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m they can be viewed randomly in sequential order or by their tags anyway if you pay me a visit there i really hope you enjoy what you see i think of it as revealing another layer of my food persona rude food in bruges check out stickifingers here 0 comments labels comment cooking melbourne blogs opinion twitter vietnam 12 january 2009 a shining light bobby chin restaurant bobby chinn rules this restaurant is an abba kenny g and gypsy kings free zone we also refuse to play any bands with more than one lead singer or matching sweaters female singers dressed like whores with synchronised dancing are also banned to preserve the dining experience we request that you are well versed in mobile etiquette silence all our poultry meats are halal or as close as it gets to kosher except the pork of course none of the staff were harmed physically to bring you quality food and service tonight or ever childrens menu available on request and duct tape is available for hyperactive children please do not ask us to split the bill other than by a number we do not do she had this and i had half of that very well please note that we have smaller portions at the same price for anorexics and those aspiring also this restaurant allows smoking non smokers please refrain from farting in the smoking area unless it is a cigar thank you the evening menu restaurant bobby chinn hanoi vietnam through the all enveloping dark there was a fluttering of red silk and as my eyes adjusted it appeared that i was seated in the boudoi r of a madarin s concubine but in fact this was restaurant bobby chinn overlooking the hoah kiem lake in hanoi vietnam the restaurant is swathed in red silk according to bobby he s hung over 1000 metres of the stuff around the venue from the pleated wall coverings and pieces hanging artfully from the ceiling to the curtains sheltering low divans surrounding hookah pipes the decor is a melange of san francisco and a western fantasy of asia created because silk is cheaper than paint in vietnam flowers too are cheap so white roses are hung from the ceiling in strands from threads and everything is awash in red rose petals right down to the toilet bowls just some of the many quirks of the venue and of the nation bobby s retro asian theme is punctuated by modern art and the antics of his staff dressed in black so only their faces and hands emerge from the darkness almost like mimes enormous dehumidifiers loom like dalek s in the corners of the venue and the theatre of the restaurant is so pervasive that my eyes hardly stray from the drama of the venue to the activity outside on the lake but it is the evening service and it is dark so very dark in here on arrival we were told that our table would not be ready for another ten minutes and in happy holiday mode we settled in easily at the well lit bar it was then that the laughs began first a laugh of joy because they had pickled onions and therefore i could order my favourite aperitif a gibson a dry martini without olives but most of all i was tickled by bobby s sense of humour which although he is rarely here now reaches into all corners of this happy place take for the example the bar menu where he lists the ten stages of drunkeness they extend from being witty and charming after the first drink to thinking kenny g is a genius to finally being bulletproof i loved it but the humour extends right through the menu into why he does not list vegetarian offerings to the fact that a children s menu is available along with duct tape for passifying them listed under side dishes and bar snacks is we tell you you are beautiful all night long includes a signed copy of the menu 5 but the biggest hoot of all comes after we are seated at our table and receive our menus just as mr sticky tells me that he cannot read it whilst cloaked in darkness our waitress descends with two illuminated magnifying glasses mr sticky was saved a trip to the rose petal strewn toilets with menu and you could have heard me cackling all the way over at uncle ho s mauseleum at the hilarity of weilding these things over the menu as service hummed away in the inky recesses of the venue i loved the gadgets so much that i later bought one from an old man on the streets of bangkok bobby sells them at the restaurant but other than for an autographed copy of his book i resisted the urge to pay the big bucks for bobby chinn themed merchandise and although the eating across vietnam is very light on the purse meals here don t come cheap the average vietnamese citizen can t afford to eat here so it is the domain of expats successful businessmen visiting dignitaries tourists and gangsters it cost us roughly the equivalent of at least 60 bowls of street hawked pho at tourist prices each so the average man gets to watch the goings on through the large street level windows but really they re not particularly interested i think that they probably think it s a whole lot of stuff and nonsense and quite right they are i actually felt that we were surrendering wads of dough for the spectacle the occasion and for the humour of a stand up comedian turned chef and although the food was delicious the portions enormous and the service envigorating for that part of the world it was the extraneous matter that widened my grin as we loped out into the evening air for a stroll around the lake before retiring to our hotel what did we eat well that deserves its own post stay tuned 3 comments labels asia restaurant reviews restaurants vietnam 05 january 2008 too hot to cook as i looked across the river the sweat dribbled down the back of my neck my face was red and blotchy with discomfort my fingers swollen local women were dressed in long sleeves and trousers socks gloves and face masks under conical hats to prevent tanning i felt hotter just looking at them the cold local draught beer offered temporary respite from the 80 humidity 38degree c heat while we waited for our white rose dumplings and banana leaf grilled fish i felt lucky at least i was i was here finally in vietnam the resting place of two of my great grandparents last year in hong kong my paternal grandmother died aged 90 she had been born in china before the revolution and grew up in vietnam again before the revolution as a teenager after her mother died and her father remarried she was sent to live with her aunts in hong kong in order to find a husband she was one of the few lucky ones who escaped the deprivation re education and the horrors witnessed by family in both countries i was very close to my grandmother she raised me as a baby and later intermittently as a child in an intimate way that she had not had the chance to experience with her own children an elegant woman with a strong sense of style manners and etiquette she had a stare that could stop you dead in your tracks the stories she told of her life were lush and exciting stories of a privilege in a wealthy hong kong chinese family under the care of the family patriach my paternal great grandfather s older brother here they lived in a family community where her father in law his wife and eight concubines and the huge extended family resided on an enormous property and compound with a swimming pool so large they used a row boat to get across it it was a life of indulgence where parties lasted for days and featured performances and fireworks where she had tailors and jewellers come to the house to service her needs and had her own particular perfume