V Rating:VVV
Where: 379 Darling Street, Balmain
When: Breakfast: Sat., Sun. and Public Holidays: 9am- 3pm.
Lunch: Sat, Sun.Public Holidays: 12pm - 3pm. Dinner: Wed - Sat: 6pm - late.
Tel: (02) 9555 7067.
Price: Brekkie:$6- $21 or $20 set menu. Lunch: $4.50 - $28.50. Dinner: $32 - $36.

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of meeting up with the food-loving bloggers behind Grab Your Fork, Pickles Perks, Cucina Rebecca, Limes and Lycopenes, and Morsels and Musings, the last two for the first time.

We’d heard tell that the breakfast banquet at Kazbah on Darling was worth blogging about, so made the trek to Balmain. Obviously we weren’t the only ones in the know - there were people waiting outside by 11am and inside the tables were full.

Perhaps the reason for Kazbah’s popularity is its unique offering amongst the crowded Sydney brunch scene. Rather that the standard eggs on toast or big breakfast, Kazbah has a large spread of dishes hailing from Northern Africa, Morocco and the Middle East. There is a good selection of savoury and sweet dishes, which we dutifully explored.

I was excited to try the fuul medammas, because I’ve heard vegetarians live on this dish in Egypt. I’ll be there for three weeks in September so wanted to know what I was in for. I really liked the mix of chickpeas and fava beans, which are roughly blended to create a thick paste that has a smooth, subtle flavour. You eat it on bread with feta and shallots. Yum!

Kazbah bills itself as the “home of the tagine” and true to form offers vegetarian and meat versions for breakfast. The vegetarian tagine consisted of pumpkin, baby spinach, capsicum, carmelised onion and tomato with two poached eggs on top. I was expecting the tagine to be stew-like, but actually it was a baked dish that somehow preserved the freshness of the vegetables, particularly the spinach.

The warm rice pudding with saffron poached pears and hazelnuts was my pick of the sweet dishes. The rice was firm and large, and was lovely in the creamy sauce. Also, it was topped with saffron poached pear.

I was in two minds about the sweet cous cous. On the one hand, it was topped with a generous serving of stewed magenta rhubarb. On the other hand, the cous cous looked and tasted like it had been soaked in a super sweet golden syrup which was a bit much for my system at that time of the morning. A pretty glass of cardamon milk came with it, and was meant to be tipped over the cous cous. It helpfully softened the taste and texture.

Last but not least was the strawberry pancake. Emily from Pickles Perks had warned us not to choose the chocolate version because it was too rich. This was a wise call. The strawberry pancake was huge, and had a thick fluffy texture that bore more resemblance to a cake than than a pancake. The strawberries were baked into the top, and the whole dish was smothered in double cream and syrup. Somehow I managed to have two slices, for which I deserve a place in the brunch hall of fame.

Naturally food, restaurants and food and restaurant scandals were hot topics of conversation amongst the assembled bloggers. But it was also nice to discover that we had other things in common, like a love of travel, weddings, and the Meaning of Life. There’s already talk of another meet up later in the year, and I can’t wait to see everyone again when we’re back from overseas.

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