Y NOT
A steaming bowl of pho arrives at Weekend’s table first, a picture-perfect bowl of noodles, sprouts and soft beef in a salty beef broth that’s been simmering away in the kitchen for six hours.
“If the beef’s not quite cooked enough, push it back down and it will cook some more,” the waitress at Le Vietnamese Kitchen (Y NOT’s sister site) tells me.
If you like, she says, you can also stir through a bowl of vinegar infused with chilli to add a little heat. I do. Of course, I do.
It’s a wildly addictive combo, but as I’m slurping up that broth like an addict, we’re interrupted by the banh mi. It lands on our table packed full of melty caramelised pork belly, tightly packed pickled vegetables and fistfuls of coriander.
The pho is instantly pushed aside in favour of the banh mi. Once we start, we can’t stop. It’s a medley of contradictions: sweet yet sour, dark yet colourful, soft yet crunchy. As we’re eating it, we’re dreaming of the next time we can order another one.
But we haven’t forgotten the pho. As soon as the banh mi is finished, we return to the still steaming bowl and continue our mission to finish it. We get there — just. It’s a lot of food.
The waitress says most diners order just one of those things. Those people are silly: if you’re heading to the Curious Food Festival, they’ll be sold for $10 each, and you should absolutely choose both.
Y Not, Princes Wharf, Shed 23, ynotonthewharf.co.nz; Le Vietnamese Kitchen, 107 Ponsonby Rd, www.vietnamesekitchen.co.nz