Eating in Footscray

To the uninitiated, a visit to a Vietnamese café may seem a bit daunting. There’s something different. You feel it the moment you walk in. What do you order? Who is the waiter? What are those funny looking drinks? Do they take Amex? This is definitely not latte land.

But, after a while, maybe several visits, you become hooked. You realise that a Vietnamese cafe is more than just a place to go and buy a meal, it is a cultural club, a meeting place, the Vietnamese equivalent of the old-style bar in the local pub. These cafes are the places to go to meet friends, talk, have a drink, have some familiar food, a place where one can get a sense of belonging. However, there is a huge difference to the old-style corner pub.

At these places, no one gets drunk, no one gets offensive. They are places you go to be with friends to relax and enjoy yourself. Ladies, children, students, labourers, lecturers, pensioners, black, yellow, white or brown – everyone is welcome. Shorts, jeans and tee shirst are quite acceptable here, as are suits. There are no barriers –language difficutlies don’t really exist if you try. These cafes present the uninitiated with a great opportunity to get a bit closer to another culture without leaving your hometown. And, they serve some of the best food you’ll get anywhere in Melbourne at prices that make the fast food chains seem a rip-off.

In central Footscray there are around fifty-five cafes. Thirty of these are Vietnamese or Vietnamese-Chinese. That’s a lot of Vietnamese cafes in one place. But they don’t all serve pho and spring rolls. Most of them specialise in dishes from different parts of Vietnam. Try broken rice, steamboats, Vietnamese pancakes, rice flour pancakes, grilled beef served with rice paper, green papaya or lotus stem salads and much, much more. You’ll have to visit quite a few to sort out the dishes that you like, but it will be worth it.

These cafes can produce terrific food at low prices because they are located right in the heart of Melbourne’s best place to buy all the fresh and packaged produce needed to produce beautiful Asian food. The Footscray Market is unsurpassed for value, with top quality pork, fresh whole seafood and poultry leading the way. To keep the market traders on their toes, there is the Little Saigon Shopping Centre, a unique one-stop shopping centre that has a superb range of exotic vegetables, fruit, mints and other produce often not seen anywhere else in Melbourne. There are also some sixteen independent Asian grocery shops where you can buy just about any Asian food product or accessory you can think of, not to mention the Asian butchers, bakeries, cake shops and delis. These specialty retailers supply not only the Asian and other cafes in central Footscray, but also the local pubs and clubs and the rapidly expanding eating area of Yarraville. Of course, if you want to buy the ingredients and cook at home, there’s no better place to shop.

Over the last year, the number of Asian cafes increased by seventeen percent.This is a big increase at a time when everything seems to be against it. Immigration levels have been cut dramatically. Maribyrnong’s Migrant Hostel has closed and the born-in Australia offspring of migrants and those who arrived as children now often prefer a pizza or a hamburger to noodles or rice paper rolls. If anything, cafe numbers should be declining.

So why the increase? And why in Footscray? After all, it’s way out there in the western suburbs and hardly seems to be the centre of an economic boom.

The answer is simple. There has been increased migration into the area. But the new "migrants" are not from southeast Asia, they are from right here in Melbourne. The neighbouring suburbs of Yarraville, Kensington, Newport, Williamstown and Ascot Vale have been, or are being ‘gentrified’, it’s even happening right in Footscray. These ‘migrants’ are quickly discovering that Footscray is unsurpassed for great Vietnamese and other Asian food at ridiculously low prices. And that’s not all. A quick trip over the Westgate Bridge, or along Footscray and Dynon Roads places Footscray right next to Southgate, Port Melbourne, Postcode 3000 and the soon-to-be-created Docklands. And, as an added bonus, in Footscray you can always park your car.

The nest time you go into one of Footscray’s Vietnamese cafes, take a good look at the customers. The chances are there will be more Caucasians than Asians.

Leon Betheras

© Leon Betheras 1999

VIETNAM ON A PLATE

If you are wondering where to go to buy those special ingredients for your next Asian dish, or how to pick the best, or just what to buy, join Mei Ling Perry on one of her guided walking tours around Footscray’s fabulous food centre. The tours are held on Saturdays, for a minimum of four people. All tours finish off with a substantial lunch at one of her favourite Vietnamese cafes.

As well as walking tours, Mei Ling conducts cooking classes and cooking demonstrations featuring mainly Vietnamese dishes, but with a few other southeast Asian favourites thrown in as well.

For all enquiries, phone 9689 1186, fax 9689 1381 or email vietnamonaplate@one.net.au.

Vietnam On A Plate, PO Box 206 Yarraville, 3013