Page 24 - Food Service Magazine March 2019

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DINING
A. B.
A. The handwritten menu B. Banh Xeo Bar
C. Bone marrow with lemongrass and chilli
D. Banh Xeo Bar interior
Ho, the daughter of Vietnamese migrants, was familiar with Vietnamese cuisine on a home-cooking level, and cooked it herself a lot. “Everything [she made] was so fresh and tactile. I’d never had anything like it before,” says Sinfield.
Although Vietnamese food is hugely popular in Sydney, so many local restaurants don't go past pho and spring rolls, so that's usually all diners expect. “Banh xeo hasn’t hit the radar yet,” says Ho. “A lot of people have eaten the pancakes travelling in Vietnam, they just can’t remember the name.”
Banh xeo translates to “sizzling pancake”, as the thin rice-flour batter bubbles as soon as it hits the wok. It's then commonly filled with grilled pork, prawns, bean shoots and mung beans, among other things, before it's folded into a giant, crisp half-moon and served with lettuce, herbs and dipping sauce. While there are many different types of banh xeo from southern to northern Vietnam, these giant pancakes hail from the south, where they were originally made with ingredients that grow in the Mekong Delta rice
paddies – rice, lettuce, herbs, and even rice-paddy shrimp, a type of freshwater crustacean.
Ho quit her day job to focus on animating their idea, including branding, certification, sourcing equipment and commissioning a
carpenter to build the stall. She spent six months alone refining the pancake batter (incidentally, it hasn’t changed since).
“We knew one of us had to give it our full attention,” says Ho. “It’s very competitive.”
Paddington Market, where the couple had their hearts set, is one of Sydney’s oldest, boasting a large dedicated following. To put this in perspective, it was also the launching pad for now well-established fashion label Zimmerman.
“Our product is left of centre,” says Sinfield, “people don’t know what a Vietnamese sizzling pancake is, so we had to express that visually, and get our branding and story on point from the beginning.” Paddington Market has a rigorous vetting process, including tasting sessions, which the couple thankfully passed with flying colours.
In March 2017, the first day rolled around ... and they sold out. “We were a bit rusty. I put way too much food on each plate” says Sinfield. “But we knew straight away it had great potential.”
Ho's mother was helping out on the day making the pancakes, while Ho spent most of the service educating customers on what the hell they were and how to eat them. “I’d have to explain each time: these are gluten-free and dairy-free...” (I interrupt Sinfield to ask: Was this strategic?) “No, it’s the traditional approach. We make our batter from
C.