It's your last chance to get amongst all the after dark action that has been filling the main drag in Lakemba with some of the best street food Sydney has to offer.
For the month of Ramadan stalls have been lining Haldon Street and Railway Parade to provide a global food tour in only a few blocks. Choosing where to start can get overwhelming, which is why this year Taste Tours ran a guided evening walk that let punters snack their way along the footpaths and explore a fascinatingly diverse area of Sydney.
The tour started you off with net roti and a gentle lentil curry sauce at the Island Dreams Café that deals in the Malaysian-influenced cuisine of the Cocos Islands and Christmas Island. This is also a good spot to pick up a packet of house-made fast-breaking pineapple biscuits.
Across the road our second stop is a murtabak stand making the Malaysian equivalent of a gozleme, only spicier and more buttery. Your visit is not complete without a serve of haleem, a slow cooked lentil curry with tender beef pieces topped with a fresh and fragrant sprinkling of fresh coriander, ginger, fried onions and lemon juice.
For some of the lightest, fluffiest naan you’ve ever tasted head down railway parade until you reach the man in earmuffs making naan in his clay tandoor, and then double back to head up Haldon Street.
Camel burgers, grilled corn on the cob and carrot juice are everywhere you look, and there’s plenty of sweets for dessert, including syrupy, neon orange jalebi, fried pastry pockets filled with chopped nuts, rice puddings, sweet cheese in pastry and knafeh.
Make sure you head all the way up for fresh tikka chicken, and if the man selling a kind of granita/sorbet made with lemon, orange and mandarin juice is there, find room – you won’t regret it.
Of course if you don’t like your chances of making it before Ramadan ends on July 6, Taste Tours also operate a Lakemba tour all year round called ‘Beirut, Bangladesh and Beyond’ that will guide you through the culinary treasures of the area.
Getting another serve of that haleem will be worth it alone.