Must eat
Top End chef David Taylor gives you a taste of the good tucker to be found in the Territory
Bangkok Hut ADDRESS: 11 Knuckey Street, Darwin PHONE: 8941 5555 OWNER and CHEF: Mahn Hoang ENTREES: $8 to $10 MAINS: $22 to $40 LUNCH: Noodle soup $14 OPEN: Every day for lunch and dinner STAR QUALITY: 4.4/5
What he says to me — “Please write normally, don’t tell people to expect too much” — sums up Bangkok Hut owner and chef Manh Hoang. This modest, softly spoken gentleman does not like to brag, but he has every reason to. He and his family have recently taken over Bangkok Hut after spending years in Katherine as bakers.
Hoang is a seasoned and very experienced chef who hails from Ho Chi Minh City. There he worked in the top-ranking hotels in South Vietnam, the Caravelle and Continental in District 1.
He also spent four years in Italy. He has formally trained in Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, French and Italian cuisines.
He is now back in the kitchen and we all need to applaud!
My dear friend Linh from Hanoi put me on to this place and said it served the best pho in Darwin, better than anything he’d had in Adelaide. In fact, the only better pho was in Vung Tao in Central Vietnam.
So yes, the Thai dining hall has a Vietnamese chef, and the pho is called “Noodle Soup”. So what. Good food is good food. Chef Manh knows his business and executes great dishes. I was going to say “bloody fantastic”, but you might expect too much.
On the night I dined with three others. Satay chicken was beautiful with a not-so-sweet but buttery peanut sauce, lightly spiced. Crispy fried chicken wings were pretty awesome too. I loved the sticky red spicy sauce.
Crying Tiger is an old favourite of mine. Usually tender strips of beef coated in a gooey sweet and chilli sauce, but Chef Manh’s take on this is quite wonderful.
Quality beef is seared, then sliced and served with a delectable spicy sour sauce. Simply delicious. It’s not what I was expecting, but I was a very happy man.
We also had a prawn salad, which is more like prawns with herbs and a sweet spicy sour dressing. It was just this side of sensational. (Sorry Manh).
The best I have had. Succulent prawns and fresh herbs made this a winner.
We asked for lemongrass chicken, and we did ask for Vietnamese-style, which is not on the menu, so I might be in trouble.
Just beg if you have to; twist an arm, offer a bribe or cry uncontrollably until they say yes. It is sensational. Oops, I mean ordinary! We rounded out our meal with an understated stir-fried kangkong (water spinach). Tossed simply with garlic and oyster sauce, it was the perfect partner to the rest of our shared meal.
I hope we will all support Chef Manh and his family. The food is good, the service is friendly and it’s all reasonably priced. I look forward to a big bowl of lunchtime pho soon.