“There are eight of us, that’s definitely a good sign!”

Now ordinarily I’m not a particularly superstitious person. It mainly extends to jinxes more than anything else. And whilst Chinese people are renowned for being superstitious, I’d say that my parents were mildly superstitious but not overtly so. The number 8 is said to be extremely lucky (and I was born on the eighth of the month so I figure that has given me plenty of luck) and conversely the number 4 is said to be bad luck. But growing up, practically overrode superstition and when they bought their first house we ended up growing up in a house numbered 44. If you know Chinese people you would know that many would either ask to change the number or they would quite likely not live at a house who has an extremely unlucky number (with 44 being double bad luck!).

So when we had our crowd of eight dumpling eaters I couldn’t help but remark about the superstitious number. Allow me to explain our exploits for the day. Our aim was simple, to find the best Xiao Long Bao soup dumplings in Sydney. You know those deliciously warming dumplings that seem to have taken over the hearts and tummies of food lovers? At best they have a delicate, silky skin encasing a pork filling with a hot, fragrant soup inside which burst open to warm the tummies (and possibly scald the tongue!). We’d see if dumpling fatigue was indeed a real phenomenon and we would test our stomach’s fortitude in the most delicious way.

Starting at 1:30pm in the afternoon (later than we’d like but David had a swim that morning) our group was made up of intrepid dumpling lovers Queen Viv, Miss America, David the chef from Perama and his wife Belinda, Jen from Truffled Pink and her boyfriend Nick came along with Mr NQN and I. Only hardened dumpling lovers needed apply. Our list encompassed nine dumpling restaurants in total spread across Sydney. Everyone perused the list of dumpling houses that we were eating at and nodded. “Also there are a lot of eights in the phone numbers!” someone exclaimed.

The dumpling-mobile aka Black Cherry

This was a mission that was planned far ahead of time. In fact it was planned almost three months in advance and in that space of time our naughty car Elphaba had decided to protest and die and we found ourselves carless. Thankfully the kind people at Toyota loaned me their new Rukus car (in a colour we christened “Black Cherry”) to help us in our mission. Thank god for friends with cars!

The brief:

• Try steamed xiao long bao and the pan fried pork buns if they had them on the menu
• We could order any drinks that we needed (dumpling chasing is thirsty work!)
• Try not to loiter if the place is busy
• We would score the dumplings on four criteria: the pastry, appearance, filling/flavour and soup. They would be scored out of 10 with adjustments allowed

Din Tai Fung, World Square, Sydney CBD

Our first stop was aiming high. We had all at other times visited Din Tai Fung and knew that their Xiao Long Baos were fantastic and whilst there was some debate about the flavour of the dumplings with Mr NQN insisting that Shanghai Night‘s were better for flavour, there was no mistaking how pretty these specimens were. Said to have at least 18 pleats in each individual dumpling these were mini works of art. As we walk towards Din Tai Fung we see a huge sign saying that they are not affiliated with any other dumpling restaurant which is oddly large for such an announcement.

Mr NQN, Queen Viv, Miss America and I meet the rest of our dining pals in front of this sign. “We’ve been kicked out!” Belinda tells us as they had been sitting there waiting for us but when they asked for a table for eight, they were asked to wait outside for a table. Yes it’s that sort of place. There is always a queue outside Din Tai Fung, pretty much at any time of the day.

“We’ve got to take turns explaining to them why we only want Xiao Long Bao” we agree and I go first. I fill in the form on the table ticking the boxes for two lots of Xiao Long Bao (we’re hungry as it is past our lunch hour) including several orders for the terribly refreshing lychee and mint drink and beers and two lots of xiao long bao.

The waiter hesitates “Just two?” “Yes just two, we’re on a diet” I offer. To their credit there’s no gnashing of the teeth (the large drinks order probably bought us an extra 30 minutes at the table) and they bring us a little stand for our handbags which comes with a cover cloth.

Xiao Long Bao

Our dumplings arrive quickly as they tend to here and they are very pretty specimens indeed. On the table are small bowls with threads of ginger on them and you add the vinegar and soy to these strands of ginger and dip the dumpling into this. There is even a guide telling people how to eat a Xiao Long Bao so we carefully followed the instructions and deliver a soup, gingery specimen to our lips. The dumpling skin is wonderfully silky and smooth and thin and the filling is less dense and less tightly packed than other dumpling restaurants. The soup with its helpful injection of ginger in the sauce is also just the right amount. Popular with the group, we pass around the scorecard and mark them.

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When I receive an offer by email from Somer Sivrioglu from Balmain’s Efendy restaurant I am giggling with glee. For a tour by one of Sydney’s top Turkish chefs to the Turkish rich area of Auburn is like getting a local’s tour with an inside track on Turkish cuisine! Auburn is a suburb in Sydney’s West with a lot of Turkish and Asian cuisine. Some friends have found it slightly intimidating to go there from the distance to the shops with unfamiliar ingredients but others have revelled in the other worldly atmosphere – not unlike being on a holiday. Auburn is also home of the largest Mosque in Australia so this has meant that the people that live in the area has now changed. It used to be mostly Turkish but now there are people from Africa and Morocco as well as Asia.

