Parramatta Lanes

Parramatta Lanes is mostly a celebration of the city’s diverse food scene across 7 ‘hidden’ lanes. But food is not the only thing, there is also live music, art installations, and performance art. You can eat a few pieces of baklava then attempt to belly dance to Turkish music; devour a spit roast lamb roll, listen to bluegrass, then buy a jar of buttons; get a slider from The Nighthawk Diner, then buy a painting; you can even take in some performance art, enjoy some gelato, and get down with the boogie.

Personally, I am a sucker for fairy lights, colourful bunting, and using upcycled milk crates as stools. This is probably why I enjoyed Leigh Church and the Roxy Car Park the most. Move Leigh Church onto a farm and you’d have rustic realness. The Green Mohair Suits were playing while I was there and I felt like dancing, but I have two left feet so I just stood there scoffing cheesecake and bopping along to the bluegrass. The Roxy Car Park feels like an Asian market from the amount of people packed into the area to the gaudy plastic table covers. It does get a bit of a hipster edge to it from all the upcycled milk crates though.

Baklava, date pastry, almond pastry, cheese sambousek, meat sambousek

The first stop was The Bazaar in Town Hall Lane where we picked up some sweet and savory pastries from Arz Bar. The sweet pastries are crumbly, you’d have to eat it over a plate so as not to get any crumbs on you. Sambousek are small fried pies (like a Middle Eastern empanada, maybe). I enjoyed the cheese sambousek as it reminded me of a creamy mix of cheeses which had been seasoned and then fried, but my favourite was the meat sambousek. I’m no chef, but I think I recognized cumin and allspice in the filling. Yum, spices.

Salted caramel popcorn cheesecake

We then left The Bazaar at Town Hall Lane and ended up at Leigh Church (the lane with the bluegrass music). After browsing all the stalls in this lane, I decided upon Courtney’s Brasserie where I bought a cup of salted caramel popcorn cheesecake. This was a new experience for me because the cheesecake was denser than any I’ve ever had. Initially, I had taken a spoonful right out of a salty pocket and it’s safe to say that it was a shock, but aside from that, it was sweet and delicious. I also enjoyed the caramel popcorn on top for a bit of crunch. I also may or may not have broken the plastic spoon while trying to dig out a big spoonful of the base…

Beef rendang, nasi goreng

Next stop was the Roxy car park, which was home to all the Asian stalls. I really like Temasek, so of course I head to their stall and buy a bowl of nasi goreng and some beef rendang. The Singaporean delight, nasi goreng, is a stir-fried rice and one of the main reasons I like it so much is because of the addition of belacan (shrimp paste), which gives it a little salt. This bowl is also covered in a mountain of fried shallots and I’m a big fan of fried shallots, so this makes me really happy. Two pieces of fluffy roti accompany the beef rendang which is soft but not goopy (this is a good thing). To me, the coconut, cinnamon, and chili is the most pronounced. Ripping the roti apart with your fingers and scooping up pieces of beef and sauce is heaps of fun.

Channel 1 cocktail: plum wine, bubblegum, watermelon

Grasshopper Bar popped up in the Roxy Car Park serving fun-colored cocktails in plastic jars. After looking at the cocktail menu (which was written on a cool tv whiteboard), I got the Channel 1 (plum wine, bubblegum, watermelon). I must confess that my brain saw ‘watermelon’ and said “GET THAT ONE”. Plum wine is not as sweet as you would think, it’s actually a little tart. That was probably a good thing as bubblegum and watermelon are already sticky-sweet.

Nutella crepe

I was craving something sweet so to finish off the night, we headed to La Roue Café at the UNE Future Campus. I got the nutella crepe as it was the only dessert option on the menu, and wow it was sweet. With each steaming hot bite, the layer of nutella was twice as thick as the crepe. I tried my hardest to finish all of it, but alas I only got halfway before my stomach was saying “nope, there’s no more room”.

Whether you like food, music, art, or any combination of those, the Parramatta Lanes festival has something for everyone to enjoy. You know what, because you’re busy enjoying all the sights and tastes, you don’t realize how much walking you’re doing so you can get a bit of exercise as well!