Dong Ba

My Dad works overseas but comes back home for 2 weeks every year for Chinese New Year. When he's here there's always 3 things that he wants to eat 1) Laksa 2) pho from Pho An 3) seafood from the fish markets.

Unfortunately Pho An always closes for 3 weeks during the CNY holidays (and we keep forgetting this!) so when we arrived at Bankstown on Sunday we had to look for an alternative. We would normally head straight to Pasteur but Mum wanted to try somewhere new. We noticed that Dong Ba looked really busy and thought that we would give it a go.

On entering the restaurant we were greeted by the enthusiastic waiter who tried to recommend dishes to try. He boasted that the spicy beef noodle soup was their speciality dish and 'very very nice' - with his big smile and excitement we were sold. It could purely be a matter of personal taste but we all thought that the spicy beef noodle soup was pretty bad. The taste of the soup reminded me of a Continental brand of Thai spicy soup that I once bought but with 10 x the MSG and a dash on washing detergent. I was also not a fan of the slices of processed chicken? pork? that was in the noodle. This was a first because I don't remember the last time that I couldn't finish a meal because I didn't like it.

The waiter would pace around our table looking really concerned that we hadn't touched our food and because we didn't want to disappoint him we just told him it was 'too spicy' (when this was clearly not the problem).

Spicy beef noodle soup $7.00 with sprouts and mixed greens

Jacky ordered the 'pork rib with rice $7.50' and said that this dish was ok. The prices here are very cheap and there are a lot of dishes to choose from. If i were to come here again I would probably stick with a rice dish.

Dong Ba
Bankstown
PH: 02 9708 0327

A Crazy Week

I’ve just come back from an absolutely crazy week in Melbourne. It’s really hard to summarise everything into a few short paragraphs but I just wanted to say that it was THE most fabulous week where I felt really spoilt!

My week started early Monday morning when I arrived at our Melbourne office at 9am jumping into my first interview half an hour later. I had been up since 5:00am so I was tired but eager to get started.

Left: The building where I work

Right: This is probably the only photo of myself this whole trip (taken in the lift).

Our Melbourne office is pretty stunning (I think it’s a prerequisite for all law firms to be really nice, though Sydney is due for a renovation soon). The Melbourne office is very 'new age' and 'hi Tech', for example the lights turn itself on and off as you enter and exit the rooms (energy saving purposes). There are cappuccino machines on every level and a glass atrium with arm chairs and a view of the city for people to relax and chill out.

Each level has a colour and HR is located on Level 11 'The orange level'. This is part of our kitchen area and like Sydney, the kitchen is always stocked up with a lot of fruit and biscuits. Mark is a Witness to this, and could tell you that I am a big fan of the biscuits! Though Melbourne doesn't get the fresh hand made ones.

I stayed at the Sebel which is basically the old Treasury building. The place is stunning! It is only 2 mins walk from work, but as you know I'm bad with directions so on the first night I got really lost (I left work at 5pm and didn't make it back to the hotel till 30mins later!).

I thought that my room would be nice, but I didn't expect it to be so big! My suite was 2 levels. This was the bottom floor where I had kitchen facilities, TV, in house movies, cable internet and a couch.

Then you go up these stairs to the upper level to my bedroom and bathroom.

This window reached from the ceiling to the floor and during the night the wind would blow against it so hard that I would wake up a little scared. It was a massive suite for one person to stay in, and like I said before it's probably a bit too big for a scardy cat like me.

Minibar Goodness

The Coffee

On the second day, I came to work with a Hudson's coffee in hand. The girls looked at me with shock and exclaimed "ohhh! you must be from Sydney if you drink Hudsons!". I just picked up a coffee from the nearest place so I could warm myself up (it's freezing in Melbourne! I went no where without my coat). They quickly showed me the error of my ways and introduced me to Donatos a little cafe across the road that makes THE BEST hot choclates!

The Cocktail Party

I run the Graduate program for all of Sydney and Canberra and I often assist Melbourne and Brisbane. This week I was here to meet with the Melbourne Partners and to carry out the 2nd round interviews. From 900 applications we had narrowed it down to 40 people for 21 possible spots. To get to know the remaining students a bit better we held 2 information nights followed by cocktails and drinks. The cocktails were absolutely delicious!!

Breakfast & Dinner

I was basically given a budget to spend on food everday, but the daily total could easily feed me for a whole week in Sydney. I must say that my spending for this time was very sensible. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get the chance to eat and explore many of the places that I wanted to, because at around 6:00pm every night it would pour with rain! I did go to eat buffet by myself one night at Crown Casino (yes by myself...what a nigel!).

