Vietnamese Coconut Tartlets

When I flick through my Vietnamese cookbooks, the dessert section will contain dishes like crème caramels, flans, custards and tarts. These dishes are associated with the French and were brought over to Vietnam during the French colonization (1874-1954). They are commonly eaten by the Vietnamese, so much so that they have made it their own with a Vietnamese twist using ingredients like coconuts, Vietnamese coffee, condensed milk and pastry often contains shortening rather than butter.  

When I was traveling around Vietnam last year, I found many bakeries selling French desserts and the range and quality available was amazing. It was always such a treat to get a box of sweets for just a few Australian dollars. My friends and I would often wonder down to the local bakery after dinner to get dessert and bring it back to our hostel and unwind from the day’s travel by watching whatever was on MTV (Gaga, Katy Perry on repeat) or the movie channel (I think I saw the same Jennifer Lopez movie three times, the one where she gets pregnant). I generally don’t watch much TV but my consumption of junk TV seems to skyrocket when I’m on holiday, but it’s more background noise as my friends and I plan the travel adventures for the next day and we bond over taking the piss out of how unrealistic everything that we watch on TV is.

(photo that I took of a Bakery in Hanoi, Vietnam last year)

(photo that I took of a Bakery in Hoi An, Vietnam last year)

This month’s Sweet Adventures Blog Hop is hosted by fellow Perth food blogger, The Kitchen Crusader and the theme is “Sweet as Pie” which can be basically anything with a pastry base such as a pie, tart or galette. I decided to bake a French influenced Vietnamese dessert - Vietnamese coconut tartlets for this blog hop.

You’ll find coconut used in a lot of Vietnamese dishes, especially in desserts. Coconut enriches and provides sweetness to desserts so you don’t need to add much sugar. Vietnam is one of the top ten coconut producers in the world as Southern Vietnam enjoys a tropical climate all year round which is ideal for growing coconuts. The Ben Tre Province located in the Mekong Delta has been nicknamed by the “Land of Coconuts” as it’s the biggest province cultivating coconuts in Vietnam and contributes to half of the country’s coconut yield. 

To make the Vietnamese coconut tarts I adapted a recipe from The Foods of Vietnam by Nicole Routhier. The recipe states that it yields six 3-inch tartlets. I doubled the quantity of ingredients for the pastry dough and ended up with 8 tartlets, maybe I used too much dough to line each tartlet but I was happy with the thickness of the resulting tartlet cases. I found that only one quantity of the coconut mixture which I added a bit more double cream into was needed to fill all 8 tartlets. I used a mix of shortening and butter in the pastry, and also added in a bit of milk powder. I have a big tin a of milk powder at home which I first bought to make Momofuku’s crack pie and I am slowly using it up by putting a tablespoon here and there in all my baked goods for a bit of a flavour boost. Christina Tosi, the mastermind behind all the Momofuku Milk Bar Store treats uses a lot of milk powder in her baked goods to give them an interesting depth of flavour and refers to milk powder as the MSG for baked goods. I also blind baked the pastry shells before filling them with the coconut mixture. Routhier’s recipe does not require the pastry to be blind baked.

The pastry of the Vietnamese coconut tartlet is crumbly while the coconut filling is soft and flaky.

Vietnamese Coconut Tartlets

(adapted from The Foods of Vietnam by Nicole Routhier)

makes 8 tartlets (~4cm tart pans)

Ingredients

Pastry Dough

• 55g vegetable shortening

• 55g butter, softened and cut into pieces

• 4 tablespoons caster sugar

• 2 egg yolks

• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 ½ cups plain flour

• ½ teaspoon baking powder

• 1 tablespoon milk powder 

Coconut Mixture Filling

• 2 cups desiccated coconut

• 4 tablespoons caster sugar

• 55g butter, softened and cut into pieces

• 1 egg yolk

• 4 tablespoons double cream

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Glaze

• 1 egg yolk

• 1 tablespoon butter, melted and cooled

Method

To make the pastry In a bowl, beat the shortening, butter and sugar until fluffy. Stir in the egg yolks and vanilla, mix to combine. Add flour, baking powder and milk powder, and mix well. Turn the pastry out onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead until it comes together into a dough and is smooth.

