Although I am a Malaysian, and that I believe Malaysia is a food heaven and all, but I actually prefer to give the food heaven title to my adopted homeland Sydney. You see, there are so many different type of authentic cuisine here in Sydney, from western world to the eastern world. Me and my extended family likes to try new dishes and restaurants of all sorts during special events like birthdays, anniversaries, mother's day, father's day...and this year's mother's day, we decided to have a proper, authentic Vietnamese cuisine. Proper because it will not be street food such as pho which we have on casual basis, but more like a sitting banquet in Saigon!
The parentals always prefer not to travel too much for their dinner. Any places that doesn't involve hitting the M5 would be their preferred destination. Normally, we have to persuade them to come out of their comfort zone to enjoy a good kick ass meal but not this time, as many of the good, authentic Vietnamese restaurant are actually tuck and hide away in those suburbs around us.
I was torn between My Canh in Bankstown and Bay Tinh in Marrickville. Husband and I have been to My Canh for many times but we've never tried Bay Tinth, as I much prefer to introduce the family to restaurant that I'm sure would kick ass rather than to take the risk and be adventures. This time however, I was forced to take the risk as My Canh was fully booked out when I called!! In a panic attack, i rang Bay Tinh, and reserve a table of 7 for the mother's day dinner.
Having never been to Bay Tinh, I was really nervous and anxious on the way, especially so when we invited Rev Ling to join us for Mother's day dinner. But when we arrive to the split level nicely decorated restaurant, I was relief. It was pack with dinners, and even with reservation, we're ask to wait for a little while for our table to be ready!
Bonfire Beef – Bo Quanh Lua Hong $16.90
Marinated beef with onion cooked in a pot at the table and served with rice paper, lettuce, herbs, pickles and special anchovy sauce.
I rely heavily on various foodie forum for review and dishes to order. Their bon fire dishes were quite well known so i choose 2 types of bon fire dishes; the chicken and beef. The bon fire arrive in a black little ceramic pot with flaming fire, looking smokin' hot really! It also come with a plate of salad consisting of fresh beansprouts, mints, ice-burgs and some pickles. I think we must be pure careless for not paying attention to the description on the menu, which clearly stated:
Marinated beef with onion cooked in a pot at the table and served with rice paper, lettuce, herbs, pickles and special anchovy sauce, or just very hungry because we started to dig in, before the dried rice paper arrived! Luckily, the waitress noticed our ignorance, and quickly intervene and kindly remind us that Bonfire dishes are suppose to eat with rice paper, where you put little bits of the beef/chicken, together with the salads,rolled up dip in the anchovy sauce and eat like a Vietnamese spring roll!!! So We See!!!
Delicious steamed mixture of minced scallops, pork and black
fungus stuffed in mussel shells and served with oyster sauce (4 in one serve).
The scallop in mussel shells are 4 delicious looking steamed mixture of minced scallops, pork and black fungus stuffed in mussel shells ,served with oyster sauce. I did not get to try these but those who did like it so it must be good!
Fresh king prawns, calamari, chicken, pork, fish cake, and
green vegetable cooked at your table in a delicious broth.
The steamboat was not what I had in mind, ( those raw meat and seafood that we can put in ourselves blah blah blah ... ) It's more like a refreshing hot soup with fresh king prawns, calamari, chicken, pork, fish cake, and green vegetable. But it's very delicious, and the broth is oh so fresh and clean, i felt cleanse and rejuvenate after 2 serving of the soup. and ready for the heavier, richer main course.
The braised duck with peas looks nothing but ordinary, but wait till you dig your chopstick into the thick, succulent ( and generous amount ) duck meat, and I guarantee it'll blow you away! It's husband favourite dish of the night, in fact, he likes it so much if not because of the presence of Rev Ling, he would lick the whole plate clean!!
Braised Duck With Peas – Bach Hac Hau Co $16.50
Specially prepared duck braised with mix vegetable and peas.
Their salt and pepper calamari however it's a bit of a let down. It's quite bland and need the help of chilli and soy sauce to give them a boost of flavour.
Deep-fried to a taste sensation.
The next to arrive is my favourite of the night. It's a piece of boneless chicken stuffed with pork and egg, deep-fried to a golden brown and served with special sauce.
Boneless Chicken stuffed with pork and egg, deep-fried to a
golden brown, served with special sauce.
You can literally see the layer of egg, pork and chicken!! It's so flavoursome and I dun even think i need the special sauce at all!! Yum!
I was quite disappointed when the waitress told me that they have run out of Caramelised Fish, a dish which was highly recommended! So reluctantly, i have to replace it with sate beef. But they are quickly forgiven as the sate beef turn out to be another boring looking but stunning dish! In fact, everyone was asking for more rice to mop out every last drop of the sate sauce.
Tenderly braised with sate sauce (optional hot chili).
With Vegetables
Are we full yet? Well, almost, after all we're having a banquet isn't it? and at the end of every banquet, there will always be noodle to make sure no one left the table, still hungry! ( although, we're all full and satisfied enough! ) The combination soft egg noodle sums up a good night out in Bay Tinh. Overall, Bay Tinh serve very authentic Vietnamese dishes with very reasonable price. The service was a tad slow which is understandable given that it was full house on the mother's day.
Boiled egg noodles braised with seafood, pork and vegetables,
or seafood only with vegetables.
The restaurant was originally belong to Tinh Tran, who was a penniless boat person when he came to Sydney in the 1970s. He later invest his savings into the opening of Bay Tinh in 1988 and the restaurant gain much popularity for it's originality and simplicity of Vietnamese food. He also often offered the best of Vietnamese and French cuisines to entertain the Ministerial Cabinet, visiting Diplomats and special national guests.. In 2007, he retired and sold Bay Tinh to one of the chef from Bay Tinh, Harry Hoang. Harry have manage to keep the authenticity of Bay Tinh, and I think he did a good job with the re-decoration of the restaurant too!
Bay Tinh Restaurant Marrickville
Open every night 5.30pm to 10pm
Licensed – BYO wine only
The food definitely looks yummy, its so much different from the street food in Hanoi. *drooling*
ReplyDelete