Miss Saigon

I find that when I am feeling like crap with the flu, there are two things that give me back a bit of bounce:

1. swimming in the ocean, particularly if it is cold
2. Thai food

I have never tried the two together - ie, having a swim and then some Thai food, mainly because I like to swim before breakfast (when not many Thai places are open) and because there are not many Thai places near where I like to swim (Bondi). Lots of cafes and the odd sushi joint, but not much Thai. Well, okay there is one near the north end of Bondi, but it is crap.

The cold surf is marvelous for getting all the green gunk out of the lungs, nose and throat. Swimming in a pool is no substitute. Good, hot Thai food does much the same.

The last few days have been nasty. Yesterday was spent mostly in bed - 8 Nurofen only sufficed to take the edge off my headache (that included 4 of the Plus variety), and today was looking much the same. The only answer was to either swim, or have something spicy for lunch.

J suggested that we try a Vietnamese place in Balmain. Normally, I hate Vietnamese food. I have always considered it a poor cousin of Thai. A sort of slightly spicy Chinese, or a bland version of Thai. I've never liked it, except for the rice paper rolls - they can be excellent.

So I kind of went along expecting the worst.

We had two types of rolls for entree - a vegetarian batch with tofu and a non-vegetarian batch with prawns. They were good. Not great, but good. Good enough to go back, given that it is the only place for about 10 miles around that makes them. I think the disappointing bit was the peanut dipping sauce. Just not enough bite.

For main, we both had a salad. I had a salad with lots of prawns and chook, and J had a similar salad with roasted chook. Both were very good. I have had better at a Thai restaurant in Mosman, but the Mosman place costs nearly double what Miss Saigon charges, and it is too far away for a casual meal. And the Mosman place is damned near impossible to get into.

I felt much better after lunch - the salad was crisp and spicy and hot enough to really get the glands working again. I felt vaguely human. Only needed two Nurofen and a sleep to make it through the afternoon.

So Miss Saigon gets a thumbs up. I'll be back. However, I'll be careful what I order. Half the menu looks like slightly souped up Chinese (yuk) or bland Thai. I'll stick to the entrees and the salads, which all looked very good.