It’s time to embrace your inner fatteh. Never heard of it? This nourishing breakfast dish is a staple in homes across Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq. If you love chickpeas, you’ll adore this dish. If you hate chickpeas, you’ll probably still love it.
Picture this: creamy yoghurt thickened with sesame seed paste and dotted with soft, but not soggy, chickpeas. Garlic, cumin, lemon juice and a good glug of olive oil amp up the flavour stakes. How do you eat it? Follow the lead of locals and scoop up generous mouthfuls using soft and fluffy rounds of Lebanese bread. Savour the silky yoghurt, the crunch of toasted pine nuts and those gently yielding chickpeas.
At Jasmin 1 in Bankstown, that’s breakfast sorted for just seven bucks. Need protein? You can add on grilled lamb or chicken for four dollarydoos. Who needs smashed avo anyway?
If you don’t haul yourself out of bed early enough for breakfast, don’t despair. The menu kicks over to heartier dishes from lunch: everything from a falafel wrap for $5 to a seafood platter (grilled fish, baby octopus, calamari and barbecued prawns) with chips for $23. It’s the kind of date night you can still afford 24-hours before payday.
Sure the cafeteria-style dining room filled with banquet chairs might not exude romance, but is there anything sexier than dunking a falafel in garlic sauce while maintaining eye contact? No judgement here.
A trio of lamb skewers, are interspersed with hunks of onion, and grilled until everything takes on a caramelised and smoky aroma. Just as tasty is the chicken shawarma, spiced thigh fillets that are grilled and shredded for easy eating. Get your greens with a serve of tabouli or fattouch, tabouli’s chunkier cousin with tomato, radish, capsicum, cucumber, pomegranate syrup and shards of deep fried Lebanese bread.
Still hungry? Order the kabsa, a traditional Saudi Arabian dish of spiced basmati rice and your choice of chicken, lamb, fish or prawns. If you aren’t ready to roll out of the place at this point you have a bright future as a competitive eater. Good luck to you.