Simon Food Favourites: Hummus

04 September 2010

Emads Lebanese Restaurant: $35 Super Banquet, Surry Hills (17 April 2010)

298 Cleveland Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010

Belly dance the night away

The long standing emads is perhaps not the best lebanese food around but they provide an intimate and cosy setting for groups to have a fun night out — especially when there's a belly dancer involved on Friday and Saturday nights. The Super Banquet will set you back $35 each and includes your classic menu items of bread, humous, babaganouge, tabouli, spinach pie, kebbe, falafel, lady fingers, lamb, chicken and kafta skewers, cabbage rolls, vine leaves, coffee and sweets. For the big eaters they'll love it but if you're not that hungry it will be a challenge to eat it all so perhaps order individual dishes to share — I certainly struggled finishing my fair share. The highlight of the night was actually the professional belly dancer whose energy brought a lot of life and laughter to the restaurant.

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Belly dancing some nights, Reasonably priced, Cosy atmosphere and seating, Quick service

CONS: Food comes out quickly so hard to keep up before it goes cold, Coffee a bit grainier than what I've had in other places, Didn't see the babaganouge

MUST TRY: Ordering more interesting dishes from the menu

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Super Banquet bread

Super Banquet humous

Super Banquet tabouli

Super Banquet spinach pie, kebbe, falafel, lady fingers

Super Banquet lamb, chicken and kafta skewers

Super Banquet cabbage rolls

Super Banquet vine leaves

Super Banquet coffee and sweets

Belly dancing performer

Banquet menu

Bill: $280 for 8, $35 each. The most basic bill I've possibly ever seen.

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21 February 2010

Eveleigh Farmers' Market: Kylie Kwong Cooking Demo, Eumundi, Achacha, Yalla, Blini Bar (20 Feb 2010)

Saturday Weekly Market 8 am - 1 pm
243 Wilson Street, Darlington NSW 2015
http://www.eveleighmarket.com.au

Organic and sustainable produce

I'm not a morning person at the best of times but this weekend I was curious to see Kylie Kwong cook up several dishes to celebrate Chinese New Year. The start of the event was introduced by two Chinese Dragons parading through the large undercover market with the beat of loud drumming. Kylie explained to the crowd that she'd sourced all the fresh produce from the stallholders and some of them were invited to come up and have a chat about their stall. I'm glad He Needs Food posted copies of the recipes because I forgot to take them. I've been to her Billy Kwong restaurant on Crown Street twice a few years ago. It has mixed reviews on Eatability and unfortunately doesn't take bookings so it can be a long wait depending on how early you arrive. I remember the seating was quite crowded and small which made it somewhat uncomfortable after a while, especially for my elderly parents. It's not cheap either but I guess she's sourcing quality sustainable and organic ingredients which can come at a premium price and the restaurant is located in the fashionable eating strip of Surry Hills. The signature dish of Crispy Skin Duck with Plum Sauce demonstrated today looked delicious.

After the cooking demonstration Kylie kindly made the time to have a photo with me — thank you! I then ventured on through the markets to find some much needed breakfast. Starting with the Eumundi Confused Eggs Smokey Bacon with sauteed onions and famous creole sauce which satisfied me out quickly — a very tasty and hearty breakfast indeed. I then came across the Achacha stall which grows and sells this exotic fruit in Queensland which originates from South America. I remember first reading about it through A Table For Two and Grab Your Fork, which went to a launch at Baroque Bistro. I think my dad would enjoy these because they are quite similar to mangosteen — also a lot easier to peel than lychee. Next stop was delicious and generous samplings of Yalla dips, salsas and yoghurts. Oh wow, these taste great and their hummus is one of the nicest I've tried — I'd love to visit their factory one day. My enjoyable foodie tour ends at Blini Bar which makes excellent savoury and sweet crepes with ingredients sourced from the market stallholders. I hope they start working in festivals because their Spinach, Mushrooms, Sweet Onion and Cheese Crepe is so much better than the ubiquitous Turkish Gozleme. The premium full cream milk used seems to make the crepes so soft, tasty and creamy.

If you're passionate about food, sustainability and organic produce then these markets are for you. It's a great day out and the stall owners are only too happy to talk about their produce and products and provide samples to try where possible — Yalla in particular were very generous. There's some real bargains to be found and I was surprised how reasonably priced some things were.

Other visits to Eveleigh Farmers' Market:
• 21 Aug 2010 - Kylie Kwong Steamed savoury pancakes with organic vegetables and organic egg, Jonima Flowers, Block 11 Organics, The Fungi Li-Sun, Bell River Estate Mulled Wine, Naturally Falafel, HealthyFeast, Yalla, Pepe's Ducks, AJ & LA Sorbello Fresh Produce tomatoes, Alto Olives oil and olives
• 20 Feb 2010 - Kylie Kwong Cooking Demo, Eumundi, Yalla, Achacha, Blini Bar crepes
• 7 March 2009 - Food samples galore

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Fair amount of free street parking, Good range of organic produce, Plenty of quality food stalls, Reasonable prices to be found

CONS: Can be hard to find a park close by, Very popular

MUST TRY: Yalla dips and salsas, Blini Bar's Spinach, mushrooms, sweet onion and cheese crepe

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