Little Saigon Grill

Little Saigon Grill is a larger, bigger reincarnation of it’s old days at Rowes Arcade.

As someone who’s never worked in the CBD, I’d never heard of this place. Nonetheless, I am always on the look out for great tasting, authentic food. It’s tucked away in Albert St behind the Coffee Club with a modern fit out with recycled wooden tables, bright red signage and hanging edison bulbs and lights.

After opening for just 3 days, Nic and I joined a small food blogger’s lunch hosted by the owner, Thanh Tran. Don’t mistake this as a small lunch, small is referring to the group size. No, no. This was a huge lunch! 😀

We started off with a hands-on experience with refreshing entrees and salads.

The bahn xeo (Vietnamese crispy pancake) filled with pork and prawn as well as bean sprouts. This was wrapped up in a lettuce leaf with pickings from a basket of fresh ingredients such as mustard leaves, perilla, mint, carrot and cucumber. Together this was dipped in nuoc cham (a Vietnamese dipping sauce which is basically a sweetened fish sauce). The pancake itself was quite dense and could be a meal on it’s own. It also had a great coconut flavour in the batter which is often missing in other versions of this.

The rice paper rolls we sampled were the lemongrass chicken and the hoisin roast duck served with a hoisin and peanut sauce. There’s lots of varieties available. I was saving space so I didn’t try these. Using fresh ingredients like most, I don’t see these being a lot different to other rice paper rolls though. The key is variety though, with LSG offering over 10 different types!

The accompanying salads were the pickle lotus and duck salad with sesame crackers and the green papaya salad with poached chicken and sesame crackers. Both were a great mix of sour flavours with most of the ingredients for colour and crunchy texture. The duck salad was my favourite out of the two as I’ve never been a huge fan of papaya (it’s a childhood thing). The sesame crackers were HUGE and fun to nibble on. These were really filling too. Great for healthy lunches on the go.

We shared 3 different mains all eaten with plain rice:

• Grilled lemongrass pork chop with apple and cabbage salad
• Vietnamese chicken curry with coconut, sweet potato
• slow braised pork belly in coconut juice with boiled egg

The pork chop was a little dry but they were aware and apologised. It’s usually not! I like that the pork chop was pre-cut, saves the difficulty of cutting through it. The bits of bone were great to gnaw on though! It had the familiar lemongrass flavour  which was good.

The chicken curry was rich in coconut cream (big tick!) and the gravy was delicious. I’ve never had a Vietnamese curry before but this reminded me of Singaporean/Malaysian-style curries which are quite soupy and great with rice. I really liked this.

The pork belly was gelatinous and the fat melted in your mouth. *cue drooling* The broth is cooked with coconut juice, which made it a lot lighter in flavour than other versions of this that I’ve had. The boiled egg was cooked just enough so that the yolk was still runny which thickened up the sauce and enhanced the richness. This works well with the lighter broth. The saltiness of the dish is overcompensated as it is meant to be eaten with rice alongside vegetable dishes and not on it’s own.

All the dishes were mild in heat in order to be accessible for everyone – additional chilli in the form of sriracha sauce and other condiments are in the centre of every table.

Many at the table hadn’t tried durian before. But, boy, was I excited to hear they had durian smoothies on the menu! They’re lots of other exotic fruits available too – soursop, custard apple, jackfruit..!!! Tranh nicely prepared one for us and then we each had a small taste of it. I enjoyed it immensely. I could definitely return if not just to fix my durian cravings!

We also sampled a coconut slushie – a mix of frozen young coconut juice and flesh with your choice of fruit. We had a pineapple, ginger and lychee mix. I’ve never had this combination together. The ginger provided enough bite without taking away from the pineapple. Nods and slurps all round (some in relief of getting rid of the durian flavour). Another winner! Perfectly refreshing for Queensland weather. I can see these being extremely popular.

A colourful platter of fresh fruit rounded out this fantastic long lunch.

Currently they’re having grand opening specials where main meals  (Vermicelli Salads, noodle soups, rice dishes etc) are just $9.90! Some of the dishes such as the pork belly are part of the daily lunch specials which won’t be on the menu but will be on display in our hot bain maries.

