“So anyway, I was wearing what I call my adventure pants” my friend Ute leans over and tells me.
“Adventure pants?” I ask.
“They’re cream linen pants. I don’t really care what happens to them so they’re my adventure pants.
I’m sitting at the bar of Neild Avenue at 6:15pm one Friday night. I was running late trying to find a park that lasted for longer than two hours (no luck) and Ute had arrived at 6pm when Neild Avenue opens. It is the latest eatery from Icebergs and North Bondi Italian’s Maurice Terzini and it is apparently the restaurant that everyone wants to be seen at. And from the long, tanned limbs and short dresses and long beach tousled hair, it looks like there are some lissome imports from Bondi here. Despite the fact that Ute was there at 6pm, that wasn’t enough to secure a table (there are no bookings here) and when I got there, there was only room at the bar. On a wobbly bar stool (best not attempted in heels).
The menu is shown to us (a stapled sheaf of pages) and a lovely young waitress from New Zealand takes our order. We ask her for recommendations on what seems to be an extensive menu. Each page is marked with a “No alterations to the menu” and we note that there are some very reasonably priced wines by the glass. There are a range of Mediterranean cultures represented from Turkish, Lebanese, Italian and Greek with sections broken down into small starters; grains, pulses & vegetables; ancient soups; more substantial starters and then a range of items from the coal grill and spit. We dither over the menu but then Ute utters the words that remind me of why I love dining with her. “Let’s order some things and I’m happy to start all over again if that isn’t enough and order more”. Music to my ears!
Complimentary bread
I look around. Open for just four weeks there seem to be people on every possible perching spot. I spot some television celebrities too. “It’s all very New York” Ute says surveying the room and it has that warehousy sort of vibe to it. The main dining area has high partitions and at the back is the kitchen where there are displays of meats, pastries and salads as you would see in a regular Turkish restaurant. The bread is an Afghan bread (Mr NQN’s favourite bread-he eats it by the yard) which is thin and slightly spongey. Here it is given the char treatment and served warm and smokey.
The kitchen with kebabs and breads in the window
Baked eggplant $17
Our starter is the baked eggplant covered with 12 hour cooked pork mince ragu and then topped with a white sauce of kasseri (Greek cheese) and pecorino cheese. It’s covered in a spray of parsley which helps give it freshness and the eggplant is soft and rich with the pork mince ragu and melted cheese topping although I don’t know if you say that it is particularly revelatory and I was hoping for one of those fall apart meat ragus rather than a mince one.
Fake Tabouli salad $12
There’s a large break between the eggplant and mains. One long enough where two people like us that can’t stop chatting actually notice that we haven’t had food for a while. The fake tabouli salad arrives and it is a moist salad made up of amaranth grain, tomato, cucumber flavoured with fresh coriander, parsley, lemon and a generous sprinkling of fried eschallots. On top of this is dolloped some hung yogurt which at first looks like hummus but has that unmistakeable yogurt tang. It’s wonderfully fresh and if this is what fake tabouli is, then I’m happy to have the fake.
Coal grilled leather jackets on the bone $35
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| December 20th, 2011 by Not Quite Nigella
I love travelling far and wide for a meal-it’s part of the whole adventure of food. However there are times when you just want a minimum of fuss. These times usually come about when one is pressed for time or when your friend has a new baby and of course can’t travel very far!
Christie and I were meeting up for lunch one day and as a Marrickville local she has partaken of a bountiful breakfast here at Celini’s. There are Turkish rugs on the tables and lots of warm wood and velvets in some settings while others are more regular cafe looking tables and chairs in others. Service is really wonderful and genuinely welcoming from the staff. And if it looks like we ordered a lot, it’s because we did-we did so with the intention of taking it home so we wouldn’t have to cook in the heat! 
Ayran $4
I start with an Ayran which is a slightly salty yogurt drink which is more watery than a lassi. The first time I tried it years ago I wasn’t smitten but once you expect the slight saltiness it’s very good.