blended when a new outfit was completed she would go to a photographic studio and pose for a full length portrait in the ensemble she had five children and three nannies were employed to care for them the household had numerous servants across three houses one in tai po and one each on hong kong island and macau when they took the yacht out a whole retinue of staff would accompany them and set up a picnic on shore wherever they dropped anchor she only ever once spoke to me of vietnam and that was to say that she lived in a traditional chinese house with a central courtyard in an area surrounded by ethnic chinese where even the servants spoke cantonese consequently she never learnt to speak vietnamese although i was hungry for information about her childhood her memories were too painful to share she had fought so hard with her father after my great grandmother s death that she had never spoken to him again and simply immersed herself in a new family with a husband who doted on her erasing her years in vietnam i know she regretted her stubborness and it was that which later made her afraid of death and what may come in the after life my grandmother was in spite of having cooks and maids a very good cook in her own right and directed the servants accordingly outside of the family aside from in good restaurants the chinese food was never quite as good it hadn t occurred to me until last year that this was the one link to vietnam that manifested physically in her my grandfather laughingly had said the difference in her cooking was that she was partial to fish sauce because it s used in cantonese cooking it did not occur to me until later that he was inferring that this was a particularly vietnamese affectation she also refused to eat anything that she considered ugly such as snake in chinese society this was considered very eccentric she kindly taught my western mother who hung out in the kitchen with aunties and my grandmother s house keeper and who went to the stinking wet markets in hong kong with them gradually taking on the language and cooking skills years later it was acknowledged by chinese family friends that mum although white was the superior cook amongst their social circle and consequently she felt confident enough to set up a chinese cooking school i too soaked up the techniques and recipes unconsciously so much so that i consider chinese cooking almost too easy and simple to serve to friends i had always had a compulsion to visit vietnam two months after my grandmother died i visited for the first time and felt instantly at home these were more my kind of people than most of the fast lane hong kong types that i had lived and worked with the vietnamese i met had the same old chinese buddhist values loaded with confucian philosophy and rituals of filial piety that have shaped my nature their outlook was resilient tenacious cheeky and optimistic like my own their generosity under the circumstances was overwhelming the food in vietnam was delightful and very much to my palate in the moment that i learnt the difference between vietnamese fish sauce and the pungent dark thai version i began to unravel the rationale behind my grandmother s fragrant cooking as i ate my way around the country learning as much as i could about the history food and culture i visited temples to pray for she and her mother i felt it was my duty to make peace with the ancestors on her behalf gradually the all encompassing grief which had paralysed my sense of hope and direction after losing her slipped quietly away as a new understanding emerged i felt like a hitherto unknown part of my psyche had hatched in vietnam and new doors in my mind began to open even in death my grandmother had found a way to broaden my horizons occasionally when i was twelve my grandmother would give me banh cuon for breakfast when my grandfather wasn t pushing thick sweet toast with tinned meat or pate on me banh cuon is similar to cheung fun served at yum cha and although i hadn t seen it outside of the home i had not realised that it is a vietnamese dish until i saw it in a vietnamese grocery shop essentially it is a steamed rice flour pancake which is rolled up with minced pork and shitake mushrooms alternatively a topping of reconstituted dried shrimp and pork floss can be used for a simpler dish in the south of vietnam it is served with all the herbs they garnish many dishes with but in the north where it originates i believe the accompaniment is cucumber bean shoots the ubiquitous meat loaf that resembles mortadella and nuoc mam sauce on our increasingly hot days when i can t be bothered heating up the house i like to eat banh cuon in a hybrid cantonese way with red roasted meats i just go down to little saigon in victoria street richmond where i procure cantonese roasted meats duck cha sui red roasted shoulder pork and sui cheung a thick long coil of sausage made with the same red marinade i can make all these things well but am lazy and time poor if i can t be bothered making the pancake i buy freshly made ones from my favourite vietnamese grocer huy huy which are plain and simply garnished with some ground dried shrimp what goes with the rolls is dependent on my mood sometimes i chop a selection of whatever roast meat i fancy lay them on the pancake and roll it up and steam them if i m lazy i top a u shaped pre made roll and nuke it briefly once hot i add some finely julienned young ginger finely sliced spring onion torn coriander and thai basil if i have duck in the mix i ll add shavings of cucumber and a few dots of hoi sin sauce and dress with warm lao sei mix the dark soy based sauce that comes with the roast meat heated with a couple of drops of canola oil or i ll dress it with nuoc cham the slippery texture of the rice pancake is infused around the edges with the warm dressing and is a geat vehicle the richness of the meat the herbs offset the richness and for a bit of crunch i throw on some fried shallots perfect for the kind of day when the sweat is beading on the brow served with a chilled aloe vera drink banh cuon fresh rice paper pancakes 1 cup of jasmine rice rice flour will not work pinch of salt 2 cups water 1 extra long bamboo cooking chopstick or foot long skewer soak the rice overnight 7 hours wash the rice at least three times thoroughly draining the water each time mix 1 cup of rice to 2 cups of water plus a pinch of salt place in a food processor until a smooth thin white batter forms rest batter for one hour it will keep for four days maximum in this form in a small stock pot place 7cm of water and then stretch a piece of white cotton or double piece of muslin over the top of the pot securing with elastic bring the water to a rolling boil using one ladleful of the batter spread across the fabric into a disc shape using the bottom of the utensil to spread it cover and steam for 1 minute using the extra long chopstick insert the length of it under the pancake and gently lift it up off the fabric and place wet side up on a plate add meat or shrimp fillings and roll up bend into a u shape if it s too long for your plate optional return rolls to steam for a minute before dressing this is also the wrapping for the very popular rice paper rolls if you re making a heap that you would like to fill later cut a small tab of banana leaf and attach one to each pancake this will make it easier to separate them down the track when you re ready to use them 4 comments labels 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