May 17, 2012 
Marrickville Pork Roll
236a Illawarra Rd
Marrickville, 2204
You might remember reading about my Vietnamese eating fiesta - the Cabramatta Crawl – a few weeks ago, when Thang Ngo from Noodlies hosted a food tour of (you guessed it) Cabramatta. This tour took place during the last weeks of Noodlies search for Sydney’s Best Vietnamese Pork Roll, won fair and square by Marrickville Pork Roll. Today I made the pilgrimage to try Sydney’s primo bahn mi thit…
The first thing I notice on approach is the long line stretching 20 deep up Illawara road. Secondly I note how tiny the shop front is: there are three fast working staff in a literal 3 x 2 metre hole in the wall. I’m excited already, the que of locals is such a good sign! The line moves quickly and before I get to know the friendly woman behind me I’m handing a mere $5 over for a BBQ pork roll with chilli and a bottle of water. $5 for lunch in Sydney!? I am eating at all the wrong places, evidently.
I take my loot to Wicks Park, and inspect my meal. The bread is crusty on the outside with a fluffy inner, the salad is fresh and plentiful and the pork looks succulent. Taste-wise the pâté offers this incredible sweetness that is perfectly balanced by a mysterious salty sauce. The salad is crunchy and delicious, it’s well seasoned: overall the roll is just perfect. As I eat I recall a red squeezy bottle of sauce (soy? fish?) being sloshed generously over the bun just before wrapping it…musing on the flavour of the roll I really think that it’s the sauce that takes if from ‘good sandwhich’ level to ‘f***ing awesome roll’ status. I’d pay a lot of money for the sauce recipe. Yum.
On another note: you can check out the short radio stint the I had on ABC702 with Thang (Noodlies) and Melinda (Pickeled Cumquat) here - we discuss the Cabramatta food crawl with host Simon Marnie.
Good on you forkit, delighting in a cheap feed just like I taught you to…but only if
it’s “good” food……and it was (is), $5 for a roll and a drink – like the tuck shop days of old,
take me there when I go to Sydney? XO Ma
Looks good – must check out this little hole in the wall
I am fairly certain you’ll find that sauce is maggi soy seasoning.
this looks delicious
David in Maine USA
Hmmmm been past here numerous times but never tried it, have i been missing out ???
have you tried the Hong Ha one in Mascot .. that has the biggest queue i’ve seen in the world for a banh mi ! I’m impartial to Viet Hoa in Cabramatta as I think they have the best pate!
Yes you are definitely missing out – try it, I’d love to know how it compares to Hong Ha and Viet Hoa (I haven’t tried either of those…)