Rickshaw Run

I know I'm guilty of it.  You stumble across a quiet place where you're the only customer.  Against your better judgment you order and are rewarded with an amazing meal.  Each time you go back, you're almost always the only customer and the food's always just as good.  It seems like it's your little secret, but in the end, secrets are best shared.

I want the streets of Footscray bustling after 6pm on a Saturday.  I want these hardworking businessmen and women to succeed widely and make all of Melbourne fall in love with their wonderful wares.  Footscray will never "run out" - there will always be enough for everyone.

The Footscray Traders' Association is a grass roots organisation run by Footscray's traders to advocate as a united voice.  They have created a fantastic, unique event for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival that is now in its second year.  The Rickshaw Run, currently sold out despite running for lunches and dinners across a two-week period, is a whistlestop tour of Footscray's Vietnamese restaurants.  I was invited along by Grant Miles of the FTA to check it out.

First stop, D&K Live Seafood for freshly shucked oysters to the beat of Japanese drummers Wadaiko Rindo.

Salty, plump and luscious!

The rickshaws are gorgeous and are actually very relaxing.  The "runners" (all 80 of them) are all volunteers, responding to local ads.  I think this says a lot about Footscray's community.

Next stop, Little Saigon, an indoor market that bursts with colour, smells and life.  I love the descending bidding wars between the stallholders that happen at closing time - as they drop their mango prices down, dollar by dollar, the crowd swings back and forth en masse from each fruit stand.  The group before us has never been here before and left with plastic bags groaning with fruity bargains.

Samples (as well as the many out for the public).  This longan or dragon's eye was new to me - it was sweet like a lychee and quite delicious.

Next stop, the ever-friendly Sen for DIY rice paper rolls, complete with expert tutorial.  I finally worked out how to get the prawns on the outside of mine like in the shops!  The secret - well, you'll have to go next year ;-)

We kept saying, "Oh, we really shouldn't have another".  Let's just say this sort of restraint didn't last for long.  The dipping sauce here is gorgeous, thick, peanutty and creamy.  It's made with coconut milk and a special vegan ingredient, cooked green mung beans!

Rolling, rolling...  In a rickshaw, you feel separate from "the street", kind of like you're in a pleasant bubble, yet still part of it in a way you don't if you're in a car.

Hao Phong are a Footscray stalwart and are reliably busy every night of the week.  Here we sat down to lovely, steaming bowls of pho.

I got lucky with warm, soothing chicken.  I couldn't taste the pho spices in the broth all that much but it was a great bowl of soup with fresh pho noodles and really tender chicken meat.  LOVED the house-made crispy garlic and onion sprinkle!

If you've ever wondered what's in the sugar dispenser on the table in many restaurants, it's Vietnamese "sate" sauce (pronounced "satay"), vaguely similar to XO with dried chilli and dried seafood in oil.  This isn't for adding to your pho (float the chillis in the broth if you want more heat) but for dipping your meat - I loved this combo (new to me) of sate sauce and hoisin (in a squeeze bottle on each table).

By now we were worrying for George, our trusty rickshaw man, as our combined weight was increasing with each stop, yet he remained irrepressibly bubbly and excited for our next stop.

A Footscray success story - Sapa Hills started on Hopkins Street only a year or two ago but already have a new branch in Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn.  Tam, the owner, is divine.  Loving their smart new check uniforms.

Sapa Hills are probably best known for this dish, bun cha Ha Noi.  It's a northern Vietnamese BBQ dish where belly pork and pork patties are marinated and cooked over charcoal.  Smoky and juicy, they're mixed with the thinner sesasoned fish sauce dressing and tossed with noodles and herbs to make your own salad.

Dong Que, one of my favourite restaurants - their coleslaws are fantastic, as well as their crepes, rice flour cake with egg, Vietnamese tacos...  I could go on.  Dong Que made it into The Age Cheap Eats this year, woohoo!

They're best known for their traditional Vietnamese spring rolls.  The tiny, cigarette-shaped ones we know so well are really a more recent invention.  The wheat wrappers most places use are much easier to handle and make the rolls much more robust.  The true method is to use rice paper, just like the cold rice paper rolls at Sen above, with a meaty pork, noodle and mushroom filling.  The rice paper gives a really delicate yet deliciously crackly skin.  Roll in lettuce with a few mint springs - gorgeous!

Despite the extra kilos on board by now, George kept us rolling up to the last stop, Pho Tam, for our choice of sweet drink.

Pho Tam are one of the only places I know that do the full "Vietnamese coffee ceremony", if you like.  Each cup is brewed individually with the Vietnamese version of trendy filter coffee - a tiny silver contraption that drips the hot coffee slowly onto a raft of sweetened condensed milk.

Help from the maestro - when the coffee's all dripped out, whip it up and pour it over for sweet, icy deliciousness.

This is a great way for newcomers to Footscray to experience it.  I love the rickshaw aspect of it - so much more fun than just walking around the circuit.  Each dish that Footscray Traders have picked is a house specialty - not surprisingly, as they know what's good at their own place!  It's also really cool to walk right in to each restaurant to a dedicated, perfectly-set table and receive your dishes within three minutes of entering.

This year is totally booked out (although you can go on the waiting list) and next year there will be new restaurants and new dishes.  If you've never experienced Footscray, of if you're trying to "sell" it to suspicious friends or rellies, I think this is an awesome place to start.  Even if you're a die-hard Footscray foodie, I still think you will discover something new - I didn't know how good Sen's rice paper rolls were, and I would definitely order the pho ga again at Hao Phong.

Most of all, I love that this is a unique Footscray creation made and owned by the community.

What would be your ultimate Footscray food crawl?