Press the dough into tartlet pans, prick the bases and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

To make the filling In a bowl, combine the coconut, sugar and butter together. Add egg yolk, double cream and vanilla. Blend well with hands to form a soft paste.

Preheat oven to 180C. Take the tartlets out of the refrigerator and blind bake them. Line the tarts with baking paper and fill with baking weights. Place the tartlets on a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes. 

Take the tartlets out of the oven and fill them with the coconut mixture, smooth the top. 

Bake the tartlets for 10 minutes. While the tartlets are baking, make the glaze – in a small bowl beat the egg yolk slightly and stir in the melted butter.

After 10 minutes, take the tartlets out of the oven and brush the surface and the crust edges of the tartlets with the glaze. Return to the oven and bake for another 5 minutes.

Cool the tartlets before unmolding

Vietnamese Tacos – Homemade corn tortillas with Lemongrass Prawns, and Turmeric Dill Fish (Cha Ca)

In Lucky Peach #2, there was an article by Harold McGee on dry-aging and he examines our perception of food through our experience with it via our taste and smell receptors. He uses the example of coriander which has a love-hate divide and looks at it from a cultural experience. If you have grown up with it, like I have, then you will generally finding it a pleasing herb but if you are not accustomed to its taste, you may find it strange and repulsive. Harold identifies Vietnamese and Mexican cuisine as being common users of coriander, so if you grew up with Vietnamese food where coriander is frequently used as a garnish, than you’re likely to be receptive of Mexican food and its regular use of coriander like in guacamole and salsas.

My conclusion – If you like Vietnamese food, you will enjoy Mexican food too due to a shared love for coriander.

Lucky Peach #2 also featured a recipe for Korean Ssam burritos, an idea that David Chang conceived in 2005 but never really took off for his restaurant. However, since 2009 Korean style tacos have taken the LA food truck scene by storm by Roy Choi and his Kogi Korean BBQ trucks.

My conclusion – If you can make Korean style burritos then you can make Vietnamese style ones too (note the conclusion above that Vietnamese and Mexican food is meant to be together). Vietnamese like wrapping stuff up and filling things too like rice paper rolls, banh cuon and banh xeo.

After reading Lucky Peach #2, I was inspired to come up with my own style of tacos – a fusion of Vietnamese and Mexican cuisine. I present to you Vietnamese style tacos.

 Taco Ingredients

Vietnamese Lemongrass Prawn Taco

Vietnamese Turmeric and Dill Fish (Cha Ca) Taco

I decided to make some “tacos de camarones” (prawn tacos) and “taco de pescado” (fish tacos). For the prawn tacos, I cooked some Vietnamese lemongrass prawns and accompanied it with salsa, topped with some coriander. For the fish tacos, I cooked Cha Ca which is a famous Hanoi dish comprising of turmeric and dill marinated fish which is grilled or fried, and generally served with more dill, other herbs, crushed peanuts on top of rice noodles. It’s one of my favourite Vietnamese fish dishes, so fragrant, simple to make and really tasty. If you ever travel to Hanoi, Cha Ca is one of those must try dishes like pho.

You can use store bought tortillas or make your own. I tried to make tortillas from scratch for the first time. When I was looking up how to make tortillas, I settled with corn tortillas as they were the easiest to make. All you have to do is mix together masa corn flour with warm water. The corn tortillas turned out great but I think that next time I will try to make flour tortillas as I think they will provide a better base for the fillings (note:  flour tortillas were used for the Korean Ssam burittos recipe featured in Lucky Peach #2). I was going to buy a tortilla press but was given a tip by Matt of Abstract Gourmet that the same effect can be achieved with a chopping board, using it as a weight to press onto the dough, which is how Marcelita’s empanadas are made.

I put everything together with a squeeze of lime over the top and was really happy with my efforts. I had no doubt while I was frying up the lemongrass prawns and turmeric dill fish that they would be great fillings because they are delicious on their own, and the flavours worked out well wrapped up in a hot corn tortilla.

I will keep working on my idea of Vietnamese tacos – learn to make flour tortillas and keep experimenting with different fillings…and maybe one day, when the bureaucracy permits, I will have my own food truck which I will call "Apocalypse Now" (in reference to the film) and serve my Vietnamese tacos to the masses!

All recipes below.

