TIM Products - Greek pastries

By Grant

Now if you’re a Marrickvillian and have not heard of TIM Products then it’s time you did. I’ve known about this outlet for traditional Greek pastries for a few years now, but Andrew first discovered it during one of those gourmet food safaris: http://www.gourmetsafaris.com.au/page/sydney_safaris.html

I met the son (pictured), whose name escapes me now. He was a pretty dynamic guy and very passionate about the tradition that he is carrying on with his family. I quickly found myself taking about food and how it sustains a culture and facilitates the sharing of cultures. His dad started making traditional Greek pastries a year after I was born (1967) from almond shortbread to baklava and galaktoboureko (layers of filo pastry filled with custard and lightly syruped). They have all been Marrickvillians since 1979!!

On Australia Day, let’s reflect on the richness of the traditions that make up this “big brown land” – that diversity that makes Australia unique – something greater than the sum of it’s parts.

TIM Products is up a long flight of stairs at 407 Enmore Rd Marrickville – you’ll smell the sweet pastries the moment your foot hits the first step.



More info at: www.timproducts.com.au

Black Forest Smokehouse

By Grant

I love living in Marrickville – especially will all the local businesses and produce about. But I’m learning to never judge a book by its cover when it comes to good food.

Andrew’s sisters husband is a chef and told me about this week’s shop of the week, the Black Forest Smokehouse. This place is only round the corner from me but I never noticed it - it is easy to miss.

I met Richard and Cate who’ve had the business for 3 years now as “purveyors of gourmet delicacies to Sydney’s greatest chefs”, but the smokehouse has been around for 15 years or so.

They had a pretty good range of meats – some chicken and chilli chorizos I’d never seen before and fresh cut grain fed meats. Also duck, which is hard to get, and heaps of different air-dried meats.

I left with some of the best speck I’ve ever tasted...and got it for about $4 it was cheap! Richard and Cate were really friendly folk carrying on a tradition with good Australian produce. I know where I’m going before my next BBQ.

Black Forest Smokehouse is tucked away at 150 Edinburgh Rd Marrickville and is open Monday – Thursday 10.00am – 5.00pm and Friday 10.00am – 4.00pm.

Caketown @ Newtown

I’ve been mulling over this post for a few days now. The pressure of the first time I guess but also because of what can only be described as my conversation with a pastry artisan.

In the spirit of the blogosphere I thought I’d get some facts to pad out my post, make me sound like I know my shit! Don’t want to let my mate Meredith down with some lame post about some shop my waist line and I frequent. So as one thing leads to another and in true backyard journalistic style I found myself speaking with Paul. A somewhat intense, full throttle, occasionally dark, never fully satisfied creative genius. I’m not sure what I expected, but I should have known it could never have been mediocre – there’s nothing mediocre about Caketown.

Now I’ve lived in Newtown (King St south) and of course Marrickville for a decade now and I have watched shops come and go…mostly go. Still there’s one shop that has been around for 4-5 years now called Caketown. Paul (44) and wife Carmel are both chefs (hmmm, note the facts – good ah?) and have lived in the area for 15 years and also have a young son. Carmel, who used to run the kitchen at the Greenwood Hotel in Nth Sydney, does the savouries off site so the smell of the onions etc doesn’t affect the pastries.

“Pastry making is very demanding”, says Paul “you have to be accurate in what you do – everything is timed, measured and chilled very carefully.”

Paul starts his day at 4am and goes 100% all day. When I spoke with him at 8pm he was like a whirlwind. I realised quickly that the mind of a true artisan could be an amazing and colourful place.

“I use all natural ingredients – just butter, cream and eggs. No premix anything used – some others’ cakes are made with hardly anything natural and taste like soap! If I can’t put it in my mouth I won’t sell it. The chocolate is a blend of French and Belgium – no compound chocolate that has vegetable oil in it and it coats the tongue, I won’t use anything that masks the pallet!”

Trained by a French Chef for 7 years in Rosebay. Paul sees what he does as a craft as a journeyman trade. “This is our first business. Prior to 9/11 I was a product development officer, for a company making sweets and desserts for Ansett but was later retrenched. I started doing small wholesale from home but Carmel prompted me into opening up Caketown. Being quite reserved I resisted, but Carmel persisted!”

In all the years I’ve been going to Caketown I’ve only ever seen Carmel and occasionally other people behind the counter. Who is this person making all this amazing food? Yes of course, this is a post about food and a “shop of the week” no less. I once glimpsed the elusive Paul but too quick he was. “I’m a frustrated artist I guess, I like to let the work speak for itself. I hate showy chefs.”

