It’s so warming, healthy and delicious – compared to its fatty friend, laksa.  And the bonus is that it’s cheap – well most of the time, but definitely here at Pho  Noodle House. $8.50 will get you a steaming bowl of chicken or beef noodle soup, with the appropriate mountain of dunk your own condiments – bean sprouts, vietnamese basil, chillis and lemon juice.  The chicken one had more than enough meat – silky noodles, with onion and shallots touching the already deeply satisfyingi soup.   I couldn’t resist trying the summer rolls – $6 for 3 and regretted not sharing them, they were so filling, with prawns, vermicelli, lettuce and pork.  The dipping sauce one of the best – perfectly balancing sweet and savoury elements, and topped with toasted peanuts.

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More than just a cheap lunch, shish kebabs to me are a less guilty way to have a doner kebab. I mean – the fat drips into the coals right? And it’s chicken breast! $9.50 for a shish or andana kebab plate gets you ALOT of meat from the kebab shop downstairs from my office – as well as turkish bread, hommus, salad and vegetables grilled over the same hot coals that cook the chicken into a smokey juicey delight. Hmmm knew I should have opted for salad as I fall alseep around 2:30pm!

This is my second trip to this restaurant in Sydney’s inner/north/west whatever. The first time was for my friend Bec’s hen’s night (same Bec who took me to the amazing Dadong Beijing Duck restaurant in China!), where we feasted on course after course of Shanghai specialties.   Tonight was just a quiet dinner for two; and we feasted on handmade noodles with pickled vegetables and shredded pork. A huge mound of slippery al dente noodles came to our table, stir fried with plenty of bean shoots, and shredded pork.  The pork was quite fatty, but the noodles were surprisingly not too oily at all! Could have done with a bit more salted vegetable – because I love them – but at $8.80 you can’t complain too much!  The noodles were brilliant with the chilli oil I asked for too.  Then came my favourite dumplings of all time – wartip – or pot stickers as they are also known. These are crescent shaped dumplings wrapped with pork mince (and sometimes some vegetables), and then pan fried and steamed until the meat and pastry is cooked, and the bottoms crunchy.  They’re served bottoms up so they remain crunchy. We got 10 for $8.80. Bargain.

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You may not believe it but there are places in Sydney that do have civilised lunch for around $10 (that is, not a food court) if you’re after something a bit nicer to catch up with your friends, rather than the usual grab your lunch and stand around stalking a table before you realise half your lunch hour’s gone.

The Forbes Hotel is just off George Street, on the corner of York and King, and was introduced to me by my former colleague as a place she used to take her clients who didn’t give her any business! haha. Anyway, you get the whole table cloth and waiter and glassware experience in their restaurant on the third floor. (more…)