Middle Eastern food hits all the right tastebuds across Sydney

FLAVOURS of the Middle East are all the rage right now, writes Renata Gortan.

The lamb shoulder dish at Nour restaurant on Crown St in Surry Hills. Picture: Richard Dobson

MIDDLE Eastern cuisine is the new Asian, says the man who built his career on hummus and falafel.

Just as most households have soy sauce in their cupboard, people are now spreading tahini on toast, says chef Michael Rantissi who opened Kepos St Kitchen five year ago, spearheading modern Middle Eastern dining in Sydney. His second restaurant, Kepos & Co, followed 2½ years later.

“A lot of people identified Middle Eastern food with stodgy kebabs, but it’s changed a lot in a couple of years,” he says.

“They are now perceiving it as a healthier cuisine; low carb, low protein with lots of vegetables and full of grains.

Eleanor Harris and Ashleigh Lowth enjoy Middle Eastern food at the Nour restaurant in Surry Hills. Picture: Richard Dobson

“It is poverty food. Not like French cuisine that is based on meat and heavy sauces, it’s about what you have in your garden.”

By offering lighter-style dishes such as smoked labne with candied pistachio, pomegranate and cauliflower salad with wheat, mint, parsley, walnut, pistachio, cranberries Rantissi also highlighted the cuisine’s health benefits to a body-conscious Sydney dining public.

“Middle Eastern food is so good for our climate, in the hot weather people want lighter food. The thinking of food has shifted. It’s all about eating clean, eating more vegetables instead of very rich food and this is an alternative,” he says.

Eventually, he believes diners will learn to distinguish the subtle differences of Israeli, Lebanese and Syrian dishes.

“It took us a lot of time to define Asian cuisine,” he says.

“We are getting there, soon people will be able to tell the difference between Israeli and Lebanese hummus.”

ISAAC

99 Redfern St, Redfern

Italian meets Middle Eastern at this new Redfern restaurant, with dishes such as roast garlic chickpea dip with schiacciata and buffalo mozzarella, sumac and lemon dressing.

NOUR

490 Crown St, Surry Hills

Ibby Moubadder and Ella Harris of Cuckoo Callay are dishing up contemporary Lebanese food in a bright, light-filled space. The baby prawn falafel may miss the crunch of the regular kind, but the juicy prawn wrapped in its midst more than makes up for it.

A modern twist to Middle Eastern food — Nour’s confit petuna trout. Picture: Richard Dobson

ANASON

5/23, Barangaroo Avenue, Barangaroo

Turkish chef Somer Sivrioglu’s of Efendy created Sydney’s version of a mehayne, Turkish bar on the water, sip an old fashioned spiced with zaa’tar or negroni with pimento and clove.

ALMOND BAR

379 Liverpool St, Darlinghurst

Discover Syrian cuisine for breakfast and try ejjit sujuk, omelet with spiced fermented sausage, goat’s milk arish, mint, parsley and shallots. Or try their barbecues, where you spill out of the laneway behind the restaurant.

SEFA KITCHEN

292 Bondi Rd, Bondi

Cooking Levantine cuisine from the countries around the Mediterranean, from Jordan through to Turkey. Dishes include cauliflower, sour yoghurt, almond tarator, zhoug and basturma, tea-soaked figs, smoked eggplant.

SHUK

2 Mitchell St, North Bondi

Named after the Israeli word for marketplace, this cafe offers teff pancakes, a mean shakshuka or Israeli breakfast, a generous, Thali-type dish blending the best of both worlds, including eggs Israeli salad, olives, labne, tahini and muesli with yoghurt.

Lebanese dumplings are a tasty treat. Picture: Richard Dobson

PAZAR FOOD COLLECTIVE

325 Canterbury Rd, Canterbury

Expect Turkish/Mexican mash up, such as harissa-roasted chicken, tahini yoghurt, coriander salsa. Voted best cheap eats two years running in the delicious. 100 awards.

STANBULI

135 Enmore Rd, Enmore

Turkish on Enmore road has gone cool rather than cheap and cheerful, but it’s so worth it. Try hellim, cheese with fermented Turkish sausage cooked over charcoal with a fried egg.

BARZAARI

65-69 Addison Rd, Marrickville

Familiarise yourself with Cypriot cuisine and try sticky pork jowl loukaniko, smoked eggplant, barbecue cos and lamb neck on the bone with toum, chilli and red oil.

PARK HOUSE FOOD & LIQUOR

2 Park St, Mona Vale

Northern beaches locals are packing out this restaurant at the recently revamped Mona Vale hotel, tucking into applewood smoked labneh, peach, guajillo chilli, roasted pistachios.

Originally published as Middle Eastern food hits all the right tastebuds across Sydney