I had to ask Paul about the hot cross buns. Apparently the fruit is macerated for 3 weeks prior to Easter in French Brandy and French Rum. Who does that now, I ask you? My mum does for one, maybe your mum too, but fewer and fewer these days.

With the rise of the franchise cake store (and coffee for that matter), locally made and locally run shops like Caketown are a rare find and should be celebrated.
My own blessed Mother soaks her xmas pudding fruit for 3-4 weeks in a special jar she has just for that purpose. She fills the jar with dried fruit and will turn it twice every day until is it ready. This amount of detail, love, and effort has real resonance with me. It’s more than just cooking its food alchemy.

When I told Paul this, he laughed, “Yep, all the love is done in the morning!”

Over the years I’ve sampled and can highly recommend the following:

• Almond croissants – yum
• Chocolate croissants – rich yet light
• Chocolate and almond croissants – for when you just cant decide
• Meat pies – for when you want actual meat in your pies
• Quiche – for real men ;)
• Xmas fruit mince pies – dare I say, almost as good as Mum’s
• Florentines – the best I’ve every tasted
• Fruit Danish – again with real fruit – nectarine Danish is the best
• Kougloff – a eastern European cake with chocolate inside
• Caramel tarts – superb
• “Throw downs” - mouthful size morsels of pure joys, the perfect treat as you’re walking home from work or on a Sunday afternoon with friends if you’re like me and can’t turn up empty handed.
• They also bake fresh a full range of breads and long fermented doughs – no yeast in the sour doughs here!

Caketown is located at 569 King Street Newtown and open Wed to Sun, but get in early on the weekends or you’ll be disappointed.

Shop of the Week - The Curry Tree

The Curry Tree isn't strictly a shop, but nor is it merely a market stall. It's a few bicycles with attitude and some passionate vegetarian curry makers. Paul customises the bicycles and tricycles (some are electric, some require pedal power) himself, adding trailers and trolleys and various cooking and serving attachments to them. A retired film caterer, he is now vehemently car-free and maintains his cooking passions with an exclusive market stall (he doesn't sell anywhere except the Addison Rd Markets). His partner Fiona, who works full time, and fourteen year old daughter Katlyn, work with him on Sundays.

Their little Jack Russell, Buster, waits patiently for things to start happening.

We tried their South Indian Banquet, for which the selection changes each week. Today they were serving a fresh chutney full of ginger and coconut, a gooey rich vegetable curry, a channa (chick pea) dhal and a nice dry potato masala with lots of curry leaves and mustard seeds, all topped with a superb yoghurt made here in Marrickville, some grilled roti and a handful of fresh rocket. This cost nine dollars and was heaps for me and Richard to share. We even accidentally dropped one quarter of the roti, which Sailor charmingly gobbled up, vomited, then re-ingested. This spectacle in no way put us off this beautiful meal.

Paul has osteo-arthritis and believes that keeping active is good for his health. He tells me that he serves "Rubies", not curries - this is English slang - Ruby Murray rhymes with curry - so if you feel like a curry you say "Anyone fancy a Ruby?"



You can also buy, for only six dollars, a paratha dosa - Indian bread topped with the channa dhal, the potato masala and a big dob of yoghurt - I dare you to compare that to any burger or kebab!

Shop of the Week - Ha Noi on Anzac Day

Richard and I thought we'd head up Illawarra Rd to the Marrickville RSL, as it's ANZAC day today (the links are for you non-Australian readers). But it was lunchtime, and we got no further than our favourite Vietnamese restaurant, the Ha Noi. Given that ANZAC day is also used to remember Australia's involvement in the Vietnam war, I think that's kind of poetic & appropriate, don't you?

There was a bit of a queue outside - always the sign of a good restaurant in Marrickville. The Ha Noi is in a strip that has a few Vietnamese places - it's close to the station, directly opposite the Hellenic Bakery, and is the only one with a sugar cane juicer out the front.

Their turquoise walls and other decorations always make me feel happy.

This is something most Vietnamese restaurants have - a selection of condiments on the table, along with cutlery, chopsticks and tissues. Mostly they're different types of chilli, but there's also fish sauce and hoi sin sauce (made from soy beans, chilli, sugar & salt) here.

And perhaps my favourite, whole raw garlic and chilli pickled in white vinegar.

Once we've ordered, I like to make a little palette of chilli - starting with the pickled garlic at the top and going clockwise we have fresh ground chilli, a pickled whole chilli, a dollop of satay chilli (sticky concoction of ground peanuts, chilli, dried shrimp, sugar and oil) and finally Chinese-style salty blended chilli. So many flavours, so many textures!