Corn Tortillas

(adapted from Gourmet Traveller)

Ingredients

•    2 cups masa flour
•    pinch of salt
•    1 ¼ cup warm water

Method

Place the masa flour in a bowl with a pinch of salt, then add in the warm water. Mix together with your hands to form a soft pliable dough. Form into a ball, cover with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel and rest for at least 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into 16 pieces and roll each piece into a ball.

Prepare a plastic sheet and place a ball inside it, then place a heavy wooden chopping board on top and press down hard to flatten the dough into a thin disc. Set aside on greaseproof paper.

Or

Line a tortilla press with greaseproof paper or plastic, place a ball on it and press gently but firmly in press to form a thin disc. Set aside on greaseproof paper.

Heat a frying pan on medium-high heat without any oil. Peel greaseproof paper from the tortilla and cook the tortilla, turning twice until slightly browned. Repeat with remaining tortillas.

Stack cooked tortillas in a large bowl lined with a tea towel as you go and rest to steam gently and soften slightly (3 minutes).

Vietnamese Turmeric and Dill Fish (Cha Ca)


Ingredients

•    400g firm white fish fillets (I used cod), cut into 2cm pieces

Turmeric and Dill Marinade
•    1 tablespoon crushed garlic
•    2 tablespoon shallots, finely diced
•    ½ tablespoon grated galangal (or ginger)
•    1 tablespoon dill, chopped
•    pinch of ground salt and black pepper
•    1 teaspoon turmeric powder
•    2 tablespoons fish sauce
•    2 ½ teaspoons sugar
•    1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Method

Mix the fish pieces thoroughly with the turmeric and dill marinade, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Heat some oil in a frying pan or grill and cook the fish until it is evenly brown on each side and cooked through.

Vietnamese Lemongrass Prawns


Ingredients

•    15 prawns, shelled and deveined
•    2 stalks lemongrass, peeled and sliced into thin rounds (use bottom third only)
•    2 shallots, roughly chopped into small pieces
•    2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped into small pieces
•    1-2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and roughly chopped
•    pinch of ground salt and black pepper
•    ½ teaspoon sugar
•    1 teaspoon fish sauce
•    2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Method

Pound the lemongrass, shallots and garlic together in a mortar and pestle, then add in salt, pepper, sugar and fish sauce, and pound until finely ground. Mix in vegetable oil.

Note: This can also be done with a blender or you can grate the lemongrass, shallots and garlic with a microplane and mix with other ingredients.

Marinate the prawns with the lemongrass mixture, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Heat some oil in a frying pan or grill and cook the prawns on each side until lightly charred or the prawns have changed colour and are cooked through.

Salsa


Ingredients

•    3 ripe tomatoes
•    2 tablespoons, chopped coriander
•    ¼ red onion, finely chopped
•    1 small red chilli, finely chopped or a splash of Tabasco sauce
•    2 teaspoons olive oil
•    juice of half a lime
•    salt and pepper

Method

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and season to taste.

Vietnamese braised pork belly and hard boiled eggs in coconut juice (Thit Heo Kho Trung). Momofuku inspired steamed pork buns

Thit Heo Kho Trung is one of my favourite home cooked dishes. What makes a dish a home cooked dish? When I eat out at Vietnamese restaurants with my parents, I would note that a lot of the dishes I love to eat and I always have at home are not on the menu. I ask my mum why [insert name of dish here] was not on the menu and she would tell me that everyone knows how to cook that dish at home, so it’s not something that people would order when they eat out. So this is how I define a home cooked dish – a dish that people often cook at home so you won’t find it in restaurants, otherwise restaurants would be competing with every mum’s recipe and you know who would win out of that right? 

Thit Heo Kho Trung is one of those home cooked dishes that you will rarely find on restaurant menus but every Vietnamese family cooks it and would have their own recipe for it. I can see why Thit Heo Kho Trung would be a popular home cooked dish. My mum comes from a family of nine children and this would be a perfect one pot meat for such a big family – a large amount of pork and eggs are simmered in coconut juice, soy sauce and fish sauce, and served with bowls of rice.  A really simple dish to cook that produces a delicious result with sweetness coming from the coconut juice, saltiness from the soy sauce and savouriness from the fish sauce. 

