The Sydney Morning Herald logo
Advertisement

Nora

Matt Holden

Sweet and salty: Vegemite, lychee and cheese charcoal tart.
Sweet and salty: Vegemite, lychee and cheese charcoal tart.Bonnie Savage

Modern Asian$$$

As you watch Sarin Rojanametin in his small open kitchen, carefully shaving vegetables with a Japanese mandolin and arranging them meticulously on a dish of sous-vide eggs, phrases like "technique-driven food" spring to mind, and you can easily imagine this young Bangkok-born cook proving his chops on the lower rungs of some two-hatted downtown diner.

But the modest former photographer got his hospitality start in coffee, pulling espressos at Brother Baba Budan, Seven Seeds and Everyday Coffee. "I got sick of coffee," he says. "So one day I quit and jumped into the kitchen." 

The result is Nora, a cute cafe with a brunch menu that is high on adventure as well as self-taught technique. The bright, narrow space, furnished with small timber stools and tiny tables that are just big enough for two, has the air of a cool cafe in some busy corner of Tokyo, an impression helped by the understated service of Rojanametin's partner, Jean Thamthanakorn, the self-taught baker responsible for Nora's famous tarts (of which more later).

Advertisement
Two-by-two: Nora's tiny tables suit pairs.
Two-by-two: Nora's tiny tables suit pairs.Wayne Taylor

The sous-vide eggs appear as Dear Mitchell ($14.50), named for a colleague at Brother Baba Budan who recently died.

Rojanamentin blitzes the eggs, then cooks them at 72C for half-an-hour. "I wanted to create an egg dish that is creamy and buttery without using those ingredients," he says. "It comes from a Thai tradition of cooking at home with hot water rather than oil."

The result is creamy, soft and egg-custardy. With a generous scatter of fishy salted shrimp, spring onion and chilli dressing, and a topping of almost-transparent shaved daikon and cucumber, this is a smart and clean-tasting modern south-east Asian take on breakfast eggs.

'Nora Flakes' with lemongrass and ginger curd, seeds, nuts, fruit and coconut.
'Nora Flakes' with lemongrass and ginger curd, seeds, nuts, fruit and coconut.Luis Ascui
Advertisement

Rojanamentin has a very urban herb garden in the lane behind the cafe, so the urban herbs and leaves turn up in Churning of the Sea Milk ($19.50) – slivers of jasmine-smoked salmon draped on a white plate, topped with slices of nashi, beets and what Rojanamentin calls "this weird mint-tasting herb" – something with a variegated red and gold flower that neither of us can identify. The dish's delicate presentation belies the fish's rich and robust flavour.

The signature breakfast is Flour Water And Salt ($12) – a board bearing a small loaf of house-baked bread made from house-milled wholegrain flour, semi-churned butter, chicken-liver parfait, ricotta and jam, while 2010 ($10) is bircher, but not as we know it: black and white sticky rice cooked in rice milk to a nutty texture, then garnished with jackfruit, longan and sliced toddy palm, which looks like pear but is toothier and more fragrant.

When the pair lived in Sydney, Rojanamentin wanted to eat Bourke Street Bakery tarts every day. He convinced Thamthanakorn to make tarts at home instead. Her crisp pastry shells,  which she sold at cafes around town before Nora opened, are blackened with burnt coconut husk and filled with creamy delights like lemongrass and ginger brulee, coconut pandan – and even cheddar cheese, shards of dehydrated Vegemite and sweet pieces of lychee ($5). Sweet, salty, delicious – and adventurous.

Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.

Sign up

From our partners

Advertisement
Advertisement