LOUIS BURKE | Culture | CONTACT
Used to a booming lunchtime service from tradies on a health kick, Vietnamese baker Danny Hoang (35) is somewhat doubtful his last customer will handle the amount of chilli he requested on his pork roll.
Ben Graham (34) is no stranger to a lunchtime pork roll states he was slightly offended when Hoang scoffed at his request for “just a little bit” of chilli as opposed to his usual “none thanks.”
“Can’t a guy just try new things anymore?”
Hoang states he didn’t mean to offend Graham by scoffing at his request for chilli on his pork roll, he was just confident Graham was making a mistake.
“I don’t want him coming in here and saying ‘you made this too spicy’ and then he never comes back. He’s a good customer, he buys two Ice Break a day.”
To Graham, this is no excuse, and he firmly believes Hoang deliberately does this to emasculate his tradesmen customers in an attempt to remind them you can still bake bread and be a real man.
“He knows I don’t normally get chilli but he asks me every time anyway. Do you reckon he asks the Vietnamese customers that? Bit of reverse racism maybe?”
Hoang flatly denies these claims and says it is a business decision based on years of research.
“Aussies can’t always handle raw chilli, that’s a fact. It’s funny to see them sweat but it’s much more polite to ask if they want chilli or not. Go ask him in ten minutes what he thinks”
Ben Graham declined to comment on how spicy his roll was but it is rumoured he later purchased a litre of chocolate milk from a nearby servo and sweated until his high vis shirt no longer shined.