When I cook a dish I am always intrigued by how other people cook it, and I will scan cookbooks and the internet for recipes to see how the way my mum cooks it compares with others. I’ve seen other ingredients added to this dish such as shallots and garlic, and other spices such as star anise or five spice. Some recipes do not use any soy sauce and only use fish sauce. Some recipes prepare a caramelized sauce made up of water and sugar first to cook the pork and eggs in. My mum’s recipe is relatively simple and uses few ingredients.

When I came across the Ravenous Couples recipe for Thi Heo Kho Trung, I saw that they had turned Thi Heo Kho Trung into a David Chang/Momofuku inspired steamed pork bun dish. It was one of those ‘damn, I wish I’d thought of that first’ moments. Encapsulating the pork inside steamed buns is a perfect way of eating this dish as the sweetness of the steamed buns complements the coconut enriched pork which has been cooked until it’s melt in your mouth tender, plus you have a tasty sticky sweet savoury sauce to go over the top of the pork, and you can add a slice of egg if desired. I haven’t eaten ‘the’ Momofuku steamed pork buns before which contains brined and roasted pork belly but I think that this could possible be better?!

Here’s my mum’s Vietnamese braised pork and eggs (Thit Heo Kho Trung) that I have turned into my own take on Momofuku inspired steamed pork buns.

I used a pressure cooker to cook the pork and included the process for cooking with a pressure cooker and a pot over the stove.

Ingredients

•    1 kg pork belly, chopped into 2-3cm cubes
•    ~ 3 cups of coconut juice (from 2 young coconuts)
•    5 small red chillies, deseeded
•    6 whole hard boiled eggs, shelled
•    fish sauce (2 ½ tablespoons)
•    light soy sauce (1 ½ tablespoons)
•    dark soy sauce (2 tablespoons)
•    salt to taste

To make Momofuku style buns – buy steamed buns from Asian supermarket, cucumber and coriander.

 Young coconut

I do not shy away from the layers of fat in pork belly, fat is what makes food taste good!

Method

Par-boil the pork – put the pork pieces into a pot of boiling water and simmer for 1-2 minutes until partially cooked. Rinse pork under cold running water and drain well.

Add the coconut juice, chillies and 1 ½ tablespoon of fish sauce into a pot/pressure cooker and bring to a simmer. Then add in the pieces of pork. 

(1) Bring to a boil and then simmer on low heat for around an hour, stirring occassionally or pressure cook for 10 minutes.

(2) Then add in 1 ½ tablespoons of light soy sauce, 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce and 1 tablespoon fish sauce. Simmer on low heat for another hour, stirring occassionally or pressure cook for 10 minutes.

(3) Test the flavour and adjust with fish sauce or sugar if required and add in a pinch of salt to balance. Add in the hard boiled eggs and simmer for another 30-45 minutes to flavour the eggs and for the sauce to reduce. 

Note: I pressure cooked this dish for a total of 20 minutes, divided into two 10 minute periods. The last step of cooking does not require pressure cooking.

I bought premade steam buns from Emma’s Seafood Asian grocery on the corner of Newcastle and William street in Northbridge. You can make them from scratch using this recipe.

To make Momofuku inspired buns – Steam buns according to packet instructions. Add in pieces of pork (slice the pork in half if too thick), a slice of egg, spoon over the egg and pork some sauce and then top with thin julienned pieces of cucumber and coriander.

You can also just eat the pork and egg with steamed rice.

 Slices of pork belly in bun

 Add a slice of egg on top

Add the braising sauce over the top

 Top with cucumber and coriander

 

Here are some of my other pork belly recipes:

• Braised pork spare ribs with pumpkin
• Twice cooked pork (Sichuan style)
• Roasted pork belly - sui yuk
• Kakuni (Japanese Braised Pork)
• Braised pork belly with daikon
• Chinese BBQ Pork 
• Communist Pork (Red Cooked Pork)
• Baki Kecap (Indonesian braised pork in sweet soy sauce)

Vietnamese Chicken Salad

A salad is one of those dishes that is quite flexible, and usually just a matter of putting together whatever you have at hand, but a Vietnamese chicken salad is not a salad where I can just chuck together whatever salad ingredients I have in my fridge. Whenever I plan on making this salad, the first thing that I need is Vietnamese mint (rau răm) also known as laksa leaves. The problem is that Vietnamese Mint is not always readily available but I won’t have any other herb in this salad – not spearmint (which is the mint that most people would be familiar with) or coriander. I must have Vietnamese mint because the smell and flavour of it completes the Vietnamese chicken salad for me. It is eternally tied to the memories of how I make and eat it.

