Seasweet Patisserie Now Opening in Australia
 

Fruit cocktail from Sea Sweet

Address in Australia: Church Street, Parramatta, 1300 908 070

Photo: Domino Postiglione
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There's so much more to Lebanese sweets than nuts and filo, rosewater and sugar syrup. Baklava is just one indulgence on show at this gleaming new outpost of a beloved Beirut pastry empire. Its posse of imported chefs bakes gloriously chewy bourma, too - nut-jammed rounds of kataifi (the stringy, spiky pastry that resembles shredded wheat). Then there are ma'amoul and namoura - cookies and squares of grainy semolina - and powdered sugar shortbreads called ghraybeh that dissolve on the tongue (all $16-$22 kilogram). Sea Sweet's greatest claims to fame, however, are knefe and fruit cocktail. A decadent breakfast or post-party pick-me-up, knefe are vaguely cheesecake-y squares of molten stretched-curd cheese or the famous clotted milk cream known as qashta. These are lined with buttery, biscuity semolina crumbs. Warmed, syrup-sweetened and stuffed in a puffy sesame seed bun called ka'ak, knefe is a revelation in decadence ($6 takeaway, $9 eat in). Seek nutritional redemption in a tall glass of fresh fruit pieces on strawberry or perhaps sweetened avocado puree, topped with qashta and almond slivers ($10). With more stores planned (Bankstown, Burwood, Rockdale and the city), many more people will be able to live the Lebanese sweet life beyond baklava.