Compared to Star City, the buffet at Sante is such good value - $15.90 all you can eat!

I also made my way to Mekong on Swanson Street. Every time I go to Melbourne I come here, it's famous for its Vietnamese cuisine. The store proudly displays photos around the walls of all the Chinese celebrities who have visited. The food is ok....but I prefer Pho An in Bankstown (Sydney) any day!

If you look hard enough you can find some very cheap eats in Melbourne! (The locals will usually tell you). For lunch I found a little Indian retaurant that served a variety of curry from Northern India. Below is a big plate of vegetable curry with tomato rice and salad for $3.50...yes $3.50!

Other times I would just order room service. All the room service Meals were prepared by the hotel restaurant The Treasury, and delivered by the best looking guys!! I'm talking about tall model types....and there I was in my daggy tracksuit - hawt!

Left: Pizza with prosciutto, goats cheese and confit peppers, Right: French onion soup

The hotel also did an amazing buffet breakfast every morning, (no piccies because the hotel people would think I was weird). Instead of honey out of a jar, they had fresh honey comb that dripped honey onto a plate for people to put onto their yogurt and toast - it was just amazing.

I guess despite having such a great time, I really started to miss friends, family and most of all Jacky. You can be at the nicest places but at the end of the day, it is never that great when you don't have someone to share the experience with. Career wise it's been such a long road to get to where I am, and I'm so grateful...

Next work trip - Wollongong!

Living in a hole

Some times I really do wonder if I have been living in a hole, I say this because Jacky came home one day and said:
Jacky: "Did you know that there is a food court under Woolies in Town Hall??".
Me: "Oh you mean the Galleries Victoria one?"
Jacky: "No, No I mean directly under Woolworths"
Me: "You mean the one near the IGA and there's a Michel's?"
Jacky: "No under Woolies!"
Me: "There's no stairs to go down, how can there be??"
Jacky: "It's there! I'll show you"

I just wouldn't believe him, I mean I've lived in the City all my life went to Syd Uni and worked next to Woolies in Town Hall for over 5 years! How could I not know if there was a food court there?!!? So this week Jacky took me there for lunch to prove it.

To get there you enter Woolworths on George St, walk straight towards the other end of the store till you see this exit sign and walk through.

When you exit you will come out at a Japanese/Korean supermarket and in front of you, you will see stairs with a big arrow that says "Food Court".

Once you go down you will see a food court full of Asian dishes to choose from, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai you name it! What shocked me the most was that this food court was packed! Every other Asian person in Sydney was here, this reiterated the fact that I MUST have been living in a hole all these years!

Jacky had something Japanese (was really nice) whilst I settled for the beef noodle soup. Prices here are all at the $8 mark, though there seems to be $5 specials from 3pm to 5pm.

Angii I can't believe that I bumped into you here, of all places! see you at Dinner on Thursday.

Thanh Binh

Sunday 16/04/2006

It gets pretty expensive when you eat out all the time, worst when it's a public holiday. Places are either closed or there is a surcharge; solution - Cabramatta!

All the Thanh Binh's (King St Newtown, John St Cabramatta and Arthur St Cabramatta) up until recently was owned by the same person. But now she only looks after the one in Newtown so you may notice more changes to each of these restaurants in the near future.

I always go to the Arthur Street store, it’s been newly renovated and I’ve had good experiences with the food here. I can’t say that I am a big fan of their Pho or vermicelli salads but this place offers a wide selection (with their menu comprising of a mixture of Vietnamese and Chinese food). You are bound to find something that will make you come back for more (for me it’s their rice paper rolls – I can’t explain why but they just do it better than other places!). Below are a few more of my favourites.

Beef Cubes with tomato rice $10, Rice paper rolls with prawn and pork $8

Below is a picture of the rolls that you make yourself. You dip the hard rice paper sheets in the bowl of hot water (just enough to make it soft), you then add the filling i.e. salad, cucumber, pickled carrots, chilli, vermicelli and in my case sugar cane prawn. Roll it all up, dip into sauce and eat! It's absolutely delicious! and healthy too. I would have taken a picture of the finished roll but mine all looked pretty wonky...plus I was too busy eating.

Roll it yourself rice paper rolls with sugar cane prawn $14

Thanks for a fab day Jenny + Twins (you guys are possibly triplets!).

Thanh Binh
33 Arthur St Cabramatta
PH:(02) 9724 9633