Like any other Vietnamese place, LSG also offer Vietnamese coffee, bahn mi as well as Pho noodle soups. These secret to LSG’s Pho is 15 hours of cooking time with Black Angus Sirloin. Sounds like another must-try dish that I will have to return for!

I can see that this would be a great place to have meals in groups just because it’s cheap and caters to everyone from vegetarians to gluten-intolerant people! From what I’ve heard, it’s quickly becoming a popular lunch time spot too!

There’s plenty that I want to try here and I would love a casual place like this to eat late-night Pho after drinking!

Little Saigon Grill
Open for lunch on weekdays, plans to open up for dinner and on weekends
Ground floor, 123 Albert Street, Brisbane (behind The Coffee Club)
www.littlesaigongrill.com.au

Nic and I dined as guests on behalf of Little Saigon Grill.

Recipe: Baked meatballs in lentil, mushroom & tomato stew.

In our new place, Nic’s mother gave us a cast iron pot covered in glossy dark blue enamel and a bright white interior.

What better way to ruin it with a warm, hearty dish.

I don’t care that it’s basically already summer – today is a top of 37°C. My chances to break it out are running out quickly so I whipped this one up in under an hour for a mid-week dinner (actual prep time, about 15 minutes).

I needed a cheap and easy dinner because I already had worked a 10-hour day and well, frankly, I cbf’d.

Using some pork mince and a few cheap ingredients, I managed to make something pretty damn tasty. I winged it completely so I’m pretty glad it turned out successfully. Also, it looked really pretty with the nautical colour theme of red in a blue and white pot. So I’m blogging this. To remember for future reference.

Makes: 3-4 serves

Ingredients:

• 500g pork mince
• 1 onion, diced
• 400g canned diced tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups lentils, pre-soaked
• 250g mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cube of chicken stock
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, soaked in a bit of milk to form a paste

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 200°C.
2. Mix pork mince with soaked breadcrumbs, half of the onions and a pinch of salt and pepper. Roll into meatballs – keep in mind, smaller ones will cook quicker.
3. Over medium heat, cook remainder onions with a bit of oil in the pot until translucent.
4. Add mushrooms and lentils. Cook for a further ~5 minutes.
5. Plop in meatballs and pour in diced tomatoes. Use the can to add enough water to cover meatballs. Crumble in stock cube (I find bashing it in it’s wrapper with a wooden spoon helps). Season with a bit more salt and pepper.
6. Bring stew to the boil. Cover with lid and pop in the oven for 30-40 minutes.
7. Go do something else.
8. Come back for deliciousness. The lentils will have absorbed all the flavourful liquid and will smell amazing. Serve alone, or with a bit of crusty bread to soak up juices.

Notes:

The stew will be a little bit liquidy at the bottom so make sure to give a good stir before serving.

Other tasty options, instead of meatballs (i.e. you can’t be bothered making meatballs), are chipolatas or Italian sausages. I threw in 3 random leftover chipolatas – you can see one poking out in the top left!

Definitely ad lib with some fresh/dried herbs if you can bothered/have any on hand – the wonderful thing about stews is that they pretty much take up the flavour of anything.

Cheat food

I have a confession. As a student, I am more than partial to cheap, crappy, premade foods.

Things I am guilty of enjoying:

Jarred pasta sauce. It’s in a jar and if you’re cooking for one, you don’t always want to make pasta sauce from scratch using one jar of diced tomatoes (which equates to pasta for lunch and dinner over the next 2-3 days). You can get ones with things inside them like mushrooms or spicy peppers or even red wine because I’m fancy and can’t afford a shitty <$10 bottle of “red” to make my own sauce. Plus, $2 jars make my heart sing.

Canned soup. They can be wholesome and hearty complete with meat and/or veggies. Plus, they require one pot. And then you can even eat out of the pot minimising the need for washing up an extra bowl. By using the Campbell’s can of ‘cream of’ soups, you even get the (unwarranted) satisfaction of cooking food with the addition of milk and water (Cream of mushroom is my favourite).

Instant pasta meals. As above, you have to add extra ingredients such as butter and milk to create your ‘gourmet’ meal. “Look at me, adding foods to a pan”. Plus, these things are delicious.  To be fair, they’re a good cheat base for ~decent meals with your own intuition i.e. adding protein and vegetables. Plus, they can be oh-so-cheap. Serves 2? Costs $2? That’s $1/meal. Take that, Curtis Stone, you creepy smiling jerk. Continental or bust, though.