Richard got some deep fried spring rolls - these are about double the size of most spring rolls, and they come with this beautiful dipping sauce, nuoc cham, made from rice vinegar, fish sauce and palm sugar - it usually has carrot pieces in it.

This was definitely the highlight - chilli salt tofu - it's to die for. I actually dream about this dish sometimes. The tofu is floured & deep fried, then tossed with a kind of Vietnamese salsa made from coriander, lemongrass, garlic, ginger, fresh chilli, spring onion, Spanish onion and lots of white & black pepper. Food for the soul, yep.

Hanoi Quan. 346b Illawarra Rd, Marrickville, ph:02 95591637

Shop of the week: The Bower

Pre-loved, unloved, discarded, broken or just plain unfashionable stuff finds its way to The Bower. It's a reuse and repair cooperative - that means they collect, fix up and re-sell things. They concentrate on household, building and office goods. It's brilliant going there. I've bought most of the blinds for my house there over the years, and various bits and pieces including a beautiful white cotton bedspread. Yesterday there were a few amazing pieces including this vintage Cyclops pram in pristine condition


and this 35mm film editing table, next to a hospital bed (just visible on the left).


They sell bikes, computers, kitchen sinks, baths & basins (often green or pink from the 1950s), car parts, wet suits, building materials and filing cabinets. If you live near Marrickville, dropping in occasionally is really worth it. You might also keep The Bower in mind for when you want to get rid of stuff - they take donations and will even collect from your house. They also deliver, and hire things out, for film shoots for example.

On a Sunday, you could combine a trip to The Bower with a rummage around Reverse Garbage, a visit to the peaceful Addison Rd Gallery, and a lunch of Chinese dumplings or Turkish gozreme from the Addison Rd Markets. They're all in the same complex (an ex military base!) and there's heaps of parking under the big old gum trees.

My favourite spot at The Bower? The wall of pink drawers, holding deadlocks, springs, cupboard hatches & locks, drill bits, handles, washers, bearings, etc.

Shop of the Week - Danas

Danas opened in 1962 and for forty years was run as a specialty Greek delicatessen by Agatha and Dimitrious Danas. They raised their four children here, living in the apartment above the shop. When I first moved to Marrickville in 2000 this was my local for fetta, olives, taramasalata and dolmades. My only problem with the area was that there was nowhere really close by for coffee - I had to walk up to the Post Cafe on Marrickville Rd, which despite its many awards I find a bit impersonal. So I was really pleased when I heard in 2003 that Agatha and Dimitrious' two daughters, Tina and Olga, were planning to renovate the shop and turn it into a cafe. However, I was a bit sad about losing the deli.

I've ended up with both cafe and deli. With some clever interior design the deli remains intact in the back half of the shop while the front has become a charming cafe space. The girls didn't go for anything trendy or slick in the redesign - instead there's lots of Fedeterranean blue - including the crockery - and Greek flags and posters.

Dimitrious still looks after all the fettas, olives, oils and other Greek specialty lines. He also distills his own vinegar and red wine from fruit he grows on vines in the backyard. "I get a lot of pleasure from making the vinegar" he tells me, "looking after it, watching it ferment. It's a natural medicine - it reduces cholesterol and clears the veins." I left there yesterday morning bearing gifts from him - a bottle of his homemade red wine and one of the vinegar, which is the most amazing ruby colour.

Agatha still cooks pasticcia, spanakopita, soups and pastas to sell in the cafe and the two daughters run front-of-house. They serve great coffee, beautiful fruit salad, a fantastic dips platter, Greek salads, etc. The deli section has five different fettas - Australian, Bulgarian, skim milk and two Greek ones, Peperati and Dodomi. I'm not sure which of these are made from sheep's, goat's or cow's milks but I know they sell all three. Dimitrious cuts them with a piece of fishing line. There are nine types of olives: the tiny ones from Samos, three different sizes of Kalamata, green cracked ones, the round fleshy ones from Volou and those salty dried ones from Thassos. The jar of olives is unheard of at Danas - they're kept in big metal tubs of brine, strained and scooped out to order.

Danas Grocer and Cafe
416 Illawarra Rd Marrickville
9591 1589

Shop of the Week - Saray Turkish Pizza

This post is dedicated to my colleague & friend Matty - a pizza lover with a big appetite. He recently gave me a camera (Sony 3.3mp) after seeing my little Nokia held together with rubber bands.

