Today we were off to catch up with our good friends TnC at Cabramatta. I was too excited as I love Vietnamese food. Walking down the main street, we saw that the queue for crispy chicken was rather long so Mrs C suggested we try broken rice. I had no idea what broken rice was but it sounded intriguing.
Apparently as some rice grains break in the transport and processing of rice from the field these are sorted out through machinery and is used for the dish Cơm tấm.
Tấm refers to the broken rice grains, while cơm refers to cooked rice. So the place that Mrs C took us to specialised in broken rice and it was served with grilled pork and bì (thinly shredded pork mixed with cooked and thinly shredded pork skin shreds of pork skin dusted with roasted rice powder) over broken rice.
The rice and pork were served with cucumbers, picked vegetables and a fried egg, along with a with a prawn paste cake, trứng hấp (steamed egg). This was also served with a small bowl of nước chấm, as well as a small bowl of soup broth (canh) to cleanse the throat. This place also had a queue but it was a lot shorter and they had high chairs, score!
Due to the different size and shape of the grains, the texture of the broken rice was really interesting and the food was divine! Jaeminkins loved the rice too. The kitchen is packed with women conversing in Vietnamese and I managed to get a quick picture whilst going out the back to use the bathroom.
We also had spring rolls which you wrapped in lettuce and dipped into the nước chấm. Sugar cane prawns -chao tom, are a Central Vietnamese specialty consisting of light and fluffy prawn paste wrapped around sticks of fresh sugar cane. We were told to dig in with your hands and wrap the paste into lettuce parcels with bean sprouts, perilla leaves and mint. Also to add vermicelli, stir-fried shallots and crushed peanuts. Dip into the sweet chilli, garlic and fish sauce dressing of nước chấm.
I’m also a massive fan of Vietnamese coffee so to top it off we had iced coffee; probably good that it was so strong to keep me awake after another late night of watching Tour de France.
We then went for a walk through the busy arcades and bought a bag of mangosteens and went halves in a durian. Pepe kept complaining about the smell but I still wanted it all the same. The difference between buying durian in a net is that its slightly cheaper but the fruit inside is drier as it has been kept in sdtorage for longer.
It was too busy to navigate a pram through the stores so I sent Pepe, can you spot the token white boy hahaha.
I also bought nước chấm nhi, which is the table dressing equivalent of extra virgin olive oil of fish sauce and is more viscous and lighter in colour. Pepe wanted to pickle vegetables and apparently palm vinegar is what we should use. I also bought green mangoes and tom yum paste to try making an octopus salad.
We ended the day going to our favourite Laotian sweets place. The lady that makes the sweets only makes a certain amount so once it’s sold out, there’s no more. It was crazy busy as usual and I bought steamed sticky rice and banana wrapped in banana leaf, cassava and mountain rice slice with coconut cream. These desserts are sooo good!!
After getting home, I managed to drop the bottle of palm vinegar twice and the second time it just shattered. What a bummer, oh well there is always the next trip to Cabramatta to look forward to.
Tuong Lai Vietnamese Restaurant
3 Belvedere Arcade Cabramatta
open 7 days 830am-6pm
Kaysone -Laotian sweet storeShop 4 53 Park Rd Cabramatta
closed Wednesdays
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