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) –

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.

The post Taste of the World – Liverpool! Food Tour first appeared on Jackie M..

These are some things I found out –

• Mohammed is a classically trained chef (unlike self-taught yours truly) and had worked in 5-star hotels in Chennai and the Emirates before landing in Australia in 1997.

• He opened Malabar Darlinghurst in 2003 and served four customers on his first night. Since that humble beginning business has grown so much he’s recently moved into new, bigger premises a few shops down.

• His original menu consisted only of South Indian dishes, but from day one customers complained about the absence of Butter Chicken and other North Indian favourites, so he’s had to adapt his menu to keep them happy. I totally sympathize.

• He works seven days at the restaurant and to this day he still goes to Flemington Markets every morning to select the fresh produce himself.

• The only time off he gets is one or two weeks a year when he goes back to South India to visit his elderly parents.

• His menu is designed so that no two dishes taste the same. Based on the meal I had, I can confirm that is the case. Every dish was distinctly different, and every dish was top notch.

Mohammed can often be seen chatting with his customers in the dining room; make sure you say hello if you drop in, and tell him Jackie M sent you

The new Malabar is located at 1/274 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst.
Fully licensed. BYO wine only.
Reservations: 61 2 9332 1755 
Trading Hours. Open for Lunch Wed – Sun 12-2.30 pm and Dinner Monday-Sunday
5.30 to 10.30 pm Email: darlinghurst@malabarcuisine.com.au
www.malabarcuisine.com.au 

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The post Malabar South Indian Restaurant, Darlinghurst first appeared on Jackie M..