Noodle House Pho Sydney

I miss Ramen. Ramen was always my single favourite Japanese foods and is usually the first thing I eat when I go back there. Ramen shops are everywhere, we has about half a dozen within two minutes' walk of our apartment in Tokyo. Most places specialised in one or two varieties based around a pork broth, with either soy sauce - shouyu-, miso, pork bones -tonkotsu- being the main flavours. The rest of the variety came from the topppings - wontons, negi, BBQ pork, nori, corn, boiled egg and so on. I had about four favourite shops. One in Harajuku played Elvis all the time. Another, out on the Chuo line, was run by some Chinese from the North-East of China and specialised in hand-made egg noodles. The dough would be stretched out from hand to hand and then shaken and then folded until, somehow, it was a long strand of noodles. There was also be the occasional street stall that never failed to be good. Ramen is also the perfect post boozing food and I thought the liquid would ward off hangovers.

Short of going to Japan, you could do worse than watching Tampopo. Tampopo is a take on a stranger rides into town Western with a Magnificent 7 style posse to help a struggling female Ramen shop owner. Very funny and the scene with the laundry is as touching as they come.

The last shop I went to in Perth with ramen left me spending more time than usual in the gents so we headed in to Northbridge to find a noodle shop. The Hung Long has long gone but we found the Vietnamese Noodle House Pho Sydney on William Street. Of the many things going for it: it looked like a family operation, decor was not a priority, people inside seemed happy enough.

I had the spicy beef and pork soup and a not so spicy soup as well as some fried squid and fried stuffed chicken wings. All were good. I've had the stuffed chicken wings of a few nationalities and these ones, stuffed with chicken meat and rice vermicelli to look like little drumsticks were great. The broth was great and tasted of being cooked, not a couple of cups of stock powder. Side topping were bean sprouts, chopped green chillies, and lemon. The only downer were the wafer thin slices of meat. Well recommended for noodle soup and far better than the soup at the Han chain which has ranged from ordinary to vile.