Celini’s meze for two $20
The meze for two features two dips which we were able to select and we Christie chose the carrot and I chose the hommous. True to our selection we preferred the dips that we chose-the carrot has slight tangyness to it whilst the hommous is creamy and smokey and thick. It comes with warm, slender batons of soft Turkish bread, stuffed vine leaves, some gorgeous cheese filled lady finger deep fried pastries, creamy herb topped feta and halved fried button mushrooms flavoured with oregano.
Iskender kebab $19
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| March 6th, 2011 by Not Quite Nigella
Storm photo. Photo by Shelby Taylor
Teena, Gina and I decide on Ottoman Cuisine for a Sunday girls only lunch one day. The weather looks promising this Sunday. It’s a sunny (relatively) balmy day in Sydney. I am running ten minutes late and I rush past the MCA which is crowded with tourists enjoying Sydney’s sun. Suddenly little pieces of white specks blow over everyone and black grey cloud passes over the sky. Everyone scrambles in different directions and all I can say is “I wish I was filming this!”. My friend Shelby took the above photo from her place-fantastic huh?
Dip platter and bread
Moral of the story? Well if I had been on time I would have completely missed the sudden storm but as it turns out I was caught in it so I cabbed the final way to Ottoman Cuisine on Pier 2 of Dawes Point. We are partaking of their Sunday Lunch where you get a nine course tasting menu for $55. Ottoman Cuisine started off in Canberra where it became famous and the location here is a lovely waterfront one with all floor to ceiling glass views of the harbour.
Dip platter
We start off with the colourful dip platter which features four house made dips beetroot, crushed eggplant, babaganoush & hommus. They’re all delicious but the eggplant is definitely the favourite with its slight smokiness and the well rounded flavour with chilli and carrot. The beetroot is rather striking and it’s a combination of yogurt, dill and beetroot. The bread is soft and fresh and we order some more to mop up the dips.
Trio platter
There are some changes to the menu today. Our next course is a selection of three things. There is a lamb sausage which is very nicely seasoned, some char grilled zucchini pieces and there are three dolmade halves which are wonderfully fresh, warm and stuffed with rice and pine nuts. Some olives round off the platter. Teena and Gina order some wine and it comes out in a very generous sized glass.
Zucchini flowers
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| October 8th, 2010 by Not Quite Nigella
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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| September 15th, 2010 by Not Quite Nigella
For anyone inclined to grab some delicious Turkish food at The Sultan’s Table, let this review serve as a warning to avoid the fate that has plagued many visiting, including us, of being turned away without a reservation on a Saturday night. Looking like a takeaway joint from the outside, it is deceptively large with tables to dine in towards the back and a loyal and numerous clientele that already know the score. If you want to eat here on a Friday or Saturday night, it’s a good idea to book ahead by a few days.
This Saturday night we are in possession of a reservation. And a good thing too, for even as we’re dining early at 6pm, we watch a steady stream of people being turned away. For those of you that do find yourselves in the same situation, there are tables outside where you can eat your takeaway but of course it’s not quite the same.
Prices for dine in are mostly $1-2 more than for takeaway except for the plates of dips which are double the price. We presume this is to discourage people from ordering a plate of dips and sitting there for an hour. We start off with a plate of the colourful dips with Turkish bread and then order an eggplant fritter, the Sultans Kebab, Iskender Kebab, Guvec and a Kusabilli Pide all topped off with a baklava.
Service it has to be said is very charming and friendly. It seems the gruffer types are behind the counter dealing with the takeaway customers (and even then they aren’t that gruff it should be said) and the friendly ones are taking care of the restaurant. We muse that they probably split themselves up beforehand and said “Ok you like people, you deal with them, I don’t so I’ll just cook and do takeaway orders.”
Mixed dips (medium) $14 with Turkish bread $3 Clockwise from top left: carrot dip, jajik, spinach, babaganoush, chili, hummous, beetroot and spinach dip with eggplant in the centre.
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| April 20th, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
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