(In the city, Vietnamese mint can usually be found at the Lucky Supermarket on Brisbane street but on the weekend it was not available so I drove up to Mirrabooka to Hiep Hung Asian Grocery on Honeywell boulevard)

When I was young and went grocery shopping with my parents, I would help to pick out ingredients. Whenever I knew my mum going to make a Vietnamese chicken salad, I would run over to the fruit and vegetable section of the Asian supermarket and look for where all the fresh herbs were stored. Facing me would be rows and rows of green herbs. I didn’t know what their names were and could not tell a lot of them apart by sight, but I could identify what was what by smelling each one. I easily sniffed out the Vietnamese mint. I love the aroma of Vietnamese mint and the smell of it instantly makes me think of a Vietnamese chicken salad.

(Can you pick out which herb is Vietnamese mint?)

I have grown up eating Vietnamese food cooked by my parents. When I got older and started going out to eat with my friends, the weirdest thing for me was discovering that dishes that I knew and loved were being served to me differently. I have seen Vietnamese chicken salad appear in many forms but I am very wedded to the way my mum makes it. I find it hard to accept any other form as a Vietnamese chicken salad.

Not only does the salad require Vietnamese mint but the other secret to making it taste amazing is to lightly pickle the vegetables first.

So here's how I like my Vietnamese chicken salad and the way my mum taught me how to make it.

Ingredients

For the salad
•    500g of chicken (poached and shredded)
•    1/2 cabbage, finely shredded
•    1 carrot, thinly julienned into matchsticks
•    1 red onion, thinly sliced
•    white vinegar (for pickling the vegetables)
•    bunch of Vietnamese mint (rau răm), leaves picked off and sliced thinly
•    crushed roasted peanuts

(Vietnamese mint - rau răm)

For the dressing (nuoc cham)
•    2 tablespoons sugar
•    ½ cup water
•    ¼ cup rice vinegar
•    ¼ cup fish sauce
•    2 garlic cloves, crushed
•    1 red chilli, seeded and minced
•    2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Method

Combine the cabbage, carrot and onion together in a large bowl. Add 2-3 tablespoons of white vinegar over the top of the vegetables and thoroughly mix together. Leave for 10-15 minutes to lightly pickle. Gently squeeze out the excess water from the vegetables and leave in a colander to drain. The vegetables are now lightly pickled, moist and would have shrunk in volume.

(Before pic - shredded cabbage, carrot and onion)

 (After pic - pickled vegetables)

Put the pickled vegetables into a large bowl and add in the chicken and Vietnamese mint, and thoroughly combine.

(Shredded chicken)

(thinly sliced Vietnamese mint)

(All mix together)

To make the dressing – put the sugar, water, rice vinegar and fish sauce in a small saucepan and cook over a low heat, stirring until the sugar melts. Turn off the heat just before it reaches boiling point. Set aside to cool. Then add in the garlic, chilli and fresh lime juice.

Alternatively, instead of adding in the garlic/chilli I add in some pickled ground chilli

Serve the salad with the nuoc cham dressing and crushed peanuts on top.

Searching for the best Banh Mi in Perth in Girrawheen

Vietnamese cuisine has assumed a special place in the tummies of many Australians. Everyone that I have ever talked to about Vietnamese food has had nothing but praise for it. From the fresh rice paper rolls to the hearty pho and the holy banh mi (Vietnamese baguette) – mention any of these and people will start salivating in front of you…

Whilst you can order rice paper rolls at any Vietnamese restaurant and be assured that you will get a reasonable replication and there are always reliable pho joints around town for your pho fix, getting a decent banh mi is another matter.

My very first blog entry was about banh mi and where you could get the best banh mi in Perth. My family always bought our banh mi from Ben Thanh at the Mirrabooka Village Shopping Centre.