The Saray Turkish Pizza shop sells comfort food - you get cravings for it on blustery coldish afternoons in Winter and late on hot Summer nights. The pizzas - the Turkish filled kind - are probably the best in Sydney, along with Manolya's in Sydenham. They also produce the fluffiest Turkish bread and a famously staining beetroot dip (don't wear white). The place is an institution & has been there at least as long as I've been in Sydney (17 years). I wasn't able to get details from the owner because by the time we'd finished our pizza he was engaged in a serious-sounding argument in Turkish with a rather good-looking young man with sculpted sideburns. The decor is charming and the service very friendly but if you prefer to get take-away I recommend you eat it picnic-style at the nearby Camperdown Cemetary, and ponder the life of poor Eliza Emily.

Saray Turkish Pizza (BYO)
18 Enmore Rd, Enmore
Phone (02) 9557 5310

Shop of the Week - Paesanella

Umberto Somma started making cheese in Marrickville in 1962 and his sons Joseph and Max now carry on the tradition. They specialise in fresh Italian-style cheeses like mozzarella, ricotta and mascarpone. Their spotless factory and shop, Paesanella, is at the end of Gerald St in a converted double-fronted federation house. There are stainless steel pipes running all over the place and massive vats in what was once the backyard. The service is extremely friendly and knowledgeable, as often in Italian as it is in English. Highlights for me are their "Paesanella caciotta", a semi-soft mild cheese with rocket and chilli and their baby or "cherry" bocconcini, which are always super-fresh & full of flavour. Lots of delis and supermarkets in Sydney stock Paesanella products and they have their own shop in Haberfield at 88 Ramsay Street. But I really recommend visiting the Marrickville factory shop for absolute freshness and a nice experience. Some weekends Richard uses their ricotta to make us pancakes using a Bills recipe.






Paesanella Cheese Manufacturers
27 Gerald Street Marrickville
http://www.paesanella.com.au

Shop of the Week - Mick Mazza Cycles

I went up to Mick Mazza's this morning to get a new basket and chain for my bike. He sold me a rather stylish black basket and a good long chain that'll go around both wheels and the frame, and he gave me a block of chocolate. I'm going to start riding in to UTS, partly to get fitter, and partly because I'm sick of the 423 bus and the train (last week on the 423 I witnessed someone having a really good pick at a scab on the back of her neck...)


Inside the 423 bus, 8.45am on a Thursday

Mazza has been running cycle shops in Marrickville for more than 30 years. I'll never forget when I went into his shop about 6 years ago, when Sailor was a pup. She pooped on the floor and I was mortified, looking around desperately for something to clean it up with. Mick just picked it up with some paper towel & said "What can I do for you love?"

He was a champion amateur cyclist for many years and turned professional in the early 1970s before returning to amateur status because "I had me shop to look after, you know." Mazza wears big thick glasses and still has a champion's muscled legs. There's no question he can't answer, no bike he can't fix. His shop is filled with cheap bikes (rejuventated as well as new) and piles of parts.



Mazza's businesses have been in Illawarra Rd and Marrickville Rd, and he's lived in Calvert St for 55 years. He is one of Marrickville's best known citizens and often donates bikes to charity. I asked him how business had changed over the years:

"It's got harder and harder with department stores. KMart, BigW, ToysRUs. They've killed the bike shops, love. The wholesalers are selling bikes to the big retailers at half the price. They're doing the dirty on the bike shops."



Still, it took me nearly half an hour to get this much information out of him as we were constantly interrupted by customers and phone calls. The shop seemed to be doing great business. This morning the customers included a bunch of local toughs, a couple of Maori women, numerous teenaged boys, and a little blonde girl.

Mazza is friends with the boxer Jeff Fenech, aka "The Marrickville Mauler". He helped raise the money for Fenech to attend the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles by raffling bikes at local pubs. A wall of fame in the shop is covered in framed certificates and photos, and one of Fenech's boxing gloves.

Mick Mazza's Cycles
255 Marrickville Rd, Marrickville
9564 5468

See more photos from this series on my flickr account.

Shop of the Week - From Lebanon to Marrickville

Marrickville shopkeepers must be the most devoted of all their kind. Albert Mardini, proprietor of a Lebanese delicatessen on Illawarra Road, gets up at four in the morning to drive out to Granville where he sources the best quality flat bread in Sydney. Then he puts in a 15 hour day. "I enjoy every second of my day, I enjoy every second of my life too!" he tells me. Mardini's shop has recently been renovated by his nephew Elvis, an award-winning builder. At the time of writing, 29 year old Elvis and his family were trying to return to Australia from a trip to Lebanon, where they'd been caught up in the Israeli attacks. His uncle seems to be taking it in his stride: "He rang and said to me 'Uncle Albert, what a beautiful country.' Then the trouble started." Elvis and his family had to travel by taxi through Syria and are now in Jordan trying to get on a flight home. Fingers crossed for a safe trip back to Marrickville for them.

