Goodbye SIFF: Perama Sugar Hit x 2! (as well as other treats)

Street lights and low lights are my enemies. So apologies for the crap photos!

Well the SIFF is over for another year and I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t really participate all that much. I feel like a hippy who forgot to attend woodstock but at least I managed to track down a few Sugar Hit events. I mentioned in a previous post that Sugar Hits generally this year, have been rather generic and unimaginative bar a few. But you just know that one place got it right if you’ve found yourself going back 3 times in 2 weeks! This year, Chef David Tsirekas took his Sugar Hits down memory lane celebrating the past 16 years of desserts at Perama with a different weekly offering. If that’s not a reason to visit a Sugar Hit more than once then I don’t know what is! Though I regretted missing out on week one, I got into the groove of things when week two hit.

Choc Wafer Sandwich with peanut butter ice cream – OMG

This was week three’s dessert, lovingly enjoyed at a meeting of Perama’s twitter groupies (so named Peraharem) – a kataifi nut slice, a milk, vanilla and cinnamon rice pudding (served with apple and rhubarb poached in sweet brandy syrup) and an intriguing honey fried pastry-diples stack with yoghurt curd and a sweet and sour melon salad. My favourite however was the choc wafer sandwich, which reminded me of a Monaco bar, but a thousand times improved upon with the presence of the almighty peanut butter icecream. And even that was made better with sour cherry and crumbled halva in the ice cream. Oh the indulgence!

Week 3: rice pudding, pastry stack, choc wafer sandwich and kataifi nut slice

Less than a week later, seeing as afewsugar-lovinggals were in the area, we just couldn’t resist heading over to neighbouring Petersham for, you guessed it, another sugar hit at Perama and it was fortunate we did as this was my favourite one! I should note that too much sugar is never a bad thing and all sugar hits were always accompanied by the perennial favourites caramel baklava ice cream and passionfruit bougatsa which are available from his a la carte menu (1st photo).

Week 4, we were served with:

‘Manouri Yiouzlemedes’ – a dessert from Lesbos of manouri cheese wrapped in a pastry and fried and served with poached quince and a quince syrup (apologies for the shocking photo!).

I’m crippled with an aversion to anything remotely cheesy so this wasn’t really for me. However I loved the little cubes of poached quince.

Red Wine and spiced poached pear – a mini version to the ones we devoured at previousdinners (pictured above). Even the pear was miniature! The spices were definitely more noticeable in the pear than before, but do you hear me complaining?

Dried Fig Karithopita – A walnut and semolina cake soaked in honeyed sugar syrup

‘Triflaki’ – (as written on the menu) – “In collaboration with our good friends Sal and Ciccio from renowned Gelatomassi in Newtown, we have concocted some new flavours exclusively for sugar hit. A layered ice cream trifle of vanilla buffalo milk gelato, tsoureki (greek brioche) soaked in sour cherry syrup and chocolate buffalo milk gelato”.

A selection of cookies (which I forgot to try… for shame!)

But of course, most of the time I don’t just go to Perama for dessert. Not when you still have the dinner menu to get through…(taken from one particular raucous dinner of Perama groupies!)

Pork Belly Baklava 17.80

Layers of flaky filo pastry, pork belly meat, date and pistachios, topped with crispy crackling and served with a date and mastic sauce.

BBQ Haloumi Cheese 17.20
Char grilled Cypriot haloumi cheese served with freshly chopped tomato & shallot, olive paste and honey peppered figs.

Rocket Salad 8.00. Tossed with shaved graviera, walnuts and a honey vanilla vinaigrette.

Zucchini Fritters 5.50

Rustic Grandma’s Chips 5.00

Lamb Skaras 18.50/29.00
Slow braised shoulder lean lamb with oregano, olive oil, wine and garlic, then char grilled with a lemon, olive oil baste and served with baked oregano lemon potatoes and string beans.

Not sure what these were but they were lovingly dubbed ‘Chef’s Salty Balls’

Mixed Dips / Graviera Crumbed Haloumi 6.50

PERAMA (now closed)

88 Audley Street
Petersham, NSW 2049
(02) 9569 7534

Open Tuesday to Saturday 6- 10:30pm
B.Y.O. wine $6 per bottle.

Tagged as: David Tsirekas, Dessert, Greek, Inner West, Perama, Restaurant, SIFF, Sugar Hit, Sydney