Saigon Star and some unexpected latte art

I was talked into going back to Vietnamese Saigon Star to sample two dishes and perhaps do a little to counteract the very emphatic thumbs down I gave them previously. The first dish was the Rice Noodle Soup (pho) with Sliced Beef which came with a very sexy side-dish of mint, bean shoots, cut red chilli and wedges of lemon, all to add to the pho (this was given the double thumbs up by Hungry and my other lunch friend who i should nickname Referral Grrl this week). I, on a whim (and on a very clear recommendation) had rice vermicelli with grilled pork - which looked SOOOOO good when it arrived that the woman sitting next to me leant over to ask what it was so that she could order it next week! Grilled pork with a bit of crumbage, sliced very finely on a bed of rice vermicelli, bean shoots, cucumber, lettuce, fresh mints (oops i meant mint dammit!), coriander, chopped peanuts... mmm mmmm it was good.

Afterwards we walked over the road to Dolce so that Hungry could get some of their very delicious chocolate gelati and the barista from Manoli's (Manoli's Greek Taverna) was there making the coffees, and i spotted a display of his latte art! You may remember i mentioned in a previous post that he had done a cat in the froth of Hungry's latte one night at Manoli's - man he is good! He does fish and dragons and all sorts of stuff. Check it out. Dolce on the corner of the Smith St mall. Oh and VSS? Yes. Give them a go. It was delicious. It may be dish-dependant, but at least you have two dishes you can be sure of. YUM!