Last yr in July, Jennifer approached me about running Cabramatta tours for the Sydney International Food Festival in October, and i thought this was a great opportunity to show people around my 'hood' hehe :)
I've grown up visiting Cabra every weekend with my parents ever since i was able to walk. WE would have lunch, walk around and buy our groceries! It was the only area out west that had asian shops and an asian community.
When you walk around, it feels like you are in 'asia town' as you are surrounded by asian people of many backgrounds ( mainly vietnamese, chinese, thailand, laos, cambodia) but you can also see that people of other backgrounds are in Cabra as well!
You are surrounded by bargains! So many different types of shops and restaurants including cheap fabric stores, mobile phone stores, clothing stores, and you also have bargain shops, cake chops, video/cd/dvd stores, really i'm sure if you needed something - you can find it in Cabra :)
Now don't even get me started on the food! There are so many options to choose from! You can choose from Vietnamese, chinese, malaysian, korean, japanese, thai, laos, cambodian.. and there are also some more westernised restaurants if you dont feel like asian (but for real, why else would you come here for!)
You are also surrounded by sooo many grocery shops, fruit and veg shops, there is such a huge turn over for these shops as well as the meat and seafood shops that you are surely to get the best produce and at the cheapest prices as well.
I have had a blast doing these tours with Jen, we are both so passionate about food and to be able to share our knowledge and interests with people is just so much fun!
We do run them monthly now, so you can check those details out here: http://www.iatemywaythrough.com/tours.html#cab
I've come across a few people who have done the tour and then written about it on their blogs so you can have a read there if you are interested :)
Tan Viet Noodle house
3/100 John Street Cabramatta NSW 2166
(02) 9727 6853
Open Daily 9am-7pm
Tanviet noodle house had moved from a smaller restaurant a couple of years ago to the current location, seating capability now is about 90 people but this restaurant is ALWAYS busy! At lunch times there is a line that goes out all the way to the road and then along the sidewalk haha :D
SOme popular dishes are include hainan chicken, combination noodle soups, goat curry, and a few dessert drinks to choose from including 3 coloured sweet drink, sam bo luong ( a herbal type dessert) and ofcourse the ever so popular vietnamese coffee which you can have either iced or hot :)
Spicy beef with bread roll $9.50
This is a typical vietnamese dish, which is often made at home in a big pot to last a few days for dinner! It is simply a beef stew with carrots, and those herbs on top is basil leaves. This dish can be eaten with either rice of bread, but it hink the best way is with bread, using your hands to mop up all the great sauce :)
tomato rice with crispy skin chicken $11
THIS - is what everyone comes here for - the crispy chicken skin chicken, which you can order with either tomato rice of egg noodles, both comes with a bowl of the soup, which is essentially the stock that was used to cook the chicken in, which is so incredibly clear with no impurities, garnished with sliced shallots, you really can't help but keep sipping on it!
Everyone who's come on the tour has absolutely LOVEd the chicken. It is twice cooked hence you get the soft moist chicken flesh and the delicious crispy skin on the outside. Before i turned vego this was one of my favourite dishes to have in Cabra :)
Bau Truong
42 John Street, Cabramatta, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9727 4492
Open 7 days, 10am-11pm
Bau Truong is another popular restaurant in Cabramatta, with a huge double fold out menu filled with so many vietnamese dishes, i can see why they are doing so well (they also have a branch in neighbouring suburn Canley Heights!)
Prawn and jellyfish salad
beef with green mango salad
pork & taro spring rolls
mixed fresh rolls (including grilled pork, grilled prawn paste, shredded pork)
In all the restaurants in Cabra, you will get complimentary tea! Usually its jasmine but some places offer other tea's as well. This is great! I know a few places in the city that charge you a tea surcharge (so gay!)
Vietnamese pancake (banh xeo)
fresh fruits for after lunch
There is so much more food on offer, there's also many take out places, dessert shops, you dont even have to sit in a restaurant and eat you can talk and eat there is just food everywhere its a great culinary experience coming to Cabramatta and even though i've been coming for 20 or so yrs i still don't get tired of going, i love Cabra!
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