Want to sample the health-giving benefits of the Mediterranean diet in Sydney’s outer suburbs? Climb aboard the Best of the Mediterranean Gourmet Safari.
The day begins, as it should, with coffee.
Nino Lo Giudice, our guide on this Best of the Mediterranean Safari, is taking orders which will be filled at the first stop on this full-day food tour.
He’s encouraging latte lovers like me to try an espresso to better appreciate the coffee’s flavour.
He’s also giving us permission to indulge.
“You’re gonna be eating all day,” he says. “Let yourself go … the Mediterranean way is (to) live for today.”
When we pull up outside Marrickville’s Paesanella Cheese, I’m pleased I opted for the authentic, unadulterated, Italian-style brew.
As Nino promised, it provides “a nice kick” and enough energy to get our 20-strong group through a day of taste-testing.
I contemplate a second cup, given that research has identified additional benefits of coffee, including a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, and better brain and heart health.
(Interested in this tour and looking for a dreamy spot to stay in Sydney? Check out One Mile’s review of the Manly Pacific.)
Stop 1 – Paesanella Cheese
On the ground floor, Paesanella looks like a small, simple, serviceable café.
But head up a flight of stairs and you’ll suddenly find yourself in a sprawling emporium selling smoked meats, pasta, sauces, wood-fired bread, a dazzling array of cheese, and other Italian produce.
The appealing display tests my resolve to ‘buy nothing’ today – not because I’m stingy, but because I must catch a flight home straight after the tour and my suitcase is already packed to the gills.
Paesanella Cheese was founded in 1962 by the late Umberto Somma. His family members still run the business and make fresh cheese onsite.
It’s here that we sip our espresso, and sample a range of cheeses, including ricotta, mascarpone, burrata, and Nino’s favourite, buffalo mozzarella.
Buffalo mozzarella is lower in calories and higher in protein than its peers.
Ricotta, too, is a healthy cheese – but the freshly made ricotta here is more special than most.
Nino recalls how he and his mother, who started one of Sydney’s first arancini businesses, lined up outside Paesanella, pots in hand, for the “creamy, wet, beautiful, soft” unripened cheese.
“We’d get it fresh, and what I mean by fresh is ‘steaming hot’,” he explains.
“You’d give them a pot and they’d just fill it with steaming ricotta.”
I envy the Sydneysiders who can visit this shop with an esky any time they like.
I console myself by buying a package of Baci Perugina chocolates. It’s small. It will fit in my handbag.
Stop 2 – Trianon Cake Shop
It’s barely a ten-minute drive to our next stop, Trianon Cake Shop, located at Earlwood.
Nino praises the ferocious appetites we’ve shown thus far.
“We started stimulating the digestive system, and we’re getting receptive and ready for more food, which is excellent,” he says.
We enter the nondescript bakery, where second generation baker Arthur Efthymiou leads us past cabinets filled with flaoune, kourabiethes, tsourekia, katiefi, and other traditional Cypriot pastries and sweets.
Arthur’s parents originally launched Trianon Cake Shop in Cyprus in the 1960s.
In 1974, they were forced to flee the Turkish invasion and lived in a refugee camp for two years before migrating to Australia to start from scratch.
Trianon Cake Shop was relaunched in Earlwood in 1977.
In the flour-dusted kitchen out the back, we watch as Arthur demonstrates how to make olive and haloumi breads, his hands kneading the dough with practised ease.
Afterwards, as I join the queue to purchase syrup-drenched baklava, again breaking my promise to keep my credit card stowed, I reason that planned indulgence can reduce impulsivity.
That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
Stop 3 – Miloway/Earlwood Wines
Our next stop, Miloway/Earlwood Wines, is right next door.
Established more than four decades ago by Harry Ipermachou, the store is brimming with Greek and Cypriot produce, including homemade dips, plump olives, glistening capers in brine, sausages, and marinated octopus which Harry “cooks by the tonne”, says Nino.
Haloumi is another significant presence and Harry has some tips on how to cook it.
“The trick is to make sure that your hot plate is very hot … you don’t need oils or anything – just add a squeeze of lemon,” he says.
But this store is perhaps best known for its extensive range of Greek and Cypriot wines and spirits.
