It sounds crazy, but in the twenty years since my parents moved out Liverpool way (some 32 km from Sydney’s CBD), we’ve never ventured out to eat at any of the restaurants there – nearby Cabramatta has always been our default for food and dining. I realised I’d be so lost if I were to find myself in the middle of Liverpool and feeling hungry, so I decided to fix that and join a Liverpool food tour.
Taste of the World – Liverpool! is one of a number of ticketed events run by Taste Cultural Food Tours, a charity which trains refugees, migrants and local youth to be tour guides.
Over the course of 3 ½ hours, I had the opportunity to sample food from The Middle East, Vietnam, India and The Balkans – as well as visit a continental butchery, a fruit & vegetable shop and an Indian supermarket.
I learned that Liverpool was founded by Lachlan Macquarie – kind of embarrassing that it’s taken me all these years to find this out (though in my defence I did almost all of my schooling in Malaysia). I also met a bunch of interesting people – Alaa our tour guide from Syria, some of the migrant business owners, and, of course, my fellow attendees.
Baby Noah came along and he was mostly well-behaved, though he did knock over a cup of coffee at the Vietnamese shop to get my attention; I’m very grateful that everyone was so accommodating towards him throughout the day.
Here are some of the highlights from our tour; with all sincerity I am looking forward to revisiting some of the eateries to check out the rest of their offerings (I’m dreaming of the burek and the dosai as I write this) –
Burek filled with cheese
Balkan doughnuts
Middle Eastern pizza with minced meat
Felafel as good as what you’d find in Syria, according to our guide
Dosai with potato filling
An endless array of Indian sweets
Fashion Designer-turned-Vietnamese Cafe-Owner at work
“The Best Burek in NSW” is found right here!
Vietnamese coffee par excellence in Liverpool
Our group enjoying a South Indian lunch
I took part in the Taste of the World – Liverpool! food tour as a guest of Taste Cultural Food Tours; to find out more about this and some of their other events, visit TasteTours.com.au.