Continental’s Alfredo pasta. With my own addition of cabanossi, avocado and zucchini.

Fresh, stuffed pasta. Ravioli or agnolotti already have meat inside those moist morsels of pasta. That’s protein and carbs in one packet!! Just add pasta sauce (jarred or otherwise) and you’ve got a ‘balanced’ meal. Also, microwaving does not equate boiling in water and then draining. Um. Just trust me on that.

Canned fish. Canned tuna is utterly disgusting. Yet, on the rare occasion, I find myself topping my VitaWheats with flavoured canned tuna for lunch. It’s barely appealing but this “meal” has cost me $1. Am I complaining? Yes. But I shouldn’t. And I won’t complain long. As a healthier alternative, canned salmon and sardines are much better for you – they have healthier oils and contain calcium from all the bones you consume. They also taste significantly better. In fact, they have a taste.

Recent discovery:

Frozen mince. I nearly always buy mince in bulk of which I portion and then freeze in single serving sizes for later. But you can now buy pre-frozen mince. 5 star graded too. The meat is freshly minced and then snap frozen. The mince looks like short straight strands of frozen mince. THIS IS A GOOD THING. It means that when you add the meat frozen to the pan, you don’t have to worry about lumps. They’re all perfectly separated already!

 

This post is inspired by last night’s dinner using instant lasagne sheets, frozen mince, one jar of roast garlic and onion tomato pasta sauce as well as 2/3 jar of alfredo sauce. I do not have a photo for this but it was delicious (I did add lots of fresh veggies into it though, i.e. grated carrot, fennel, onions and zucchini). Also, this post is probably endorsed by my future cardiologist as they reprimand me about my high sodium intake.

Recipe: Miso noodle soup with egg drop, mushrooms and tofu.

Miso noodle soup with egg drop, mushrooms and tofu.

FACT: As the weather begins to finally cool down at night, the cravings for simple soups and broths increase.
FACT: Instant miso soup is actually really delicious and cheap. It’s also instant.
FACT: Time-saving meals are the best kind.

Miso is a paste made from fermented soybean (most common), barley, or rice. It is mixed with dashi stock to make miso soup. Miso soup and rice is a staple of a Japanese diet. Very often miso soup is served with tofu and wakame (a green seaweed).

Instant miso soup can come in the form of powder, concentrated liquid stock (what I use because it comes in convenient little sachets), or as a paste.

With almost any meal, it’s really easy to start with a base and build things. Miso soup becomes a meal with the addition of a few things. 

Here I keep things simple by adding thick egg noodles, bean curd skin, egg, tofu and mushrooms.

Serves: 2 (and a bit – extras for lunch!)

Ingredients:

• Instant miso – enough for two people, this was 2 sachets with the individualised liquid stock.
• 2 sticks of dried bean curd skin, broken into fragments and soaked in boiling water for at least 1 hour (can be found at Asian supermarkets, looks similiar to this and this).
• 1 cup button mushrooms, quartered
• 2 portions of fresh egg noodles (I had frozen egg noodles and just thawed these out. The great thing about fresh egg noodles from Asian supermarkets is that they’re usually portioned for four, just take out/snap off what you need!)
• 100g soft/silken tofu, diced
• 1 egg, whisked
• 3 cups water

Method:

1. Boil water and cook noodles according to instructions. Or stick noodles into boiling water, stir to break up the strands. Drain when cooked.
2. Meanwhile, boil 3 cups of water in another pot. Add miso soup stock and dissolve. Add mushrooms and softened bean curd skin, bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Now for the egg drop/egg flower. The trick to this is to start stirring the soup whilst you slowly drizzle egg into the pot. Do this at a medium heat so that it cooks the egg. Too low and the egg turns the soup, well, eggy and cloudy. Doing little zigzags results in long, silky strands too.
4. Add noodles, breaking them up – it’ll have all stuck together by now 😉 and then add tofu. Give a good stir. Serve (noodle first then ladle soup over it!). Enjoy!

Notes:

Depending on how salty your choice of miso is you can add a bit of light soy sauce to taste. A few drops of sesame oil makes it smell amazing too.