More than two decades earlier, on a solo trip through the Peloponnese, I fell in love with the dessert wine Mavrodaphne, with its dark inky depths and sweet fruity aromas.
When I mention this to Harry, he whips a bottle off the shelves as if by magic.
There’s really nothing else for it.
I decide that one little bottle isn’t going to make that much difference to my carry-on luggage.
And everyone knows that red wine contains antioxidants, right?
Stop 4 – Raineri’s Continental Delicatessen
After a 20-minute drive north, we pile out of the coach at Five Dock, where almost one in five (18.9%) residents are of Italian ancestry.
Five Dock is also home to the Sicilian family business of Raineri’s Continental Delicatessen.
Nino explains that stocking up on deli items was something his family used to always do on Saturdays, as Sunday trading wasn’t introduced until the 1990s.
“It’s always great to go into a deli on a Saturday – there’s something very sacred about it,” he adds.
When we enter, Sam Raineri is stuffing Italian sandwiches with olives, burrata, charred eggplant, artichoke, mortadella and a selection of other Italian deli items.
He wrestles them into shape, trusses them in paper, and hands them to customers.
Another staffer takes over so Sam can lead us on a journey through the deli’s cheese and charcuterie selection.
We share platters laden with products like the Northern Italian cow’s milk cheese Asiago (named after the town) and melt-in-the-mouth prosciutto cured with salt rather than nitrates and sulphates.
Sam also points out packets of Corleone pasta imported from Sicily.
As fans of The Godfather will know, Corleone is the original home and family name of the characters in Mario Puzo’s bestselling novel.
I can’t resist purchasing some of the spaghetti that’s been slow dried (making it easier to digest) and bronze drawn (giving it a rougher texture to better hold the sauce).
I figure I might as well buy some bottles of passata and unfiltered Sicilian olive oil while I’m at it.
Stop 5 – Euro Concepts
Owner Roberto Dessanti is waiting with glasses of prosecco when we arrive at Euro Concepts in Silverwater.
Describing himself as ‘the wog with the grog’, Robert has stocked his cavernous warehouse full of Italian food and drinks, including some of the specialties of Sardinia.
These include pane carasau, the ‘music sheet’ flatbread of Sardinia, served with pecorino sardo.
There are also glasses of limoncello all round.
Yet what really captures my attention here is the Nardini Acqua Di Cedro Panettone – Italian-style sweet bread threaded through with citron-based liqueur.
It’s served in soft, fragrant, pillowy slices.
I cannot imagine not being able to taste it again. I purchase a single panettone to take home, reasoning that it’s perfect for Christmas, even if it does add a further 750 gm to my carry-on.
Swimming a little from the combined effects of the prosecco and limoncello, I return to my seat on the coach.
The lime green ribbon wrapped in a jaunty bow around the panettone seems to grin at my lack of restraint.
Stop 6 – Napoli Centro
Our final stop of the day is at the Neopolitan-style pizzeria Napoli Centro in Bardwell Park.
It’s the sort of casual, laid-back restaurant that I wish I had in my neighbourhood.
We pass through an interior filled with mosaic-tiled tables and walls and out to an outdoor seating area festooned with vines.
You won’t find any Hawaiian pizza on the menu here, but you can always add pineapple or other non-traditional toppings for a nominal fee.
We’re treated to pappardelle, rocket salad, and a succession of wood-fired pizzas on white and red sauce bases.
These include the Diavolina with hot salami and olives, Capricciosa with ham, mushrooms and olives, and Siciliana with eggplant, ricotta and basil.
Each time a new dish presents itself, the woman sitting next to me groans and says, ‘Oh God, no’, but she, like the rest of us, keeps eating.
Eventually, the procession of pizzas slows. Some people find room for tiramisu.
I take the opportunity to do some hasty repacking before heading to the airport.
Was it worth it? Totally.
Considering all the spoils of the day, I might be up for additional baggage fees.
The fine print
The Best of the Mediterranean Safari visits 6 different venues and runs for approximately 8 hours; $185 per person includes all tastings.
It’s just one tour offered through Gourmet Safaris, an award-winning multicultural food tour company created by food journalist and broadcaster Maeve O’Meara OAM.
If this has whet your appetite, Gourmet Safaris offers foodie walking tours and bus safaris in Sydney and multi-day food tours in other parts of Australia and internationally.