I got a few comments on that blog entry telling me about other places selling banh mi worth checking out in the Girrawheen area which is known for having a large Vietnamese community. Not that I can prove this in anyway statistically, nor have I conducted a survey of the people who live in the area. But I don’t think this is necessary because you can tell that a large number of Vietnamese people live in the area by the quality of its suburban Vietnamese restaurants (Kim’s Café and Noodle House and Pho Hynh to name a few), and by checking out the produce sold in the Asian supermarkets within the area. Not all Asian supermarkets are the same, each specializes in selling specific goods and what is demanded by its customers. Walk into any Asian supermarket in the Girrawheen area and you will find a larger selection of Vietnamese style sweet and savoury snacks near the counter than any Asian supermarket down William Street in Northbridge. The variety and freshness of the herbs available which is vital to a lot of Vietnamese dishes is also abundant in supply.

Girrawheen feels like Perth’s equivalent of Cabramatta in Sydney.

There is even a Vietnamese video shop and many Vietnamese butchers around the place.

Nguyen Phat Farmer Jacks is your everyday supermarket like IGA but the shopping aisle signs have Vietnamese translations. 

I have been journeying to Girrawheen over the past few weeks to find the best banh mi that Perth has to offer. I have checked out three places in Girrawheen, little shops that only sell banh mi, made fresh to order, all within five minutes drive from each other. The fact that these little establishments can sustain themselves by only selling banh mi shows that you don’t need to offer a variety of rolls to keep customers happy, do one thing really well and that’s all you need.

These three places were recommended to me by readers of my blog and are run by Vietnamese people so expect an occasional language barrier when you are being served depending on who’s working on the day – it’s all a part of the experience of consuming an authentic banh mi.

•    Banh Mi Nhu Mai
•    Tan Hiep Hung
•    Nuoc Mia Mien Tay

The best banh mi in my opinion is one that has a light toasted, crispy baguette with some tasty thinly sliced roast pork belly, it’s seasoned well (with condiments such as mayo, soy sauce, salt and pepper, pate etc.), and has a good balance of meat to pickled vegetables (generally carrot and daikon) and fresh herbs, especially a lot of coriander. Plus, some fresh cut chillies if you desire some heat too. It should feel light but be an explosion of rich beautiful flavours in your mouth with contrasting textures. Whilst banh mi may contain quite a few ingredients, as you bite into it, all the different elements come together as a whole and I think there is one word for this – it’s SYNERGY. I think this is why banh mi is so satisfying to eat.

Even though banh mi will generally be composed of the same ingredients no matter where you buy it, each place that sells banh mi will be slightly different. There will be differences in the bread roll, liver pate and sauces used, the balance of flavourings and ratio of meat to vegetables. Each will give you a different mouthfeel.

Banh Mi Nhu Mai

Banh Mi Nhu Mai is located at Shop 1: Newpark Shopping Centre, Templeton Crescent, Girrawheen WA 6084, next to the Commonwealth Bank. Open everyday 7am – 5pm.

I now have a new favourite banh mi place in Perth. I rate the banh mi at Banh Mi Nhu Mai slightly above Beh Thanh which has been my family’s favourite banh mi place since like forever. Overall, I think that Banh Mi Nhu Mai has the most synergy. Two things about Banh Mi Nhu Mai that stand out for me is that they have a larger selection of meats to choose from to stuff your banh mi with and I really like the baguette that they use, it’s light and crispy. While Beh Thanh offers the standard stuffing of thinly sliced roast pork belly and Vietnamese ham (goi lua), at Banh Mi Nhu Mai you can get a combination roll with includes the addition of Vietnamese head cheese, Vietnamese nem, as well as the roast pork belly and Vietnamese ham. I find the balance of vegetables to meat also better at Banh Mi Nhu Mai and they provide a generous amount of coriander. 

However, the one thing that Beh Thanh has over Banh Mi Nhu Mai is its pork liver pate. The banh mi at Banh Mi Nhu Mai didn’t have any pate but their own special red mince sauce mixture. When I asked the lady at the counter what was in the sauce…well after I repeated my question a few times and then pointed at the bowl of sauce, she didn’t speak much English but in the end she said two words to me “meat balls”. Ok, so I think I understood what she was trying to tell me, sometimes you can get banh mi with meatballs and I think that they have cooked this but instead of little meat balls they have kept the meat minced in a rich thick sauce which they spread a layer of in the roll. 

