Vietnamese Food Safari

Way back in Christmas 08' my wife bought me a voucher to go on a day tour of Sydney, anywhere of my choice. As long as it was with the Food Safari. A show which airs on SBS. The tours are actually called Gourmet Safaris and each tour is different. One may be a tour of Leichhardt, otherwise known as Little Italy. Some may take a Greek food tour, with... well... Greek food.

I decided since I come from an ethnic background and I have a certain amount of knowledge of good old fashioned wog food like mamma used to make, I'd try something a little different. Something I love, but have never made myself.

I did the Vienamese tour which was located around Cabramatta.

The tour starts off with some education on the background of Vietnamese culture and where the food comes from. We also delved into the origins of why this type of food and how it differs from other parts of Asia. The reason why Vietnamese food is very fresh and refreshing is because the produce was picked immediately for consuming. Since there was no refrigeration you either eat it straight off the pant or you pickled it for later. This is why most Vietnamese dishes have fresh herbs and seasoning and/or pickled veggies.

Once we were familiar with the various herbs and why they're used. We got to sample them in the form of a Vietnamese "Summer" Roll. Sort of like a spring roll but with rice paper, and it's not fried. I personally love these and could have eaten the whole plate. But there were other people in the group. About 30 of us in total.

And just to satisfy my mates, the person sitting in front of me, was a hottie with assets. I always seem to sit in front of them. We go out, I'm the first to see the panty shot, or the brilliant cleavage. I don't mean to, I just seem to pick the right seat. Saying that, I've also been to gay clubs where I've been "felt" up by interested parties. I show them my wedding ring and the effect is like garlic to a vampire.

Anyway, I digress.....

Ah yes, the tour.... So, after our rolls, we washed them down with some iced tea. Though I wish they sweetened it up a bit. We were off walking around Cabramatta. It was funny to observe the facial expression on the locals, watching a group of all us round eyes infiltrate their territory.

We walked though some dark alley ways and through small, confined arcades full of people, food and heat. Stopping at the tour guides favourite stops. He's a local, born and breed. So he knows what's good and what's bad.

We stopped at the local bakery to enjoy a serve of Vietnamese Pork Roll. Which is more like a 6 inch Subway sandwich than a spring roll. I normally have 2 of them, which is the equivalent to a 12" sub. I don't eat subway since I heard the unconfirmed rumour that there's the same chemical found in fertiliser as is in their bread. It may be true, but I'd still rather the extra freshness of a Vietnamese roll over a Subway one.

Once we were out of the tour of shops. We made it back to a local restaurant where we were seated and asked to prepare our own summer roll. Wetting the rice paper, laying it on our plate and filling it with our favourite ingredients. Roll it up, dunk it in some light dipping sauce and scoff it down. Make another one, repeat.

After that we were given a bowl full of beef stock which we used to assemble our own noodle soup with bean shoots and raw beef that cooks in the extremely hot stock sitting in the bowl.

After that, the tour was over and we could leave any time we chose. It wasn't long before I got up and said thank you to the tour guide.

There were times on the tour when I would say to myself "hurry up, this bits dragging on" but most of it was fantastic. I'll easily do another one next time someone buys me a voucher for it on my birthday or Christmas. Which reminds me, my birthday is almost here. 8 days to go and I'll be 31.... still going on to 7 though. I'll never grow up.