There is nothing like a high degree of architectural verisimilitude to brighten up my day, be it a Big Banana, Giant Merino or in this case, a fake Ben Thanh Market building in the middle of Melbourne. This model of Saigon’s Ben Thanh Market is so accurate that the clocks are all set to the same incorrect times that they are on the real thing.
Rather than the tourist gewgaws that pack most of the Ho Chi Minh City prototype, this one houses one of the more useful Vietnamese grocers in Melbourne, Huy Huy, reliable stockists of the herbiage for great pho (and other Vietnamese soups) such as ngo om (limnophila aromatica), sawtooth coriander (eryngium foetidum), fishwort and a range of basils.
Location: 240 Victoria St Richmond, Vic, Australia.
Huy Huy is my regular haunt. It’s one of the last truly Vietnamese grocers along there, as the new, cashed up Chinese immigrants buy into the area and sadly have no idea of what to stock and where to source it.
I think I ate under this thing back in Nov. during the LP workshop! Very decent veggie pho (!), if I recall correctly.
Yes, I get my “weasel” from there. Nice observation. ican’t beleive I’ve been going there all this time and didn’t make the connection.