Italian Forum Market

Portobello mushrooms

We visited the Italian Forum Markets last Sunday, its much anticipated return appearance after a prolonged hiatus.



The Italian Forum is an ambitious attempt to create an Italian piazza atmosphere within inner-city Leichhardt, Sydney's own celebrated Little Italy. There's a huge square, a fountain, restaurants and cafes in the courtyard, and balconied apartments in lemon-yellow overhead.

The markets were a mix of foods, flowers, arts and crafts. There wasn't as much food as say, the Good Living Growers Markets, but it was a pleasant way to spend a Sunday morning, following the snaking alleys with apartments looming above, easily imagining crowded washing lines overhead and an Italian grandmother sweeping the courtyard.


Infinity Sourdough
(based in Darlinghurst--I do have a soft spot for their
buttery crumbly hazelnut-packed shortbread!)


Infinity Sourdough breads


Homemade jams and pickles


Organic free-range eggs


Smoked trout pate from Cowra Smokehouse


Wood ear mushrooms


Nameko mushrooms

Nameko apparently means "slimy cap" in Japanese, and with their distinctive wet texture and a taste reminiscent of cashews, these are the second-most popular cultivated mushroom in Japan (after shiitake).


Chestnut mushrooms


Enoki mushrooms

Italian Forum Market
10am-2pm every Sunday
Forum Galleria, Fashion and Lifestyle shopping level
(above the restaurants and piazza)
23 Norton Street, Leichhardt, Sydney