Morks

I think it's time I reveal the restaurant that has been my favourite restaurant in Canberra for the past four years. I was going to say it is the hidden secret of Canberra, but then discovered it was the number 1 rated restaurant in Canberra on Trip Advisor.com.au. So I guess it's not as unknown as I first thought!

Morks is a family-run Thai restaurant located in Florey and the hospitality is always warm and welcoming. It's the restaurant I always think of when there's a special occasion to celebrate or interstate visitors to entertain. I recommended Morks to my family when they visited me for a weekend. We went there on the first night and they loved it so much, they immediately booked again to come back the following night!

The menu selection is quite limited, but the trade off is you get high quality inventive dishes, which you know have been given that extra amount of care and precision.

Saigon rolls (Bánh mì) @ Saigon Fresh

Saigon rolls are back in town!!

My love of Saigon rolls (bánh mì) began when Hub Asian supermarket opened right next to my apartment complex in Belconnen. It was my weekend ritual to pop downstairs and grab a fresh, made-to-order Saigon roll for lunch. So when Hub grocers closed a couple of years ago, I was devastated. I searched everywhere in Canberra for bánh mì but couldn't find it anywhere! :(

When I heard that a Vietnamese place in Gungahlin was selling them, I immediately made plans with a friend to check it out!!

Any Saigon roll (pork, chicken, meatball, vegetarian) costs $5.50. A combo deal costs $8, which includes a soft drink from the fridge. For an extra $1, you can upgrade to the drinks on the menu - juice, smoothie or Vietnamese ice coffee.

Arirang Korean Restaurant - Civic

When I arrived at 6:30pm, the restaurant was already lively and customers inside were chatting away animatedly. In fact, it was so lively that my companions had managed to nab the last table. Unfortunately, it was also the worst table as it was the one closest to the door and we felt every icy gust of wind as more customers continued to come into the restaurant. The clientele appeared to be made up mostly of other Asians. I could hear various Asian languages being spoken from the nearby tables. I had a good feeling about this place.

I didn't think Arirang had been open in Civic for very long. Sure enough, when I had a look at the menu, it looked like it had been taken straight from the Gungahlin shop as there was no mention of the Civic address. We decided to order the Special Beef Soup ($40) and the Pork Bulgogi ($17) to share between the three of us.

The accompaniments arrived first. I was impressed by the kimchi. To be honest, I have no idea what authentic kimchi is meant to taste like, but I thought this had just the right amount of chilli, no odd smell from the fermentation process and the vegetables tasted extremely fresh and crisp. It had the perfect balance of flavours between sourness, saltiness and sweetness. The pickled radish was delightfully moreish and I could have easily eaten a whole jar of it. From what I could tell, the third accompaniment was dried tofu that had been lightly pickled.