Making the egg drop or egg flower (because it resembles delicate petals when done correctly) is a very common technique for pretty-ing up Chinese soups. It takes practice and you’ll figure it out after playing with temperature, how fast you stir the soup, etc. Plus, it’s a good way to add a source of protein!

Obviously with something as simple as this you can add almost any ingredient. I find that the earthiness of mushrooms always compliment miso soup really well. You could use other types of mushrooms to make it more authentic, i.e. shiitake, oyster, enoki. Adding some bok choy or other leafy Asian green veg is a good way to get more veggies in this meal too. A few slices of red chilli would be delicious (and helps add a boost to your metabolism too!). Of course, meats (poultry and seafood are good!) could be added to the soup as well.

You could also use other types of noodles, i.e. udon noodles which would make this much more traditonally Japanese.

Recipe: Mediterranean chorizo and corn soup

Adapted from “Mediterranean garlic soup”, 200 Super Soups by Sara Lewis. I made this soup way more filling by upping the meat content and adding lots of corn to increase the veggie content (from none). Yay, fibre and protein are your friends!

I freaking love soup. So does my sister. And when she came to visit recently she requested “soup that goes with crusty bread”. Good choice, little sister. Hot soup during 35 deg Brisbane summer weather. Alas, I comply because like I said, I freaking love soup. I also freaking love my sister.

The Chinese believe it’s good to drink/eat warm/hot things even when the weather is hot as it encourages perspiration, which then cools you down. Personally, I’d rather eat ice cream all day. But at least you can use this knowledge when someone looks at you strangely or questions your summer weather-hot soup-drinking habits.

I digress.

Serves: 2 people.

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• 1 medium-sized onion, diced
• 125g chorizo (that’s about one decent full-sized chorizo)
• 200g canned/frozen corn kernels (actually, add however much you want, we just really like corn)
• 4 tablespoons red wine (or however boozy you want to be, but please, drink the wine whilst you’re cooking and then when you finish the soup).
• 500mL beef stock
• 2 tablespoons tomato puree (I used tomato sauce, and cut down on the sugar)
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar (I used 1/2 teaspoon – see above)
• 2 eggs
• Salt and pepper
• Parsley, chopped, to garnish
• Garlic-infused oil, to drizzle

Method:

1. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan, add onion and chorizo and fry for a few minutes until onions and chorizo starts to brown. Add corn, wine, stock, tomato puree/sauce and sugar, season with salt and pepper and simmer for 5 minutes on medium-low heat. Do not let boil as that will reduce the soup/make it salty (blergh!).
2. Reduce the heat to a very gentle simmer (so basically as low as it can go) and drop eggs into the liquid, one at a time, leaving space between them. Poach for 3-4 minutse until whites are set, leave it longer if you don’t like your yolk to be runny. It’ll still semi-cook once you take the soup and eggs out so keep that in mind.
3. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. (Put down the wine, you don’t need to add it, you can drink that later. Besides the wine will make the soup more acidic from the tannins, so no, put it down.) Ladle an egg into each bowl, cover with soup, sprinkle with parsley and drizzle with garlic oil. (I like to use a fork to drizzle as it drips off the prongs and sort of looks nice, plus, I would probably add too much if I pour from the bottle). Serve with lightly toasted garlic ciabatta.

Notes:

Firstly, sorry for the lack of pictures. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll have noted that I have sent my mobile phone off to repair, again. This soup was really delicious though!

This is a really quick meal that took about 20 minutes to make. If you’re not keen on runny egg yolk, you can boil the egg and quarter it (which is what I did for my fussy-eater sister), or just omit the egg. The addition of more chorizo and corn ups the protein in this soup. To make it a full meal, you could add diced potato (fry first with the onions and chorizo) or pre-soaked red lentils.

To make it a bit more special, I would probably buy corn on the cob and grill/BBQ them to get char-grilled kernels which you can scrap off the cob. Then add to the soup. Even adding some chilli would make a nice kick. I’d do that by adding chilli sauce to the soup (amount depending on how brave you are).

This would be a soup that you’d have most of the ingredients already in the cupboard.

Basically this soup meets my criteria for a mid-week meal: a healthy, balanced meal, quick and easy, cheap.