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1 week ago | 
broadsheet.com.au | Pilar Mitchell
It was an unremarkable March day at Du Plessy Pralin & Otello when Margie, a regular customer, turned up with a Chinese social media influencer looking for a Japonaise cake. A month later, queues pack the footpath every day outside the West Pymble shop, and it’s normal to see rows of people sitting with cake boxes in their laps, waiting for the bus back to the city. “It’s bizarre,” Du Plessy’s second-generation owner Paul Adam tells Broadsheet.
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3 weeks ago | 
sbs.com.au | Pilar Mitchell
Alone AustraliaGrowing up in the Lettermarriner Clan country in Tasmania’s North Midland Nation, catching eels was a regular part of day to day life for Geoffrey McLean. “Part of my country is the Cataract Gorge, a place where I still find spiritual solace, and when we were fishing for trout as kids, we also caught eels,” the historian, educator and Tasmanian Aboriginal man tells SBS Food. “The hardest thing about processing eels is removing their skin.
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3 weeks ago | 
broadsheet.com.au | Pilar Mitchell
“Salam!”Vahid Hamadin is calling out to customers walking in the door of Dorchin Persian. It’s late on a rainy Saturday afternoon when Broadsheet visits, but there’s still a steady stream of families coming in for lunch, and rows of Uber Eats orders arranged on the front counter. The mellow tones of people speaking Farsi rise over the music. “About 60 per cent of our customers are actually Australian,” says Amir Hamadin, Vahid’s brother and co-owner.
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3 weeks ago | 
broadsheet.com.au | Pilar Mitchell
Walking past the front entrance of the iconic Paddy’s Markets these days, you might do a double take. Instead of the racks of boomerangs, Pikachu onesies and inflatable green-and-gold kangaroos that were a mainstay of the gritty Chinatown market, there’s a brand new space with vendors selling loaded bagels, fresh pasta and pizza, flowers and trays of micro-herbs grown on-site under UV lights.
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4 weeks ago | 
theguardian.com | Pilar Mitchell
Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, taking place on 30 March or 31 March, depending on the sighting of the new moon. It’s the end of a spiritual month and Muslims around the world share many Eid customs, including seeing family, preparing food and wearing new clothes. Celebrating traditions from Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Algeria, five Australia-based chefs share what they will be cooking this Eid.
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1 month ago | 
broadsheet.com.au | Pilar Mitchell
It’s not every day a dish stops you in your tracks. But that’s what happened when Broadsheet visited Kolkata Social and tried the smoked fish. The barramundi fillet is perfect – robust yet tender, with a crisp skin – served half-submerged in a deeply flavoured smoked yoghurt broth laced with tangy mustard oil. Yes, chef Ahana Dutt’s modern Bengali menu offers plenty of delicious choice, but the fish is a showstopper.
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1 month ago | 
broadsheet.com.au | Pilar Mitchell
“You won’t find an Italian mamma in a Leichhardt restaurant kitchen anymore,” Con Damouras of Bar Italia tells Broadsheet. He’s reflecting on how the suburb he grew up in has changed. Damouras remembers a different Leichhardt, where Italian-run delis, fruit shops and restaurants ruled, and where, as a kid, he frequented Bar Italia. When the Norton Street institution came up for auction in 2014, he partnered with his brother-in-law Marcello Menga and mate Maurice Kostopoulos to buy the business.
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2 months ago | 
broadsheet.com.au | Pilar Mitchell
It’s nerve-wracking holding a tall, pistachio-rolled ice-cream upside down, but the staff at Bubooza in Concord are adamant: it won’t fall. That’s because Middle Eastern booza is more solid than gelato or ice-cream, and has a slightly chewy, stretchy texture. Which means that even though the milky-white, blossom-scented ashta flavour looks like a standard scoop, it can defy gravity. Abu Hassan, booza-maker and co-owner of Bubooza demonstrates.
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2 months ago | 
broadsheet.com.au | Pilar Mitchell
The soundtrack for Sir Manong isn’t music, it’s crunching. You’ll hear it over the buzz of the packed room as people bite into shatteringly crisp pork crackling, feasting on platters of crispy pata (pork knuckles) and lechon (roast suckling pig). Run by husband-and-wife team Tim and Liz Casaje, Eastern Creek’s Sir Manong celebrates classic Filipino food.
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2 months ago | 
broadsheet.com.au | Pilar Mitchell
Yeen Verasenee was content selling his light-as-air black sesame chiffon cakes, yuzu-glazed doughnuts and guaranteed-sell-out seven-layer honey cakes at markets across Sydney. But when friends told him a shopfront in Chippendale was up for rent, he decided the universe was telling him something. “I’ve been doing the markets for two years. I’ve always loved the way baking connects me with the community, and I never planned to find a permanent location,” Verasenee tells Broadsheet.
