Sydney: Greek Feast At Perama, Petersham

Maria Laitinen checks out Perama, a traditional Greek restaurant with a contemporary twist in the outskirts of Sydney.
Text And Photos By Maria Laitinen

Sydney is a real melting pot for different cultures and I have learned to embrace this since moving here more than five years ago. I find it almost overwhelming how you can find everything in one city, and the food introduced by the different cultures is most of the time very authentic and really delicious. Perama, a Greek restaurant in Sydney’s suburb of Petersham is one of the best examples. The owner David Tsirekas has an unbeatable talent of creating a feast you won’t forget. Here are some of the delicious dishes we sampled during our dinner.

The famous pork belly baklava is simply genius: “layers of flaky filo pastry, pork belly meat, date and pistachios, topped with crispy crackling and served with a date and mastic sauce”. This is a work of art.

“Braised calamari stuffed with jasmine rice, currant, flaked almonds, mint, prawns. Served with tomato, honey,cinnamon sauce and steamed greens” – I loved the hint of cinnamon and the calamari was just so tender.

Vegetarian pastitsio: “Layer of pasta, spiced and herbed eggplant and lentils and topped with a bechamel sauce. Served with a side salad of sliced fennel, baby spinach and walnuts” – The bechamel sauce was sweet and creamy. I think this was a great vegetarian dish.