You get quite a few grab-and-go types of breakfast places within the area where we stayed, but they are mostly frequented by people who are on their way to work. So, it was a little tricky to get a table.
And then we discovered Mihbaj…
Here they do dishes from Levantinian Cuisine—Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. It was a great find the first time we were in Paddington/Sussex Gardens area. We went back again and again for breakfasts. Here’s what we had at Mihbaj:
On our first visit, I had Veggie Breakfast, and my husband had Eggs Florentine.
Veggie Breakfast
Free-range poached eggs, avocado on charcoal sourdough bread, topped with feta cheese. Unfortunately, my photo came out quite anaemic, so here I used one of their photos from their website.
Eggs Florentine
Two free-range poached eggs on English muffin, sautéed spinach topped with Hollandaise sauce and zaatar. My husband told me that these were the best eggs Florentine he’s ever had in his life.
On our second visit, I don’t know what my husband had but I wanted to try something completely different, something I’d never had before…
Fluffy Ijjeh (Palestinian fluffy omelette)
Now, this was quite something. This omelette is indeed fluffy! How do you make it so fluffy? I so wanted to ask the lady who made it, but her English was limited. Still, I managed to get the message through of how much I enjoyed it. She told us to come back again and we did! Several times.
After we returned to Sydney, I checked all my Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi cookbooks and found the recipe in Falastin. This is what Sami Tamimi says in his book about Ijeh:
“Palestinian omelettes have a little bit of flour and baking powder added to the mix. This (along with the fact that they are fried in a generous amount of olive oil) makes them something between an omelette, a pancake, and a frittata. They’re crisp around the edges, puffed up in the middle, and comforting through and through. The fresh herbs and white cheese are traditional, the caramelised onions less so.”
On our third visit, my husband had a chocolate croissant with a sour face, and I went completely the opposite direction in my choice of breakfast: I tried Mihbaj’s Levantinian Continental Breakfast and what an interesting breakfast it was…
Levantinian Continental
This was like full continental breakfast from that side of the world. All served with labneh, olives, za’atar, makdous—I’ll talk about this in a minute—and your choice of:
Mihbaj Hummus
Feta Haydari (Whipped Labneh & feta cheese topped with roasted tomato, garlic sauce & zaatar)
Nazareth Ful (Stewed fava beans topped with spring onions tomato, chilli, garlic & tahini sauce)
Fattet Hummus (Toasted croutons, tahini hummus are layered in a deep dish and finished off with a sprinkle of toasted sumac, nuts and fresh parsley)
Okay, I decided to have mine with feta haydari because I was curious how they made haydari as compared to how we make it in Türkiye.
A little note about makdous…
On the day, they look like stuffed mini eggplants to me. Stuffed with walnuts and red pepper. Makdous, in fact, is a Levantine dish of oil-cured eggplants stuffed with a mixture of walnuts, red pepper, garlic and salt. The flavour profile can be described as savoury, sour and spicy. Apparently, it is a staple in Levantine cuisine, which includes dishes from Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine.
Mihbaj was a great find when we first landed in London. However, on our return to London before we flew back to Australia, it was not the same. I have to admit, it was a terrible experience which made it so hard to believe that it was the same place where we had some wonderful food and service. Anyway…