Seems like a lot of people have been asking me for Sydney food recommendations lately. In case you didn’t notice y’all, I haven’t been in Sydney for almost three years but hey sure, if you’re askin’, imma givin’!
I have my standard list of must go’s, ranging from Hurricanes (best ribs EVER) to Bill’s (that’s Granger) to Spice I Am (spicy! awesome!) to Urban Bites (my old hang and awesome breakfasts) to Max Brenner (chocolate by the bald man) to Kobe Jones (volcano rolls!) to Gelatomassi (best gelato outside Rome) to Sushi-e (Balmain bug tails FTW).
But one place that I insist everyone should go to is probably the most low key of them all. The super awesome, super delicious Mamak.
The last time I went to Mamak was March last year when I was home for work. I think it was one of my first meals, and I ate there numerous times in between and then on my very last day, my friends took me to Mamak enroute to the airport because you’d better believe I wasn’t leaving without one last meal.
And for the record, these photos are from back then, before I even had my food blog which goes to prove that *ahem* Mr Giles Coren not only food bloggers take photos and taking photos of food is not like “work”.
All together now: A_ _H_ _ _.
Mamak is a Malaysian joint on Goulburn street, just hanging on the outskirts of Sydney’s Chinatown. I remember it kind of just opened one day and boom there’s a huge fricking queue that lasted for months and month (Sydney guys, is there still a queue??).
Thankfully, hungry queuers are kept entertained (and motivated) by the roti tossing gymnastics out front – Mamak’s roti kitchen is set at the very front of the store and there you can see the talented chefs flipping and tossing and stretching the dough to make roti, Mamak’s specialty which they serve savoury and sweet.
It kind of goes without saying that Mamak’s roti is like… I mean, ok we’re not in Malaysia but it’s pretty darn phenomenal. They serve six styles of roti and even have my childhood favourite roti telur bawang (with egg and onions).
But Mamak doesn’t just do roti well. Everything, like seriously everything on their menu is authentic within an inch of its life and proper dribblingly good. Take their chicken satay for example. Delicious. And ayam goreng (fried chicken)? Brilliant.
Another one of my most favourite Mamak dishes is up the top of this blog – the maggi goreng. Made with squiggly maggi noodles (as opposed to mee goreng with the regular egg noodles), the maggi goreng is stir fried with eggs, prawns, fish cake and bean sprouts and offer a little kick of chilli that the mee goreng doesn’t have.
Onto desserts and Mamak desserts are special. They serve four styles of sweet roti, the most intriguing is the roti tisu tossed til it’s literally paper thin (hence ’tisu’ ie ’tissue’) and served as a delicate tall cone. It’s definitely impressive, I mean do you see everyone staring at our roti tisu? Or maybe they were checking out my hot friend, Janet.
My favourite though is quite the opposite to the roti tisu. It’s the roti bom, a thick roll of roti which is doused in (this is a guess) butter and condensed milk. OMG YUM.
Somehow somebody at the table felt the urge to order a serve of ais kacang (shaved ice with rose syrup, condensed milk and corn) which I think was ok but I don’t know. I was probably declaring monogamy to my roti bom at that point in time.
So that, my friends, is Mamak, one of my very most favouritest restaurants in Sydney. And now I am proper homesick.
Mamak
15 Goulburn Street
Haymarket
+612 9211 1668
website
