Auburn: A Photographic Food Tour

Lahmeh bil agine lamb pizza $1.50

"We having our own little food tour in Auburn", emailed a good friend. "Would you like to be our honorary tour guide?"

Food. Shopping. More of that irresistably stretchy dondurma Turkish ice cream?

I didn't need to be asked twice.

And so after a morning spent in the bargain-hunting scrum that was the Lindt Chocolate Warehouse Sale, I found myself back in Auburn again, six weeks after our first foodbloggers' tour.

I had an hour to kill until my planning meeting time, so a mid-morning snack of lahm bi aggin provided tasty re-fuelling. Last time I was here I couldn't resist the za'atar mankoushe from Sarah Pizza. The lahm bi aggin was just as addictive. A crusty base was topped with a thick slather of sweetened tomato paste mixed with lamb mince, onions, garlic, cumin and ground coriander.

Our food tour commenced with lunch at Sofra and dessert at Mado - meals which are worthy of a post of their own (it's coming!). And food shopping? Bah. Enough words. Bring on the photos.

Auburn: A photographic food tour


Cherry nectar


Auburn Lebanese bakery

Mountains and mountains of Lebanese bread. Just Lebanese bread. Baked on the premises for only $1 a bag.


Brothers Turkish Kebab and Pizza


Turkish signage and menu items at Michel's Patisserie


Menzil Turkish Bake House


Anatolia Restaurant - housed in an old Pizza Hut!


Darband Persian Restaurant

I would love to come back and try Persian cuisine. The menu seemed similar to Turkish with kebabs and salads. But I'd still be keen to check it out.


Turkish Persian or Iranian "boy band" poster


Turkish jams

We spent much time at Gima Market which was well stocked and incredibly neat and tidy! The jams above were perfectly faced!


Tahrana powder for Turkish tomato soup


Sumac


Bushells Turkish Style coffee


Dried manti

Manti is a Turkish style of tortellini, usually served with garlic yoghurt and spoonfuls of a buttery tomato sauce. I bought a packet to try. The little pinched parcels looked too cute to resist!


Leblebi sekeri candied chickpeas


Turkish shave stick


Turkish soaps


Sour cherry juice


Real Turkish Delight chocolate counter

The intake of breaths behind me was clearly audible as I led the way into Real Turkish Delight. Neat trays of perfectly formed chocolates, old-fashioned glass jars of sweets and decadent cake masterpieces tend to have that effect.


Trays of chocolate


Gold-topped glass jars of chocolates and sweets


Turkish bread from Azar Bakery

With picnic plans the next day, I purchased two bags of soft fluffy Turkish bread. One came from the very new Azar Bakery, where a man was cautiously peeling the backing from the bright yellow lettering which read "Lavash". There were shelves of thin lavash and long flat rectangles of turkish bread too, all for a penny-pinching one dollar.


Turkish bread from Buket Cake Shop

The other came from Buket Cake Shop, a thicker rounder fluffier loaf topped with sesame seeds.


Arzum Market


Hot dogs in a can


Chicken luncheon meat in a can


Kras Express chocolate drink powder


Salep mix

I added a box of salep mix to my shopping bags. I had forgotten to pick some up last time after I had tried this winter warmer at Mado Cafe. Made from the powdered root of a wild orchid, it's mixed with hot milk and heated, stirring, until thickened. It's a cosy almost-spoonable drink, and although winter is almost over, I'm sure there'll be a few cool nights to warrant a hot milk drink.


Turkish pastirma air-dried beef

Picnic sandwich ingredient #1 was 150g of pastirma. The pastirma seemed an easier option after the helpful woman behind the counter told me that the horseshoes of sucuk spicy Turkish sausage required cooking and peeling the paper off could be a bit tricky. "Soak the paper off with a little hot water" she suggested. I made a mental note to buy it next time, when I would fry it up in little chunks to be savoured with scrambled eggs and fried tomato in the style of a traditional Turkish breakfast.

The little box of pastirma was a wise choice though. Paper thin shavings of young beef had a heady smell of cumin, garlic, fenugreek and spicy paprika. Young beef is dehydrated and then coated with a thick cumin paste known as cemen. The meat is then air-dried until ready.


Bulgarian kashkavar sheeps milk cheese

Picnic sandwich filling #2: Sheep Kashkaval, a Bulgarian yellow cheese made from sheep's milk. It's a buttery nutty cheese with a tangy aftertaste. The texture is smooth and satiny, and apparently it's very tasty slice in thick wedges, crumbed and then deep-fried.

Uh oh. This could be dangerous.


So you wanna do a food tour...

Anatolia Restaurant
10 Civic Road Auburn, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9643 9911

Arzum Market
61 Rawson Street Auburn, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9649 9327

Auburn Lebanese Bakery
91 Auburn Road Auburn, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9749 7142

Azar Bakery
12 Civic Road Auburn, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9649 9993

Darband Persian Restaurant
Unit 9/ 45 Rawson Street Auburn, Sydney
Tel: +61(02) 9646 4466

Gima Market and Gifts
36 Auburn Road Auburn, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9749 4588

Menzil Turkish Bakehouse
40 Auburn Road Auburn, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9749 2523

Real Turkish Delight Sweets
1/ 3 Station Road Auburn, Sydney
Tel: +61(02) 9649 9787

Sarah Pizza
156 South Parade Auburn, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9649 5373

Related GrabYour Fork posts:
Auburn dining: Al Sofra Pizza, Pide and Kebabs
Auburn dining: Mado Cafe
Auburn food shopping: Harkola Food World Wide warehouse
Auburn photographic food tour, July 2006

Foodbloggers' tour of Ashfield, March 2006
Foodbloggers' tour of Chinatown dim sum shops, July 2005
Foodbloggers' tour of Rozelle to Balmain, November 2004
Foodbloggers' tour of Strathfield and Homebush, July 2005