Aalia's new spring long lunch is here with seven courses of fresh, seasonal Middle Eastern fine dining dishes. From crunchy fattoush crackers to Murray Cod masgouf and a crunchy mango katafi to finish. Find out more about it here.
Aalia's new Spring long lunch has just sprung and the fine dining Middle Eastern menu includes a range of lighter dishes designed for spring. It's a sunny Friday spring day when Mr NQN and I arrive at Aalia at 25 Martin Place. The sun is reflecting off the other city buildings bathing the outdoor area in warmth.
The 7 course spring long lunch includes 7 courses for $119 per person with a minimum of 2 people. All of the dishes are from the main menu and designed to complement each other. Drinks are extra and you can also upgrade your menu with Sydney rock oysters.
We start with a couple of cocktails. Both of these are available in carafes with 3 serves of cocktail for $60 a carafe. We try the Fig and Fizz with Belvedere vodka, Cointreau, Pot and Still fig aperitif and fig soda which is my favourite as it has a great balance of flavours and spice. Mr NQN enjoys the freshness of the Arak Highball made with Arak, Four Pillars "rare dry" gin, cucumber, allspice, apple and pear soda.
My first bite is my favourite item: it's the Angelachu anchovies with aish muhammara dip and finely shaved macadamias on a lightly toasted slice of Turkish bread. The bread is spongey and crunchy but not dry and soaks up all of those delicious muhamara dip flavour with red capsicum and nuts while the Cantabrian anchovies spike each bite with saltiness.
The Fattoush cracker is a paper thin cracker topped with small, wrinkled preserved tomatoes, shredded green apple, pomegranate arils, mint leaves and onion. This is a light, refreshing and textural bite that is great to start on and a good contrast to the bold, salty and rich anchovy dish above.
The lamb nayyeh is raw, finely chopped leg of lamb with a creamy, whipped sesame butter, topped with a deconstructed tabbouleh and served with cos leaves with a lovely fine crunch in each bite.
Another favourite course is the halloumi that is hand stretched and served on a pool of buttermilk with folds of rockmelon over it. Normally rockmelon can be a polarising ingredient but here it fits, giving the salty cheese a refreshing sweetness.
The Khorsan pita bread comes proudly spherical and burnished with darkened bubbles. It's drizzled with olive oil from a collaboration between Chef Paul Farag and Rio Vista.
Masgouf is an Iraqi technique of cooking fish over an open flame that makes the skin crisp and this is Aalia's interpretation of what some call Iraq's national dish. The Murray cod is served as a fillet in a scarlet pool of glaze with garlic, turmeric, tamarind and with double apple aka the juice of apple and pineapple. The crispiness of the skin belies how juicy the fillet of Murray Cod is underneath.
The iceberg salad is served as sliced cheeks of iceberg lettuce topped with avocado ezma and feta and a creamy dressing, I loved this iceberg salad so much that I think that I ate half of it and it goes perfectly with the fish.
You can't have fish without chips but even the chips have a Middle Eastern accent to them via the sprinkling of ras el hanout spice blend lending the chips an aromatic warmth.
I'm not a big dessert person but the dessert is a fantastic mix of a brown butter kataifi shell much like a brandy snap with squiggles of piped coconut natef (like a soft whipped marshallow meringue dip), mango sorbet and sumac spiced green mango.
So tell me Dear Reader, which dish do you like the sound of the most? And have you ever tried masgouf?
NQN and Mr NQN dined as guests of Aalia but all opinions remain her own.
Aalia
Shop 7.07-7.08, 25 Martin Place, Sydney, NSW 2000
Phone: 02 9182 5880
Monday to Thursday 12pm-10pm
Friday 12pm-12am
Saturday 5pm-12pm
Sunday closed
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