Auburn Street Festival

Another weekend. Another festival.

A sun-drenched summery day--all blue skies and not a cloud to be seen--greeted today's Auburn Street Festival. It was a tough call between the Bankstown Bites Food Festival and the Auburn Street Festival, but the allure of dondurma ice cream was too strong to resist. Besides, I had checked out Bankstown Bites last year, whereas the Auburn Street Festival was completely new to me.



Auburn Road and several side streets were closed to traffic and taken over by white tented stalls, selling all manner of treats and trinkets. There were rides for the kids, air tattoos, face painting and even a quest for an Auburn teen Idol.


Mado ice cream stall


Dondurma Turkish stretchy ice cream

Its unique elasticity comes from salep, a flour made from wild orchid roots.


Gozleme stall


Hot dog and Turkish pides


Pizza


Hookahs, a water pipe used for smoking

The heat soon led the legs to Mado Cafe for some much welcomed ice-cream refreshment.


Pistachio and maras dondurma
(in front of the dondurma stretching barrel)

The pistachio was quite tasty but the maras was unbeatable with its super elasticity (at times the threads that extended resembled melted mozzarella). The maras dondurma contains a higher ratio of salep, which makes it thicker, stretchier and that much more satisfying!

On a hot day like today, the dondurma was pleasingly refreshing without being sickly sweet. The sensation of chewing on ice cream can never be tired of, either.

Then it was time to hit the shops for an Auburn grocery catch-up:


Lavash bread from Azar Bakery

In addition to some lavash and flat bread, I also picked up some Persian sweet bread.


Persian sweet bread

The sweet bread, the shopkeeper explained, is usually eaten for breakfast with a cup of tea, or had as a snack in the afternoon. For $2.40 I just nodded, and added it to my bag.

Later nibbling revealed it to be like a biscuity bread. It has a mild sweet taste that would be perfect for those days when you don't really feel like breakfast. The surface has a sweeter crunch to it, and this combined with the toasted sesame seeds reminded me a little of Chinese fried sesame balls.


Morello cherry jam, grilled eggplant puree and sujuk

After a quick browse through Gima and Arzum Market, the shoulders were sagging with a jar of morello cherry jam, some grilled eggplant puree (a new favourite--its supreme smokiness is deliciously addictive and it has been invaluable for sandwiches, pastas and last-minute pizzas) and a coil of sucuk spicy Turkish sausage. A tray of pashmak Persian fairy floss may have also snuck in.


Cheese pide from Buket Cake Shop

A late lunch was had courtesy of Buket Bakery: a long skinny boat of pide filled with a tangy white cheese and flecks of parsley, and a sesame-encrusted ring of simit, all crisp and toasted on the outside; soft, fluffy and butter within.


Simit

The Auburn Street Festival is an annual event. This year's festival was held on Saturday September 23, 2006.

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, August 2006
Auburn photographic food tour, July 2006