The renovation is bright, with a huge new picture window enhancing the shop's high white pressed metal ceiling. Mardini's stock is small and select, and very good quality. Glorious ox heart tomatoes (from a friend's farm), perfect oranges and zucchini, almonds, henna products, pickled turnips, charcoal for smoking pipes, halva, loofahs, and exotic tinned goods like quinces and carob. He's planning a big new dairy showcase. The shop used to be called "The Nut Shop" but that name seems out of date now. Mardini is thinking of just calling it "Albert's" but is waiting for Elvis to get back before deciding. Albert has already run this shop for 26 years - I wish him at least another two and a half decades in which to enjoy his lovely renovation.

Albert Mardini
391 Illawarra Rd

Shop of the Week - Relief Shoes

Do you have shoes, much loved and worn, that are getting too old and tattered to wear any longer? Frank Zervas says he can reproduce them exactly. People bring him pairs, sometimes inherited from parents or grandparents, and Zervas rejuvenates or copies them. "People are very happy to see the shoe alive again" he says. This master shoemaker came from Greece in 1974 and worked at first in Cleveland St, Surry Hills, handmaking shoes for actors and dancers. He has been running Relief Shoes in Marrickville for eight years now (and painted the murals on the walls himself) specialising in tiny and huge sizes as well as shoes for people with flat feet, deformities or bunions. He tells me how a ninety year old man, almost crippled with bunions, recently had a pair of walking shoes made. Zervas crafted the soft leather to perfectly cradle the knobbs and lumps and the shoes felt "like velvet". The old man cried with joy when he put them on! If you're in the market for personalised shoes then Zervas will measure your feet exactly and create wooden lasts just for you. You can then choose from a huge variety of styles (many surprisingly 'now' and fashionable) and a rainbow of leathers including snake, kangaroo, deer and lizard skins. Of course he does standard repairs and re-soling (of very high standard in my experience) too. I've been coveting a $250 pair of Camper shoes in a soft mulberry lately... I'm thinking about seeing if Zervas can make me a similar pair instead, and wondering whether they'll be better quality and more comfortable. I'll keep you posted.

Relief Shoes, Specialising in Orthopaedic and Fashion Shoes
16 Station St Marrickville
phone 9559 6550

Shop of the Week - Tibetan Emporium

This quiet and peaceful-feeling shop is owned by members of Sydney's Tibetan community. Profits go to cottage industries run by Tibetan refugees in India and Nepal. Dundub Lama, the manager, tells me that while the shop mainly caters for Buddhist practitioners it does great business with the general community at Christmas time. It's very neat and clean with plain malamite shelves filled with books about Tibet and Buddhism, piles of Tibetan door curtains, prayer rugs, teas, incense burners, brass altars, mala bags, prayer bead counters, bright silk altar cloths, silver & gemstone jewellery, carpets, 100% wool handknitted jumpers (for only $50!), prayer wheels (table and hand-held), gorgeous woollen shawls, chod damarus (little drums that Dundub tells me are "for serious tantric practitioners"), beads, hats and mittens, and "lama bags" which are those cloth satchel-style bags that Buddhist monks and nuns carry. Shown below are some of my favourite items - these funny statuettes of monks playing horns, a little pure wool carpet (45cm square) with a lovely yak decoration, some of the chod damarus, and a box of mittens and socks.



Tibetan Emporium is at 330 Illawarra Rd Marrickville, phone 9559 3422, email emporium@bigpond.net.au

Shop of the Week

This greengrocer in Illawarra Road (I don't know the address but he's directly opposite the Centrelink) might be the cheapest in Sydney. The owner unloads each morning - from his open-trailor truck - boxes of whatever was cheap & in bulk at the markets. There's never anything out of season & whatever is in season is here in huge piles, almost free. The shop totally lacks glamour, it's painted about 6 different colours at random & is also somewhat lacking in hygiene. You see the occasional rotting vegetable, and once - yes - I noted what I think was a rat poo (the size of my fingernail, ovoid, glossy brown & smooth) on the counter. But hey, wouldn't you prefer a little rat poo that can easily be washed away to having to brave the hideous fluorescent aisles of plasticated and hugely overpriced fruit & veg at somewhere like the evil Woolworths, and then suffer the indignity of standing in a queue worrying about your credit card balance?