Gia Hoi (Eastwood, Sydney)

Many moons ago I lived in the suburb of Eastwood. I knew every single restaurant, cafe and grocery shop around Eastwood. At that time I would frequent my favourites and knew of the new venues opening up.

That was then. Now I don't go to Eastwood much and this is mainly due to horrendous parking and burgeoning crowds that converge at Eastwood on the weekends. It can be quite off-putting and I tend to stay away unless I have to be there.

Which is the reason I didn't even realise that Gia Hoi had opened a branch in Eastwood. And according to the web, it has been opened for about 2 years. Sigh! Now this is what I would term 'slow as'!

So my checking out begins over 3 visits.

Bun Chao Tom - Grilled minced prawns with rice vermicelli. The minced prawn cake were thinly sliced and served over a bed of rice vermicelli with a side of fresh bean sprouts, pickled carrots and shredded lettuce. The dish was served with nuoc cham. Yum! I have a weakness for this dish. Loved how fresh the vegetables were and the prawn cake was full of flavour.

Bun Bo Hue Dac Biet - Special Pork and Beef with Rice a Vermicelli Soup which is hot and spiced based. I honestly cannot recall if I have ever tried this dish before but I have fallen in love with Bun Bo Hue.

Cabramatta Crawl April 2014

I am sure all of you have occasional cravings for certain types of food (and you don't have to be pregnant to experience this!). This can beset you at any point in time. Well, lately I have been craving all things Vietnamese and I don't even know why! My good friend CW and I have been planning to do a Cabramatta Crawl since February of this year. Yes! You read right, February! :-)

We finally managed to make it work. No heat wave, no prearranged social engagement and most importantly no track work planned that weekend. Yay! I was looking forward to satisfying my cravings!

The plan was to eat through our hit list but share the meals so we didn't fill up too quickly. We started by having breakfast and pho was our choice.

Pho Tau Bay has reputedly the best pho in town. I don't recall having been here before and it was quite a tiny little restaurant. We got there before 10 am and was lucky enough not to have to wait for a table. As we sat down, a man came up to take our order but we were not given any menus. It was quite funny because I didn't know what to call the dish outside of the word 'pho'. CW was fast thinking enough and said 'the special' please. We ordered a large bowl so we could share. I asked CW whether she knew what the special meant and it was an assumption it meant all parts of the beef like tendon, tripe, beef balls and thin slices of beef. To be absolutely sure, I went searching for the menu. There was a board near the front counter and to my relief the special was exactly what we thought. Phew!

Well, what can I say about the pho? The broth was packed with flavour, yet not unctuous. I didn't feel I was drinking heaps of fat. As a matter of fact I felt I was drinking spoonfuls of goodness! A beautiful bowl of noodles, beef, tendons and a great broth which was lifted by the spikes of spicy chilli slices we consumed. So good!

We then decided to give our tummy a little break and walked around the shops. Along the way, I had a feeling of being back in Malaysia. Seeing familiar ingredients such as fresh tamarind, packets of instant coffee, shelves of biscuits and confectionery. And even a coconut grater!

And the abundance of street food, seafood and fresh vegetables and herbs make us consumers so spoilt for choice!

Our second stop was at Tan Viet Noodle House. There were queues to dine here. We came at the right time, only 2 were ahead of us in the queue. But later on I saw about 10 people deep waiting to get a table.

The Copper Pan (St Ives, Sydney)

There is a cafe in Gordon that piqued my interest last year and so far I have only managed to have a cup of coffee there. Why? Because it is constantly packed and I don't have the patience to wait for a table when I have a list of errands to get to on a Saturday. The place is called Pottery Green Bakers.

A few months ago when I was browsing their Facebook page, I noticed mention of a sister cafe opening up in St Ives. Well, before you know it, I was checking it out. This cafe nook is The Copper Pan. It is located on the first floor of St. Ives Shopping Village.

The cafe is decorated with lots of wood with heavy iron chairs. It has a different look to its sister. I really like the look of the dark tables and the stools have iron legs. They are quite solid and for some of them you have to lift them up in order to move the stool.

I decided to check out a few dishes over different visits. On my first visit I had French toast with cinnamon, banana and Canadian maple syrup. My drink that morning was the Strawberry smoothie. I liked the glass jug the smoothie was served in.

I loved it! The bread was fluffy and nicely balanced with the maple syrup. And the dish was nicely presented on a board.

On my second visit, I had the Baked eggs with spicy chorizo and olives in tomato served with baguette in their signature copper pan. What is it about baked eggs that call to me? I thoroughly enjoyed this dish. The bread was so fresh and had a lovely crust. I was literally smothering the bread in the tomato sauce and eggs. My drink for that day was the Mixberry smoothie.