Bing Boy, Southern Cross Arcade

Sounding more like street slang for a lady-boy hooker than a salad filled pancake Bing Boy is a relative newcomer to Adelaide's food courts. A year-or-so ago I had my first Bing Boy experience - I found it gritty and overly sauced and I've avoided it ever since. To be clear - I'm talking about the pancake, not lady-boys.

Requiring a certain amount of convincing and arm-twisting, I returned to Bing Boy with a good mate recently (again - for pancakes not lady-boys).

I ordered a 'pretty n' peking'. This is a pancake with peking duck, cucumber, carrot, lettuce, wonton pieces and hoisin sauce; not a lady-boy in Pekinese costume. 



I'm pleased to say Bing Boy is much improved (pancake not lady-boy). The wanton pieces were crunchy rather than gritty; the sauce was apply with skill and deftness; the salad was fresh and crisp; and the duck tasted somewhat like duck.

Miss Mai, James Place

Last week I blogged about wanting to return to new Vietnamese eatery Miss Mai to sample their duck (!!!!) banh mi.

Today I fulfilled that promise. And because I'm a fat bastard I also ordered chicken pho.

The duck banh mi was everything I hoped it would be. A generous portion of warm, fatty, juicy duck stuffed inside a crisp, chewy roll with crunchy carrots, cucumber and handfuls of fresh coriander. The too-brown photo below really doesn't do this excellent roll justice.



At $7.50 this duck banh mi is on the more expensive side but absolutely worth every cent. And I really REALLY like that the meat filling at Miss Mai's is warm - it transforms what I'd usually consider a fresh, crunchy summery roll into something warm, comforting and perfect for winter eating.

Because I felt a cold coming on (but mostly because (as above) I'm fat, hungry bastard) I ALSO decided to order the chicken pho. Logically, if chicken soup cures a cold then a spicy, herby chicken pho should kick the shit out it!



I reckon the chicken pho is actually better than the beef pho. The broth was hot and sweet again but seemed cleaner and clearer; the chicken was tender, juicy and ever-so-slightly fatty in a good way; there was more generosity with the rice noodles (my one bugbear from last time); and once again the herbs were fresh, beansprouts crunchy and chillies spicy. I felt greatly restored after eating my chicken pho - it really moved all the gunk out of my sinuses.

I had selfishly hoped that Miss Mai's would remain one of those hidden gems in the Adelaide CBD - but no such luck. Adelaideans seem to have already cottoned on to the fact Miss Mai is serving up some seriously good Vietnamese food.