31 July 2005 — When William first heard what cuisine I’ve chosen for the week, he was like “Greek? Erh… are you sure?” hee hee, and that look on his face, priceless. I know we’re really venturing out now with Perama, but after all, this isn’t any ordinary Greek food joint, it has received a “One Hat” rating from the SMH Good Food Guide for the last 3 years. Can’t be that bad. And besides, we SHOULD be more garang.

For a change, we decided to make it a Sunday lunch rather than the typical Saturday dinner. Good to be out when it’s still nice and bright, and warm. and I thought, probably nicer for taking pictures, not always come out dim-dim-dark-dark. Location-wise, we’re also going somewhere new — Petersham. Neber been there in all these years?!? Well part of the adventure…

Worried they may be very busy, we made reservations for 12pm, and finally got there at 1.45pm?!? But the waitress was very nice, and turns out the place wasn’t all that packed, just enough customers to be lively, but not uncomfortably overcrowded.

Hmm… first impressions: Aegean white-washed walls with dark blue trimmings, a laurel wreath, and some unclad gods and goddesses thrown in for good measure. But what was REALLY Greek were the people! Not just the exceptionally smiley and attentive staff, but the customers themselves — as if they just walked straight off the set of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”! Other than Wil and myself, most of the other tables were all big parties of families and friends all boisterously engaged in merry-making. 真得很有气氛!

As for food, after great deliberation, we settled on:
*Seafood Parcels - prawn, scallop, flaked almonds, coriander, cayenne pepper, cumin and lemon pepper wrapped in filo
*Lamb Kleftiko (Bandit) - slow oven baked lamb in a rich tomato, mustard, cumin, onion and parsley sauce with melted kasseri cheese, served on baked potato
*Chicken Melitzana - layers of pan-freid chicken breast fillets and eggplant slices with a tomato, honey, cinnamon sauce and melted haloumi cheese.
There was NO WAY we could go wrong!

And sure enough, Perama delivered. In good time as well.

The Seafood Parcels: such generous chunky pieces of seafood wrapped in the lightest of filo pastry, not oily at all and very tasty. +so fusion, they actually littered the dish with Japanese salmon roe, the type that goes “pop” in your mouth and the oil oozes out, my favourite.

Then the Chicken Melitzana: the chicken was so tender, how do they get it so right? and the eggplant, thick and scrumptious, and the haloumi cheese, my favourite kind, chewy-chewy and not too pungent. The sauce was also sublime — tomato with the slightest hint of honey and cinnamon.

Again with the Lamb Kleftiko, the lamb was baked to perfection. Tender, warm and oh so comforting, like your own grandmother just made it.

And though we were already full after the main courses, having seen them, I knew we couldn’t pass on the desserts.

So we ended up ordering the Poached Pears in Spiced Red Wine — pear poached in a cinnamon, vanilla and clove red wine, served with pistachio, dried fig and olive oil ice-cream… PURE (pause) BLISS. The first mouthful left both William and myself speechless, Speechless! All we could do was stare at each other wide-eyed. I knew he was thinking the same thing: 天啊! 怎么这么好吃?!? and we’re not even particularly big fans of pear. and olive oil ice-cream? that just sounds weird right? Wrong! It is actually VERY VERY nice, and yes, you can defnitely taste the olive oil, but it is surprisingly delicious! Promise me now that if you ever go to Perama, you have to order this. You have to!

and I just have to say it one more time: the service was immaculate! Warm, genuine and friendly, no airs of pretentiousness at all, hat or no hat.

Still walking on air, we paid up and stepped out into the warm, luscious heat of the afternoon. Sigh… just how a sunny Greek adventure should end…

Take me to the Visuals!

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