First Look: Outstanding Broken Rice and Vietnamese Classics Set the Scene at Strathfield’s Saigon Things

Saigon is a kaleidoscope of sensation – loud, fragrant and impossible to ignore. The Vietnamese city hums with frenetic energy, overwhelming and seductive all at once. It’s where Sydney’s beloved banh mi was born, and where street vendors create dazzling flavours from little more than fresh herbs, crisp vegetables and a sizzling grill. It’s this food culture that couple Duc Le and Tina Hoang want to impart at Saigon Things, the restaurant they’ve just opened in Strathfield.

“We just want to follow the Saigon way,” Le says. “In the morning people usually eat com tam, pho for breakfast, more like individual dishes. Dinner is more for sharing with family [and] friends – we can eat, we can drink, we can laugh together. That’s the kind of vibe I want to give.”

The shop has been quietly open for six weeks, with the kitchen fine-tuning its recipes and identifying dishes that resonate. “We want to tell people [that] Vietnamese food isn’t just about pho. There's probably like 1000 dishes which we want to show people.”

First up is banh canh cua, where wonderfully slippery tapioca noodles – the kind you can really slurp – are tangled in a thick, shellfish-forward crab and pork broth that clings to every strand and hums with umami.

There’s also com tam, or Vietnamese “broken rice”. The dac biet (“special”) version sees a grilled pork chop, marinated and brushed with a delicately sweet-savoury glaze, riding on top of a bed of firm, fluffy broken rice. It’s hedged by a slice of pork and egg meatloaf, shredded pork skin, and fresh and pickled vegetables, then topped with a gooey fried egg and adorned with pork croutons and scallion oil – a Saigon trademark.

Both dishes were meant to be lunch-only, but have proved so popular that customers – including this Broadsheet writer – successfully clamoured for them to be served all day.

The couple spent two weeks in Vietnam sourcing ingredients, tasting dishes and shopping for equipment to bring back to Sydney. “We made it our mission to find the best com tam and pho in Saigon,” Le says. “To really understand what makes those dishes special at their roots.”

Their pho broth is made with knuckle bones, marrow bones and brisket soft bones, simmered for 12 to 18 hours. There’s a hint of sweetness at first sip, before the collagen meatiness furls up at the end. Opt for the heftily portioned dac biet serve, which comes with roasted bone marrow, an outrageously large piece of rib meat and all the other trimmings.

To share, choose from three bamboo platters to build your own wraps with fresh herbs and a nuoc cham with serious zing. The dressing’s bright and punchy, with just the right amount of heat to rev up massive sugar cane prawns and vermicelli, pork belly and sausages with rice rolls, or crab spring rolls with vermicelli.

“We often joked that the Vietnamese food in Sydney, including our own food, is never as good as in Vietnam. So really, our goal has been to get as close as possible to those authentic flavours we remember,” Hoang says. “It also helps that we import certain ingredients directly from Vietnam, which makes it easier to replicate the true taste and essence of the dishes.”

Case in point, the banh trang cuon. Rice paper is rolled up with green mango, fragrant herbs, prawns and egg, then topped with fried shallots, peanuts, house-made Vietnamese mayo, chilli satay and tamarind sauce. House teas, made from Vietnamese black tea leaves and syrups, are refreshing without being overly sweet.

Before opening Saigon Things, the duo owned Kinx Cafe in Bankstown. The cafe had a fun, seasonally rotating menu, but after five years Le wanted a change. “At this point in my career, I just want to cook and perfect the food my wife and I grew up with, the stuff we still eat a couple of times a week.”

Now he’s cooking Vietnamese classics while Hoang runs the floor at their new restaurant, where the message is: “If you miss Saigon, come to Saigon Things.”

Saigon Things
28/45-47 The Boulevarde, Strathfield

Hours:
Tue to Sun midday–3pm, 5.30pm–9pm

@saigonthingseastery