After the fun I had at last year’s event, I was super keen to come back for more. This year we were busy, so we only had time for one tour. Unfortunately, this year they have smarted up about the tours, and now only let you book half hour before the event – which I think is more fair, but everyone started pushing and shoving to try to get the tour that they wanted. Our first choice of Sweet Treats had just booked out, so we went to our second choice of European Eats.
But we had some time to kill before our tour, so we watched “Celebrity Chef” Iain Hewitson, or Huey as he’s affectionately known as, whip up a few dishes. Huey was extremely disorganised, and I am not sure if I want to eat any of his food, but he was certainly very charming.
We then toured some of our favourite shops, and got a freshly made Oregano Pizza ($2) from the roadside stall started by Habibs, the only stall that was a little bit different to the tataoki balls and gozleme that appears at every festival. Little did we know that if we bought the same thing at a shop, it would’ve cost us only about $1.20, which just goes to show really.
Our group was made up of some pretty cool people, some pretty wise up on the food front, but some completely clueless. Our first stop was Olympic Delicatessen & Butchery, a continental deli started the year of the first Australian Olympics, in 1956. We had always wanted to stop here, and missed out last time because they were already closed. Unfortunately Peter, the owner, was softly spoken and not very informative, so we didn’t have very much fun.
Never mind, because our second stop, North Terrace Seafoods, the Greek owner showed us how to fillet a fish, how to look for fresh fish, the types of fish that were in season at the moment, and how much fish a pregnant woman should eat. We got to sample some really fat and juicy king prawns, which we later went back to get more of.
Satisfied, our next stop was a deli of a different kind. The Plaza Deli serves Baulkan and Eastern European delights. We sampled some capsicum relish on bread, topped with a beautiful Greek fetta, Swiss cheese, kalamata olives and some home made sausages (all delicious). They explained to us all the different types of fetta (mostly variance in the salt and water content) and olive. We picked up some bargain lasagne sheets before we headed to stop 4.
We visited the Bankstown Hotel last year, but this year, we were actually given a tour! We looked at the sharks in their fish tanks, marvelled at their waterfall next to their pokies machine, got a free juice, and sampled a range from their catering menus, including spiced lamb cutlets with yoghurt dressing, marinated BBQ baby octopus, mushroom aranchini balls, Chermoula marinated chicken skewers, bruschetta, garlic crouton tomato & basil. We even got free drinks voucher too!
By this time, I was feeling pretty satisfied, so I was glad that our last stop was Bankstown Cellars, where we were poured drink after drink, all in the name of taste testing. The drinks all went by in a blur, but I can make out from my screwed notes that I had a Calsburg beer, Penfolds’s Thomas Hyland chardonnay, cab sav and shiraz.
I will certainly miss Bankstown Bites when I leave, but I hope this is the beginning of a long tradition that I will be coming back to in years to come.
Info
Olympic Delicatessen & Butchery
41 Bankstown City Plaza
Bankstown
NSW 2200
Phone (02) 9790 1669
North Terrace Seafoods
120 North Terrace
Bankstown
NSW 2200
Phone (02) 9790 6851
The Plaza Deli
112 Bankstown City Plaza
Bankstown
NSW 2200
Phone (02) 9790 1948
Bankstown Hotel
102 Bankstown City Plaza
Bankstown
NSW 2200
Phone (02) 9790 1142
Website
Bankstown Cellars
10 Marion St
Bankstown
NSW 2200
Phone (02) 9796 8921
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