East African Brekkie Staples Shine at a New Inner West Weekend Pop-Up

Nimo Ibrahim knows there aren’t many eateries in Sydney offering African breakfast. So when Little Lagos ’s Ade Adeniyi asked if she wanted to run a pop-up from Friday to Sunday each week, she knew what to do.

“Australia has a culture of going for breakfast, especially families,” she tells Broadsheet. “So I look around and I see all different sorts of breakfast – mostly bacon and eggs, very simple – and I’m thinking ‘man it would be so great to actually introduce African breakfast’. I’ve got so many dishes to share.”

The chef is serving dishes she grew up eating in Kenya. Expect bold flavours across stews, curries and sauteed veg, ready to be mopped up with house-made chapati (flatbread) and mahamri (a triangle of doughnut-like bread that works with both sweet and savoury dishes).

The hollow-centred mahamri is ideal to scoop up proteins of your choice. The most popular accompaniment is mbaazi, a rich and creamy street food dish where African pigeon peas (a legume similar to toor dal) are cooked with coconut milk and thickened coconut cream. “Pigeon peas are so hard to find in Australia – there’s just one guy. Every time people ask me, especially East African people, I’m like, ‘come and try it in my restaurant!’” Ibrahim laughs.

“On special occasions we’d have [mahamri] with meat that’s fried with capsicum, onion, garlic – you can just smell the aroma when you’re waking up. Everything is cooked from scratch, nothing is from the shop pre-made.” The dish is called suqaar, and Ibrahim has a beef version on her menu.

Don’t skip coffee. The beans are blended with a mixture of ginger, cardamom, cinnamon and pepper for a slightly spicy edge.
“Every time someone comes in to eat the food, they just love it. The plates are always empty. I’m so grateful to just do what I love doing.”

Africa Fusion Pop-Up
125 Enmore Road, Enmore

Hours:
Fri to Sun 7am–2.30pm

@africa_.fusion