Golden Pide

Another Ozzie food post coming up...

As a student in Australia, I used to love eating their souvlakis (what it was called in Melbourne) aka pide (what it's called in NSW) aka kebab (in England!) which is basically slices of grilled chicken or lamb wrapped up in a Turkish flatbread with fresh vegetables. The pides you get in Australia and England are HUGE, nothing like the small thin kebabs we get here and for a small eater like me, one can last me easily 2 meals! While in Sydney, we got the opportunity to sample some pide and it was a delicious reminder of student days!

We took a drive to Golden Pide in Surry Hills, just on the outskirts of Sydney CBD, for dinner. Golden Pide was a small but popular corner cafe with just a tiny area for eat-in customers behind and a small bar with chairs for take-away customers to wait while their order was being prepared.

The store from the door. There are lighted boards behind the counter displaying the varieties and prices of pides. The brown thing on a stick in the bottom centre of the picture is the compacted meat that's slowly grilled.

Choices of add-ons for your custom-made pide. Everything's behind a glass case so it's really hygenic. From left to right: Tabbouleh, Hummus, various Turkish dips, salad, fried zucchini and falafel.

A close-up of the falafel. We had 1 to share at only $0.80. It's a deep-fried mixture of mashed spiced chickpea and was rather spicy! The aroma of the spices just hits you right up the nose!

Close-up of the fried zucchini. We also had one for $2 to try. It was a bit too oily and quite ordinary. Not much zucchini, mainly flour and bits of onions. Reminded me of our local cucur!

The kebab! It's custom-made according to the meat and sauces that you want before it's nicely wrapped up and handed to you.

The beef pide! It was filled with generous portions of grilled thinly-shaved slices of beef and fresh vegetables, topped with Turkish yoghurt and chilli sauce before being wrapped up in a slice of thing Turkish flatbread.

Chicken pide! It had a lighter taste than the more robust beef. And it was strangely $0.50 more expensive than the beef at $7.00! I would have thought it was the other way around!

Pides make a deliciously healthy and filling meal (or two!). We were all so full after the kebabs, and this considering that we shared it out! One good thing about eating kebabs abroad is their generosity of the ingredients. It's always filled to the bursting and every mouthful is a delightful blend of meat, veges and bread. What a perfect combination! The next time anyone's in Sydney, go give it a try! It's called:

Golden Pide Turkish Pizza and Kebab House (100% Halal)
500 Cleveland Street
Surry Hills, NSW 2010