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A Cotswold Farmshop
The family-run Gloucester Service Station in the Cotswolds is a distinctive pit stop filled with goods from local farmers and artisans.
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The family-run Gloucester Service Station in the Cotswolds is a distinctive pit stop filled with goods from local farmers and artisans.
PG
In July 2017, found the ideal site for , his pho restaurant in Sydney's Mount Pritchard. After inspecting it for less than five minutes, he told the landlord: "I'll take it." The opening would be in a month's time. There was just one problem: "I didn't know how to cook pho," he says.
It's an unlikely way to start a restaurant selling Vietnamese beef noodle soup, but it's in keeping with the unusual way he found the eatery's site. When Nguyen pulled into the Speedway petrol station in Sydney's south-west that July, he simply planned on filling his tank – he wasn't expecting to find the location for his dream restaurant. But the vacant property near the fuel pumps and neighbouring car wash drew him in. Even though the setting wasn't glamorous, he could see the upsides.
"It's got abundant parking," he thought. Hundreds of people were stopping by every day to top up their vehicles. The space had a cool room and other facilities.
Credit: Supplied
Although Nguyen wasn't yet familiar with mastering the broth and noodles, he had strong opinions about the ideal version. Since the age of 17, he only travelled to one place in Sydney for his pho fix. Twice a week, he'd plan a half-hour drive to the legendary : the Western Sydney institution that's been name-checked by everyone from to . "I would never ever have any other pho," says Nguyen.
The version he mastered in four weeks for 2 Foodies' opening was fine-tuned from many sources: his mother's "amazing" recipe gave him the foundation. Then a friend – whose family ran a pho restaurant in Vietnam – advised him on when to add the key ingredients, so their flavours wouldn't get simmered away.
His godbrother also offered some game-changing intel, which maximised the richness of the dish. This all evolved into broth that's scented with "a lot" of ginger and filled with onions that are slow-cooked until they collapse into a sticky, caramel sweetness. "There's no visible onion left, it's all dissolved into the broth," he says.
Give them everything to make them really happy.
Nguyen feeds 100 kilos of hand-picked bones into every 200-litre mix. He lets the flavours deepen and develop over a long time. "You don't start the fresh broth with just tap water," the restaurateur says. In fact, he tops each new batch with 10-hour-old stock from a previous broth. That way you've already given your soup a head start.
When it's time to ladle it, "the broth is about 30 hours [old] plus", he adds. And you can tell it's ready by how vivid its colour is: sometimes it verges on a rich sunset gold that he compares to orange juice.
2 Foodies makes a flavourful broth for its pho. Credit: Giulio Giampellegrini
Although the nearby fuel pumps and car wash don't quite have the dining destination pull of, say, , the restaurateur recognises that his low-key, smaller location costs a lot less to run – paying much less rent allows him to focus on better ingredients and other important aspects.
And for him, 2 Foodies is about making an impression where it matters – on a diner's experience.
"You serve them and it's like the last time you can see them. Give them everything," he says. "Give them all the ingredients, give them everything to make them really happy, satisfied, walking out of the shop."
