Kym Le

This is the second time I’ve been to Moruya, a country town located on the South Coast, a four hours’ drive from Sydney.

We always go with Dad’s two friends, Uncle Phuoc (yes, quite a fortunate name) and Uncle Son, for out-of-Sydney trips a couple of times a year. It has been such a tradition for almost since we moved interstate. Quaint CB radios provided endless hours of entertainment throughout otherwise insipid car rides:

Typically the men go fishing in the evening while the women stay back in the cottages to prepare dinner and care for the children. The men return tired and heaving, with fish still flailing about in their buckets. The women take care of the rest, and before you know it, everyone gets nice and hot canh chua (Vietnamese tom yum soup) to eat!

The men never acquiesce this, but the women do most of the work on such trips. Sometimes they return downcast — which even the little boys know means “no fish” — but the women always have a back up plan. On numerous occasions this has included a congeries of items such as rice congee, pork floss, Indomie Mi Goreng and even dried fish.

Whatever we eat, each family always brings along a rice cooker. Even when we’re miles alway from home, we’d always have our lovely Thai jasmine rice!

This time around, we didn’t catch any fish…mainly because it was raining for most of the Labour Day long weekend.

What happened, however, was that through our “connections” we managed to find juicy bream at dirt cheap prices. And let me tell you wryly: I have never tasted fish this fresh in my life. Fish you buy at the markets is nothing compared to this. (My mouth still waters at the thought!)

So we had a tour around Moruya, Tuross Heads and the surrounding area. Along the way, we dropped by Tuross Chinese & Vietnamese Restaurant (owned by Uncle Phuoc’s friend’s extended family).

We stayed at a friend’s friend’s house — which, although as lackadaisical as it seems, wasn’t that bad. Mainly because we ate deliciously cooked fish for two days straight!!!

To me, a trip out of the city is an opportunity to escape from one’s hectic life. Sitting on a foldable camping chair at dusk with a fishing rod or a bowl of canh chua in one’s hands is simply priceless.