The mince sauce is delicious but pork liver pate adds another dimension of flavour to the roll so for lovers of offal, you will like the banh mi from Beh Thanh more. The pork liver pate from Beh Thanh is the best that I have tasted so far because it is rich in flavour and has a nice thick texture, I find the pate at other places more runny and lacking in the flavour department.  I would be pretty content with eating banh mi from either Banh Mi Nhu Mai or Beh Thanh but if I had to choose, I would go for Banh Mi Nhu Mai but only just!

You can read more about banh mi at Beh Thanh at my previous post and here are some recent photos.

Pate in Ben Thanh's banh mi.

versus

Pate in Nuoc Mai Mien Tay's banh mi.

Nuoc Mia Mien Tay

Nuoc Mai Mien Tay is located at 7/3 Wade Court, Girrawheen WA 6084, outside Nguyen Phat Farmer Jacks. Open everyday 7:30am-8pm.

I quite like the banh mi at Nuoc Mai Mien Tay, the base seasonings are good and that is a balanced ratio of meat to vegetables, although the bread is more crusty and not as crispy and flaky as other banh mi places. It's also a bit different from the others as they add in a lashing of vibrant red sauce. The taste of the sauce reminds me of the marinade for Chinese BBQ pork (aka char siu) – sticky, savoury and sweet with hints of spice. The sauce makes the whole roll really flavoursome and succulent. 

 

 (the red sauce makes the whole roll look juicy)

Whilst I enjoy the taste of the red sauce, after repeated consumption of the banh mi I find that it can overshadow the flavours of the rest of the ingredients and could probably do without it. However, I think that people who really enjoy Chinese BBQ pork will like this banh mi and appreciate the addition of the sauce. I could probably ask for a banh mi without the red sauce, this is an option I have not tried yet but when you order banh mi at Nuoc Mai Mien Tay, this is how they serve it, so it’s a part of how they make their banh mi. Every banh mi place has their own little twist on the roll.

Tan Hiep Hung

Tan Hiep Hung is located at 2/70 Marangaroo Drive, Girrawheen WA 6084, next to a pizza shop. Open everyday 5am-5pm.

The banh mi at Tan Hiep Hung has been my least favourite place for banh mi. The downers for me are its bread which is not as nice as others I have had, I think its pate lacks flavour, the roast pork belly is sliced too thick and the ratio of vegetables to meat is not very balanced. The first time I bought a banh mi there, it had way too much carrot but was very generous with the mayo. 

(A bit too much carrot for my liking)

 

(thickly sliced pork and a lot of mayo)

I tried the banh mi at Tan Hiep Hung for a second time because I didn’t want to just base my judgement on one experience. But the second time that I tried it, the banh mi was overly salty as it contained too much soy sauce. Overall, my experience of banh mi at Tan Hiep Hung has not been as good as other places that I have tried. I don't think that enough care and attention is paid to the construction of the banh mi and balancing all the different elements. 

One bonus though is that they are open at 5am in the morning for people who have an early morning craving! 

So in summary, here are the banh mi places I have tried in Perth and a rough score, but any of the first three are great, I recommend trying them all.

1. Banh Mi Nhu Mai (Shop 1: Newpark Shopping Centre, Templeton Crescent, Girrawheen WA 6084) Score – 9
2. Beh Thanh (Shop 4/73 Honeywell, Bld, Mirrabooka Village Shopping Centre) Score – 8.7
3. Tan Hiep Hung (2/70 Marangaroo Drive, Girrawheen WA 6084) Score 8
4. Nuoc Mia Mien Tay (7/3 Wade Court, Girrawheen WA 6084) Score – 6.7

Everyone has different tastes and may appreciate different elements of the banh mi from the various places I have tried and have a different opinion on which place is the best, so I would be interested in hearing other peoples thoughts.

Are there any other places I should try?

For around 4-5 dollars you can get yourself a delicious and fulfilling banh mi. I find that a bargain. If you were to get yourself a decent/gourmet sandwich or roll at any café around town you would be setting yourself back an average of 7/8 dollars so put that extra few dollars towards transport costs and make the journey to Girrawheen, it will definitely be worth it.

I also recommend buying an extra banh mi to take home for the next day. The banh mi must be refrigerated but when you are about to eat it, take it out of the fridge for about 30 minutes to bring it to room temperature and then pop it in the oven/under the grill for a few minutes to crisp up the baguette.

 What is your favourite Banh Mi place in Perth?