Bau Truong serves delicious authentic Vietnamese dishes at Harbord Diggers.
Bac Cang Nghieu arrived in Sydney from Vietnam in 1990, along with her passion for cooking, and began working at Bau Truong in Cabramatta. Five years later, she took the restaurant over with her son and daughter.
Almost 30 years later, Bac Cang, now in her eighties, still works at Bau Truong. But now they run three restaurants: Cabramatta, the Mounties Club in Mount Pritchard and Harbord Diggers in Freshwater.
The Diggers restaurant, managed by Bac Cang’s son Michael, is a modern, spacious venue with an extensive menu of authentic Vietnamese dishes.
The first dish served was prawns in a crispy pastry with orange glaze. The crisp pastry looked like a bird’s nest with a succulent prawn in the centre, the orange glaze sweet and tangy.
One of my favourites was a beautiful beef pineapple and cucumber salad with a tamarind dressing, served with prawn crackers. This dish stood out: fresh, sweet, and crunchy salad piled high, which diners spoon onto a cracker and enjoy the party of flavours.
Prawns stir-fried in a chilli basil sauce with crispy Vietnamese rice bubbles is a unique dish. The idea for the rice bubbles stemmed from rice that gets crispy and stuck to the bottom of a pot when cooking. Michael says they now make this ‘crispy rice’.
Michael brought us a lemon mint fruit shake to cleanse our palates, a lovely, sweet, refreshing drink served with fresh mint.
I am not one for too much spice, but Vietnamese-style Prawn laksa was rich in flavour with just the right kick. Michael said the menu is all about using fresh herbs and spices, but not about too much heat. Fresh herbs such as mint and coriander feature in many dishes, as does fresh chilli.
The advantage of being at Diggers is that we could enjoy the live music from the club, as well as a pre-dinner drink. Bau Truong is for you if you are looking for authentic Vietnamese food on the Beaches.
Bau Truong Harbord Diggers 88 Evans Street, Freshwater Phone: 9122 0826 bautruong.com.au