Annam restaurant opens in Melbourne’s Chinatown
Before Vietnam was created in 1945, the province was known as Annam.
That’s the name that Pho Nom owner-chef Jerry Mai and Rani Doyle of the National Hotel in Richmond have chosen for their new eatery in Melbourne’s Chinatown.
The name is deliberately chosen because the aim is to create something that offers a broader experience of Vietnamese cuisine. The plan is for Annam to be more than just any Vietnamese restaurant.
Details of the menu aren’t available yet but Mai knows the kind of place she wants to create.
Annam will offer food that’s more complex and refined than what’s available at Mai’s two Pho Nom eateries, drawing from her family’s Vietnamese and Cambodian roots and the food she grew up eating in a Thai refugee camp. Mai will also draw from her experience from the food she grew up eating in a Thai refugee camp and the lessons she learned working with the likes of Long Chim’s David Thompson at Nahm in London and Geoff Lindsay at Dandelion.
Work is already underway transforming the old Kuni’s site in Chinatown.
Architect Emlyn Olaver is managing the transformation of the site and is looking to give it the flavour and energy of an Asian street market with reclaimed materials, neon and an open kitchen.
At one stage, Mai was asking to bring in the kind of dinky low plastic seats people see at Vietnamese street stalls.
But in the end, she went for the more stylish option with long communal tables, bar stools and banquettes.
Mai is also bringing in powerful kitchen extractors to grill ingredients such as whole fish, periwinkles and pork cutlets over charcoal.
The drinks list, including Vietnamese tinnies and Asian-inspired cocktails, will be supervised by Doyle.
Being in Chinatown, Annam will be located at 56 Little Bourke Street.
It is scheduled to open in late August.
by Leon Gettler, June 2nd 2017
