Brummel Kashmir - The foodies guide to Sydney 2011: more than 400 butchers, bakers, food stores and chocolate makers

the
foodies'
guide to
sydney

More than 400 butchers, bakers,
food stores and chocolate makers

Elizabeth Meryment Kate Gibbs Pauline Nguyen

with Kashmir Brummel Susan Burns Kalianna Dean Ross Dobson Debbie Elkind Leanne Kitchen Billy Law Sarah Lewis Zoe Lyon Danielle Oppermann Liv Proud Michael Shafran Simon Thomsen Alison Wykes Helen Yee

Published in 2010 by Hardie Grant Books

Hardie Grant Books (Australia)
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Prahran, Victoria 3181
www.hardiegrant.com.au

Hardie Grant Books (UK)
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Dudley House
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www.hardiegrant.co.uk

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The moral rights of the authors have been asserted.

Copyright text 2010 Hardie Grant Books

ISBN 978 1 74066 909 2

Cover design by Michelle Mackintosh
Cover photography by Sharyn Cairns
Text design by Jacqueline Richards
Typesetting by Megan Ellis
Edited by Kim Rowney
Proofread by Sarah Dawson
Maps by Country Cartographics
Colour reproduction by Splitting Image Colour Studio
Printed and bound in Australia by BPA Print Group

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contents

The fifth edition of The Foodies Guide to Sydney heralds some changes, with new editors and a new team scouring the city to find the best places to shop for food and wine.

That means weve looked at every store from previous editions with fresh eyes and new voices, so while youll see many familiar places featuring once again, there is a range of new discoveries along with some who no longer make the cut. Shopping for great food is a joy and weve tried to capture that in the way we assess the stores listed here. Weve come home to our kitchens invigorated and inspired by the stores weve visited.

Weve also attempted to streamline the 2011 edition to minimise the repetition of previous years, so if a particular shop wears many hats say deli, butcher, greengrocer and Greek, weve tried to identify what theyre best at and list it just once, signalling its other talents along the way. Of course there are some exceptions that deserve additional recognition, but weve tried to make it easier to find what youre looking for. To that end, weve combined some obvious categories, such as coffee and tea merchants, into one section.

Call it the MasterChef phenomenon if you want we think there already was a growing momentum for quality food and interesting ingredients thats had a small nudge from the reality TV show but whats clear from our visits to butchers, bakers, greengrocers, wine stores and their ilk is that, in the face of supermarket juggernauts offering little other than lower prices (sometimes to the cost of the farmers and producers involved), the small guys (and gals) have fought back with increased product ranges, an intimate knowledge of what they stock (not I think its in aisle six) and strong support for like-minded people.

Its interesting that the Big Boys can see the appeal of these small traders and try hard to imitate their magic. They cant, of course, because its all about the people behind the counter. We list these small stores here because we believe in what theyre doing and encourage you to support them too, because youll not only come away with something great to eat or drink, youll also leave wiser and happier after meeting and chatting with great people. Their delight and interest in you comes from the heart, not a training manual.

Shopping for food is all about discovery and youll find plenty of new things to explore in the 2011 edition. If you do find somewhere great thats not listed here, please let us know so we can share it with our fellow foodies next time foodiesguide@hardiegrant.com.au.

In the meantime, enjoy and eat well.

The Foodies Guide to Sydney is our pick of this citys and some of the states finest food providores. Whether youre looking for a Middle Eastern spice mix, a certain fish for bouillabaisse, a low-gluten bread or German rye, youll most likely find it at one of the suppliers listed in here.

Demographers like to make little coloured maps showing where certain types of people cluster. What youll find among these 400 or so listings is a rainbow of flavours. The FoodiesGuide reveals how remarkably diverse Sydney is, for while there are clusters of nationalities Greeks in Petersham, Italians in Leichhardt and Five Dock somewhere like Bankstown is a remarkable melting pot of nationalities, including Greek, Vietnamese and Lebanese. It offers probably the best food shopping in Sydney just check the index, which lists stores by suburb, as well as in alphabetical order.

Weve made clusters of certain types of stores butchers, bakers, greengrocers and 34 other categories and listed them alphabetically, but this year weve tried to streamline things. Weve made some changes based on how we think people shop, so rather than clumping all the bakers together, stores with a focus on the flavours of a particular country are now listed in the World Food section under that nationality. We hope that will make it easier for you to find a particular ingredient from Spain or Russia, for example. Weve included Halal and Jewish places too.

Youll find maps of the stores featured at the back of the book, which is handy if you just happen to be in Bondi and are wondering whats around, while to surprise and hopefully inspire you, weve laced the book with little snippets, including places where Sydneys top chefs shop and tips on what to buy.

We hope you enjoy exploring the 2011 Foodies Guide to Sydney.

Kashmir Brummel first found her foodie feet as the editor of yourRestaurants and yourBars. She is currently the Australian editor for Kluster magazine and runs her own food blog, Choux-In.

Susan Burns is a self-confessed curd nerd and is fascinated about all things cheese. She has attended cheese appreciation classes, visited cheesemakers and learnt the art of cheese judging. Her adventures are recounted in her blog, www.somethingtonibbleon.com.

It was during a two-and-a-half-year stint in London studying journalism that Kalianna Dean realised how much she missed Australias fresh and bountiful produce. This sparked an interest in organic and healthy food, and her food-writing career began.

Ross Dobson has published eight cookbooks and is co food editor of Australian Good Food magazine. Ross is currently at the helm of Cafe at Lewers, in Emu Plains, where he prepares and serves locally sourced raw ingredients from the lower Blue Mountains and NepeanHawkesbury region.

Debbie Elkind has tackled foodie topics ranging from black pudding to crme brle for publications including