Portugal’s mighty pastel de nata has been recreated in hotcake form – bathed in a Portuguese-tart custard, and topped with crumbled pastry, cinnamon, apple, vanilla and ice-cream – at Lunas, a new cafe in Petersham from the owners of Portuguese staple Sweet Belem and excellent seafood diner Fich.
“We wanted to serve brunches and lunches that people love, but with a Portuguese twist,” Jose Silva tells Broadsheet. He co-owns all three venues with his partner, Basia Silva, in Sydney’s Portuguese heartland of Petersham.
A savoury alternative to the hotcakes is the scrambled eggs laced with chouriço (Portuguese-style chorizo). It’s served on house-made toast smeared with sobrassada butter (Silva describes sobrassada as “a fermented Spanish sausage from Majorca, turned into a ’nduja-like paste”). Sprinkled on top are parsley, coriander and gordal olives, aka queen olives, native to Andalucia, in Spain’s sunny south.
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SIGN UP“The olives have a salty, briny, acidic taste which cuts through the richness of the chouriço,” says Silva, who was head chef for 12 years at Guillaume Brahimi’s Bennelong, and is currently head chef and co-owner at Bibo in Double Bay. “For me, getting the balance of flavours right is so important.”
Meanwhile, favourites on the lunchtime menu include the sardines on toast, the octopus and, of course, the chicken burger – a food closely associated with Petersham’s Portuguese dining scene. The sardines are pan-fried, then rested on broa – a Portuguese cornbread made here according to Silva’s grandmother’s recipe – and served with coriander, tomato, puffed rice and house-made molho verde (onion pickled in aged red-wine vinegar, coriander and parsley).
“We wanted to open something Portuguese around here,” says Silva. “A lot of Portuguese restaurants have been closing and we didn’t want the area to lose what it was. We wanted to save it.”
Lunas, which is named after the Silvas’ daughter, is on a sunny corner on Stanmore Road. Basia designed the space to be “old and raw”, but new. Heritage elements, such as the original door, are offset with benches handcrafted from recycled timber, polished concrete and forest-green walls. Large picture windows let in plenty of light and calming views of the leafy grounds of the All Saints Church across the road.
“We wanted it to feel like a bit of oasis,” says Silva.
Once Lunas’s courtyard opens, the oasis will be even bigger. In the works are shaded communal tables, a herb garden, a mini citrus orchard and a grassy lawn, as well as plans for long, decadent, Sunday lunches inspired by Portuguese tradition.
Lunas
316 Stanmore Road, Petersham
Hours:
Wed to Sun 7am–3pm
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