SIFF 2010: Let’s Do Brunch @ Efendy Restaurant – Balmain, Sydney.
Am I the only person that isn’t particularly inspired by the offerings of SIFF 2010? Looking at the Sugar Hits this year, I found myself striking out almost half the list immediately for the lack of interest they gave me, and more to the fact that the price factor outweighed the seemingly boring desserts just from the description. On the flip side, I’ve heard that the progressive dinners and showcase dinners are some of the better options. We’re halfway through SIFF 2010 and this is the first post of a few to come; notable mention is the Sugar Hit Crawl that FFichiban and myself, which should be up before the end of the next week.
My other half has been dropping hints that she wanted to go to Efendy for a while now and with depressing weather the past weeks I’ve found myself delaying it. The weekend just past was the best weather (despite the wind) we’ve had in Sydney for a long time and perchance a group of friends had organised for the Let’s Do Brunch at Efendy.
As the group arrives and our orders taken, the breakfast mezes appear.
Here Comes The Food
Selection of homemade jams and Turkish Bread is served on a wooden board. The bread is soft and comes with jams that I’m still puzzled by. The brown nutella-looking jam tasted like fig jam, but I could be mistaken. It was sticky on the palate and had a mild sweetness to it. I’m guessing the other jam was blackcurrant? Sigh epic jam knowledge fail.
Vibrant red tomatoes burst with their juicy innards.
Cucumber is refreshing (I can’t believe I just described tomatoes and cucumbers)
Angan olives are picked at throughout the meal.
Feta arrives and I do a double take. It’s like a cloud on a plate. The taste is light with smooth undertones of cheesy flavor coming through.
Cigar roll borek has got me mouthing ‘spring roll!’. But alas it is not. Its crispy on the outside and has small bits of feta inside to give an almost mozerella-like picture where you pull the roll apart and the cheese strings form.
Next up is the selection from the menu of your main dish. Luckily our group was big enough so that all the dishes were ordered so that you can see what they offer.
Menemen is a traditional Turkish vegetarian breakfast that consists of scrambled eggs, tomato, banana pepper, onion and a garnish of parsley. It looks like a dissected omelet and has a wonderful colour to it.
I’ve ordered the Kiymali which is a hearty stew cooked with spiced mince lamb, village style eggs, tomato and capsicum. The lamb is sweet and a mild hint of chili is a great start to the day for me. The broken up egg is mixed into the cooked mince and I really like how its still a bit runny. I’m thinking to myself that Tabasco would ‘make’ this dish for me, but it wasn’t necessary as I was content with it as it was.
Hellim Guvec comes in a clay pot and is a dish that I was probably most interested as it has halloumi (yay!) with asparagus, tomato and bullhorn pepper. I was actually a bit disappointed when I saw it because I expected bigger slices of halloumi than the bite-size morsels of cubed halloumi. But one bite and the disappointment dissipated. The halloumi was toothsome and had a golden brown crispy shell. The flavoursome mushrooms with asparagus and pepper was warming and a great dish for the weather.
Kallavi is a big breakfast of 2 fried eggs and a grilled plate of sucuk that has marguez sausages, tomato, mushroom and pastirma. The marguez sausages and pastirma are cooked to a crispy texture that was overwhelmingly salty for some people. I found them passable but would probably not finish it all as it was a bit over the top. Two golden domes of egg yolk were cooked still runny and put on top of bread.
Black Sea style pancakes, dried figs and walnuts in red grape molasses. An interesting looking dish that looked like a martabak. I’m not sure what the significance of ‘Black Sea’ style has on the pancake, whether it be the geographic or style of cooking but I found the dish to have a similar texture to a crepe suzette.
To finish we had the choice of Turkish coffee or apple tea. Now at this point I’d like to point a discrepancy I just noticed. On the Crave SIFF website it says you get “Turkish coffee or apple tea with Turkish delight.” The LDB menu that you’re presented at Efendy does not include “Turkish delight”, as I was unaware of this fact until literally a moment ago, I want mah Turkish delight!! ☹
The Turkish coffee is smooth, bitter and sweet at the same time. Don’t swirl it around as you’ll find yourself picking up the little particles that had detached from the settled dreg at the bottle of the cup.
The apple tea has a sweet flavor and the cinnamon infuses the brew. Its warming and lipsmacking good.
Efendy Restaurant
79 Elliot Stret
Balmain
Ph: 02 9810 5466
Website: www.efendy.com.au
Posted by ‘D’ (now on twitter!)
Saw this out and about – cute!
October 19th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
I was afraid to mention how bored I was with all the Sugar Hit options…and their prices…but it seems I am not alone
at least you didn’t describe the tomatoes as moist. props to you sir
October 19th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Aww that banner thing is so freaking cute
I’m always quite overwhelmed and not so enthused about SIFF, the dinners are all a bit exxy, but the brunches are great! This looks like a great brunch option – love the crokery here, I’m definitely going to consider this one for my next brunch!
October 19th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Looks like an awesome spread! And that banner really is cute =) Yeah reading the sugar hits, none of them really did appeal to me.
October 19th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
As yet I have not attended any SIFF events. A couple of dinners looked great but when I times them by 3 it gets very pricey. The brunch at Efendy looks really good and great value, will see if I can get us in
October 19th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
I’ve always been a big fan of Sugar Hits, but unfortunately in recent years the quality has shown a decline.
October 19th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Can’t eat sweets unless I’ve had entree and mains so the Sugar Hits never did it for me, always ended up being an expensive experience!
October 19th, 2010 at 8:45 pm
Mmmm, brunch. I’ve never had Turkish food before, and it actually looks pretty good. I’d go for the vegetarian dish or the pancake dish. Nom nom nom pancakes
Oh, but halloumi! 
October 19th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
Ooh yeah, that last pic is part of Art & About, right?
(I can’t believe I just described tomatoes and cucumbers) – ahh, the life of a food blogger… “The bread was…. white and fluffy…”
Thanks for the review – not sure about some of those mains as brekky… Sometimes, I’m just a toast and muesli girl
October 19th, 2010 at 11:32 pm
Considering those dishes you had are part of the regular menu, it’s pretty good value to get them all for $25. The quality at Efendy is always top notch, too.
October 21st, 2010 at 9:34 am
I need to go to this place after reading all the rave reviews. Their let’s do brunch menu is really good value too!