The key with going for a successful food adventure is going with people that truly love food. Our friends Queen Viv and Miss America are always willing to go that extra mile for that extra special meal which is a sentiment I always appreciate as I am the same. So despite the fact that Miss A. has been up for over 25 hours straight and she is still willing to go out for dessert after our carnivorous fest at Carne Station proves what a strong constitution and resolve she has. Just what a beauty queen needs really.
Turkish Oud
So its late in the evening when we drive up to Auburn and revisit a place we’ve been to several times before lured by Grab Your Fork and known for their fabulous Dondurma (salep enriched stretchy Turkish ice cream), Mado cafe. Service is a unsure and wary, as if we’ve fallen outside of a spaceship and our questions are answered with a confused “I don’t know”. Its a pity the service is so neglectful as the desserts are divine.
Dondurma (Turkish stretchy ice cream) churning
We know what we want, what we’ve had before and loved, the ice cream (including a must have black mulberry) so we choose the Cup Maras which is an ice cream sundae with scoops of black mulberry, pistachio, sour cherry and maras (white) with fruit salad and sour cherry sauce ($9.50) and the Kazandibi ($5.50) a “cauldron bottom” charred pudding thickened with salep from the orchid root. To quench our thirst we order a Turkish sour cherry drink ($3), Gazoz a Turkish lemonade ($2.50) and Turkish mineral water ($2.50).
From left to right: Gazoz a Turkish lemonade ($2.50), Turkish sour cherry drink ($3), and Turkish mineral water ($2.50)
Our drinks arrive along with our sundae and pudding. The Turkish mineral water tastes like regular mineral water, refreshing and with hard large bubbles, not softly carbonated. The sour cherry drink, always a favourite (we downed about 20 bottles of this last time) is gorgeously fruity and the Turkish lemonade has a fruity flavour to it, almost like creaming soda.
Cup Maras sundae $9.50 Four flavours of ice cream with fruit salad and sour cherry sauce
We dig into our mermaid decorated sundae and I start with my favourite, the black mulberry. Its sweet and with a slight berry tang to it but so heady in berries, its like burying your face in a field of the sweetest berries. The pistachio is lovely too, although not particularly pisctacho-ey with just a faint echo of it. The sour cherry ice cream looks to be replaced by the mango which is nice enough but we know that the sour cherry would have been nicer-I wish they had told us that it was not available. The maras is a mild, plain flavour, more like a milk flavour. The fruit salad is fairly small consisting of a few grapes and tiny cubes of melon but the thick sour cherry topping is gorgeous and I want it by the jar to drizzle over ice cream at home.
Kazandibi $5.50
The Kazandibi, always a favourite of ours, is gloriously stretchy and sweet with a liberal touch of cinnamon. Its hard to describe as there’s nothing quite like it, its similar to a super stretchy rice pudding without the grains of rice.
I contemplate buying the black mulberry by the tub but alas with the night so warm and the journey home so long I know that it will be melted (or eaten) long before we reach our driveway…
Mado Cafe
63 Auburn Road, Auburn Sydney
Ph: +61 (02) 9643-5299
Monday-Friday 8am-midnight, Saturday-Sunday 10am-midnight
Payment accepted: MasterCard, Visa, Diners Club and American Express
Vegetarian options
Also locations in Brisbane and Melbourne
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12 Comments | Add your own
foodie friends are the best
oh yum, you’ve given me a craving
and that kazandibi… glorious stuff. i’m looking forward to cooler weather (um, ok, here already) so I can delight in thick sweet salep milk – the powder stuff lasts for ages!
Hi Tian-They sure are! It’d be much less fun without them
Hi Helen-How about some Turkish ice cream for summer and some salep for winter?
Looking for a detailed description of how to make Maras dondurma. Ingredients AND technique. Help !
Thanks.
M.
Hi Marcel-I am afraid I have no idea how to make it, only how to eat it!
Hey, I have been to Mado Cafe 2 weeks ago and tried the ice cream as I was around the area. The maras ice cream was so sweet. I didn’t like it as it was too sweet, maybe I’ll try other ice cream. Kazandibi was great. Liked it.
What is the thing they called salep a.k.a orchid tuber? Is that a real? They also have salep drink which I have not try yet as I was travelling alone to pick up something in Auburn.
My friends want to go there when it is sunny and hot. Thanks for the info.
Hi Lilia-Our choice was definitely the black mulberry (see story above).
Well yes salep is real, you can google it and read more about it.
You’re welcome!
i recently went there to have the ONLY ice cream that you use a knife and fork for, and i like it!! But the Kazandibi looks great, i should of tried……….next time
Hi sydneyguyrojoe-The Kazandibi is really good, we always have to order that
hello,I’m from Türkiye from Ankara,
very beautiful photo
we are foods:
çiğ köfte,içli köfte,kuru fasulye
sütlaç,güveç,pilav…
Hi Lorraine!
I’ve just come home from having dinner at Mado with friends from work.
We had a full meal, starting with a mixed plate of dips, which we shared…I am in love with the beetroot dip! LOL
Then we all ordered individual main dishes – I decided to go with the easy option of Kofte. I was a little disappointed by the potato wedges they served the meatballs with – they were hard and mostly cold…but otherwise not too bad.
By the time it got to dessert, everyone (except me) was full – but I didn’t want to be the only person eating a dessert to themselves, so we bought the ‘ice cream you eat with a knife & fork’!
It was yum!! I wished I’d eaten a whole one by myself! LOL
And I drank a sour cherry drink, which I loved!!
All up, it was a good night – the service was pretty good. Our waiter was so nice – he was making us try our hand at pronouncing the dishes we were ordering, and he wanted to take photos of us with our cameras!
He was really sweet! 
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