Cô Dung offers delicious no-frills dining in Belconnen. Photos: Tenele Conway.
Could there be a better place to find no-frills dining than amongst the mishmash of 70s and 80s commercial buildings clustered around Belconnen?
I think not and if you’re hunting around for a tasty meal at a great price, then you can’t go past Cô Dung Vietnamese Street Food.
This family-run business has been operating on Nettleford Street for five years, but if someone told you it had been there since 1975, you wouldn’t bat an eyelid; it feels settled into place, like it’s always been there.
The menu is tight, kind of like the “best of the best” when it comes to Vietnamese dishes, yet there is enough there to bring you back many times to find your favourites.
I know many people won’t be able to go past a steaming bowl of pho and you can grab that with chicken, rare beef, beef brisket, vegetarian and combination, which comes with all the fun bits like tripe and tendon.
The pho broth here is light and sweet, much more delicate than many that you find; it’s a nice change from the heavier broths I’ve been having of late.
The pho at Cô Dung is light and sweet.
When you tire of pho, which seems unlikely, I would encourage you to try the bún bò. This rich and mildly spicy soup has a complex layering of flavours.
In the Cô Dung version there is a lovely herbal quality with the inclusion of rarer ingredients like Vietnamese mint and the peppery pork sausage is delicious. The lingering flavours of this soup stay with you long after you’ve slurped up your bowl.
If you’re one of those strange varieties of people who don’t love soup, then I highly recommend the cơm dishes, cơm just means rice and special shoutout for the cơm tấm (broken rice).
If you’re not familiar with broken rice, it’s an interesting tale of farmers repurposing the broken fragments of rice after the milling process and what started as an economical meal within poorer communities has now evolved into a staple national dish when paired with meats and eggs.
Here your broken rice comes topped with a crumbed pork chop plus a few sides, including a slice of sweet porky meatloaf and a small pile of pork noodle salad. If you haven’t guessed it yet, this dish is all about the pork.
Bún bò is a nice pho alternative for a richer and spicier broth.
As if I needed an excuse to come back, I am yet to try the bánh mì (filled baguette rolls) and there is also a selection of Chinese-style noodle soups with wontons or crispy chicken.
Speaking of crispy chicken, take it from me, every meal here should come with an order of the cánh gà chiên.
These guys have perfected the art of the deep-fried chicken wing and your only regret will be wishing that you’d ordered two serves. The thin, sweet batter shatters like glass and inside you’ll find the juiciest chicken on the bone, all topped with a crunchy little topping of fried shallots, garlic and onion.
If you’re dining with a group, I have some hot tips on levelling up your meal. Steal a scoop of your dining companions’ broken rice and dunk it in your soup broth; there is nothing better than these pearly grains floating in broth, especially the rich broth of the bún bò.
Cơm tấm is an excellent choice if you’re not a soup lover.
You should also take advantage of dining with a group of people to try out more of the side dishes. The spring rolls are handmade and stuffed with pork and wood ear mushrooms, making for a textural delight, or you can go in for the netted variety of spring rolls, which are filled with pork and prawn.
On the whole menu there isn’t a dish over $17. A nice change from the climbing prices of late and proof that if you look in the right places, a good meal can still be found on a budget.
Cô Dung Vietnamese Street Food is at 31/35 Nettleford Street, Belconnen and is open for lunch and dinner seven days a week. Phone 0423 612 438.
Original Article published by Tenele Conway on Region Canberra.
