{the food palate} » 2005

Cafe Mint, Surry Hills

February 20th, 2005

Do you ever wake of morning thinking about the fabulous food you had the night before? And wish that you finished that last few bites of the potato and roast garlic ravioli? Well I do. But perhaps I am obsessive compulsive like that.

Last night, friends, The Boy and I dined at Cafe Mint. Coming together for a good ole chin~wag and some good food was a perfect way to end the week. This has been the third or so attempt to make it to Cafe Mint, and finally after countless rainchecks we made it. This time in the last hour or so of the diminishing day~light~saving summer night. And if this was to be the last soiree of summer time dining, it was the way last soirees should be. Mainly because, once greetings and kisses were out of the way, the wine was corked and “sit down take a breath and have some wine won’t you?” sets the tone for the night ahead, and reminded me once again why these friends rank high for the most thought and wonderful. They brought chilled white wine!

Cafe Mint is all about sharing, communal dining and I suppose bringing a little bit of Morocco and Persia into Australian cuisine without it being overly glorified. With the unintentional knee touching with the stranger next to you, everyone speaks in somewhat hushed tones because its just nice to do so in a place like this. Sometimes after you take a fork full of the sheep’s feta and fatoush you catch a glimpse of the diner adjacent to you, and they nod and smile because they know you are just loving the tangy bite of the feta or the fresh kalamata olives.

I could just tell you what we had, but take a look and you can pretend choose for yourself. The Boy chose wisely with the Chicken tagine. And soon enough I was eyeing the couscous and sweet delectable apricots and “oh could you add some chicken to that for me please?” Once I sensed him inching away and shielding his dome shaped bowl from me, I offered some from mine; the Potato and garlic roasted ravioli and spicy minced lamb. And how clever was the chef to hide the mint yoghurt underneath the ravioli and caramalised onion wedges? It was like a whole new meal once I started stirring things around.

Once dessert was ready to be ordered I silently thanked The Boy for finding a park about a block and half away. I knew I just needed to work all this off, so that there would be no need to undo the top button of my pants.

And so the highlight of the night was ofcourse the title of the post. And in more detail; Saffron and pistachio icecream with walnut filo wafers and pishmak (also known as pashmak or pasha). Yellow being one of my favourite shades of the rainbow, this dessert is the kinda dessert I’d want to be if ever I was to (errrm) be made into a dessert. And no, its not just because its my blogging alias. You see, even though I love my sweet things, I don’t like things to be overly sweet. And if they are, I tend to balance it with a strong shot of coffee. So the number one reason why this dessert would play me in an animated movie about desserts (errrm, yeah!) is mainly due to the balanced sweetness of ice cream. Followed by the nutty texture of the pistachio and then like a big cherry on top without the 70’s kitsch, the pasha. Pasha is just the most heavenly thing to grace my lips since the year 1996. I’ll never forget my first moment with the stuff, which is another story all together.

So, this is starting to sound like a wannabe food review. But really, at 9:30 on Saturday morning I just want to go back to sample the breakfast menu , because last nights meal was just that good.