As we drive to Auburn Somer tells me a bit about himself,  the Turkish food scene in Sydney and his restaurant Efendy (which means “gentleman” in old Turkish). Turkey is a country that focuses very much on regional cuisine and that is why it can be hard to replicate it outside of Turkey. Certain areas are known for excelling in certain products and people will buy the products from there. There are also regions that are known for being gastronomic regions.  Turkey also occupies an area between the Middle East and Europe and in fact Istanbul is partly in Asia and partly in Europe.

Somer visits Auburn once every two weeks to get inspired and to shop for produce. His speciality is mezze and his changes day on day according to what is available. Even though it is a predominantly Muslim country, Turkish people like to drink and the aim of mezze was to complement alcohol. Their drink is called Raki which is an anise based liquor with a 50% proof like  across between ouzo and ayran and when mixed with water it turns cloudy. Foods that are heavy in olive oil or protein are needed to eat along with the Raki.

A friendly local

The other item that he likes to buy on his trips out to Auburn are lamb’s testicles which are very hard to source . They are so hard to find that lamb testicle loving customers need to call ahead to the restaurant to ensure that there will be some available. Turkey is very much an offal loving culture with tripe, sweetbreads and other organs on the menu. Cooking culture is very much ingrained in Turkish culture and Somer tells me that recipe bartering is common-but of course a recipe may be given missing a crucial ingredient

Somer grew up in the restaurant industry as his mother owned a restaurant in Turkey. He moved to Sydney as he was looking to get out of the armed services and an Australian university was the first one that accepted him. He draws similarities between Sydney and Istanbul but now calls Sydney “home”.

RT Turkish Delight

A rose scent fills the air and I look up and smile. Founded in 1974 RT Turkish Delight makes my favourite Turkish delight-the hazelnut and coconut Turkish Delight.  Real Turkish Delight is somewhat of an institution. Started 25 years ago by Bahattin Pektuzun who has now passed, it is now run by his three sons including Bill and Eddie who I meet today.  Somer tells us that he used to buy his Turkish Delight direct from Turkey but he now buys the Turkish Delight from here. It is fresher as it doesn’t have to travel very far and the flavour and texture are very good.

They also hold the world record for the largest Turkish Delight at 3.2 tonnes in 2003! It took four people 64 hours to make this in split shifts. It was displayed in Darling Harbour and then sold off in 6 kg slabs and raised $12,000 for Westmead Children’s Hospital. It was a rose flavoured Turkish delight without nuts to weigh it down. Interestingly, rose flavoured Turkish delight is not the most popular flavour with the Turkish people, it’s hazelnut and coconut (hey cool, I have a  Turkish palate!).

They make 80-100 tonnes a year here and supply to shops all over Australia and have been supplying to David Jones (where I first discovered it) for 20 years. They produce seven flavours as well as a large range of chocolates all coated in Belgian couverture.

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You know you’re a food addict when you will happily spend your birthday at a pig farm. This year when my friend The Second Wife asked me if I would like to come along to a VictorsFood South West Markets Food Tour I happily accepted knowing that on my birthday I’d be knee deep in food. After all there isn’t a much more pleasurable way to spend a day is there?

I’m greeted by Victor Pisapia and his partner Jim at Danks Street where the bus is waiting for us. We are to leave at 9am sharp and the bus is packed full of people. Tawnya is the tour guide and she gives us a quick overview of what we are to be doing while keeping some of the places that we’ll visit a secret (arrgh, you know me, I like to know these things but I comply). Some of the places that we’ll be going to today aren’t open to the public so it’s doubly exciting whereas others are open to the public and we can revisit them again should the urge strike.

Victor the fig farmer

Our first stop is about 45 minutes away. She lets the word “fig” escape and suddenly I’m clapping excitedly like a well trained seal. Figs are my downfall – too many dollars go into buying these sweet, luscious babies and visiting a fig farm is exciting indeed. We drive past a stand selling figs and fig trees and then we are greeted by Victor the farmer, the fantastic headband wearing fig farmer and his wife Julie. Upon spotting the headband I am immediately recalling “The Royal Tenenbaums” and apparently he is never seen without his headband.  On the 10 acres of land  there are 2,500 fig trees and from the produce they made shortbreads, biscuits, caramelised fig balsamic dressing, fig jam, dessert figs as well a vincotto, a grape syrup. During fig season they have up to 10 people picking and these are usually students. Fig season lasts from the second week of January until the end of May this year and will conclude with the first frost of the season. As we’re at the tail end of the season, they are not quite as ripe as the ones picked during the heat of the Summer.

We help ourselves to tea and coffee and delicious biscuits that they make here. There are cookies that tastes like they’ve been deep fried and glazed. There are also two types of fig cookies, one with a shortbread and another one dusted with icing sugar which are divine and melt in the mouth.

“How about bats as pests?” someone asks and Victor becomes even more animated jumping up and down. These are among the biggest pests for him and he tells us that every night they destroy about 10-16 boxes worth of figs. To scare them he  beats a drum while riding a bike up and down the rows in an effort to scare them away.

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