pho @ flemington

When it comes to food, I find that my friends are actually the ones who tell me what's good to eat and what is actually worth spending my money on. It helps also that I've had the opportunity to meet a large cross-section of individuals from different cultures and backgrounds so there's actually always people to turn to for advice and for the occasional free meal at their homes. In a sense, this has also made me a bit of a picky eater but really, my knowledge of food has grown because of my circle of friends and I can't thank each and everyone enough for it.

Speaking to P in the early hours of the morning, we decided to head to Flemington for pho - a place known for a good bowl of Vietnamese beef noodles at very affordable prices. I've been a couple of times before - my friends tell me that this is the place to go to if you want a good bowl of Viet noodles and I agree with them completely. There's something quite unexplainable about how a bowl of pho at Flemington differs to your local Viet eatery; I've been told it's the soup and how the soup is made. Many of your food court pho noodles use stock and hence makes the soup unnaturally sweet but it's not just that, the temperature of the soup also affects how it tastes (I think a number of us would've experienced a time when the raw beef they add to the soup just doesn't seem to cook and you're left eating raw meat). It's really an art and it amazes me how something so simple keeps pulling me and others back for more.

There's actually a number of shops selling pho at Flemington but my friends and I always seem to go to the one in the alleyway next to the carpark. Here, you'll find a good mix of locals, office workers, the young and the aged, couples and groups; most of whom usually settle for the Pho or the various other infamous Viet dishes including tomato rice, vermicelli noodles, spring rolls and the three coloured drink. The food comes fast and service is generally friendly. Occasionally, you might see a trail of soup on the ground as the waitress stacks bowl upon bowl of noodles as she clears a table. My only advice is to keep your table reasonably clean; previously we had a waitress who was verbally abusive as to our eating habits (although that time, she didn't realise that some of us at the table actually understood Cantonese). A good feed and thanks P for the shout!