Horsley Drive - Wetherill Park, Smithfield, Horsley Park & Carramar

The Horsley Drive

Background

Our adventure covered four suburbs originally inhabited by the Cabrogal clan of the Dharug people - Wetherill Park, Smithfield Horsley Park, and Carramar, thanks to a Taste Tour along The Horsley Drive. Taste Cultural Tours is a charity and social enterprise, started by the Benevolent Society in 2010 (now independent), who train local-to-the-area people to promote cross cultural understanding, restaurants and other small businesses and food.

We meet our wonderful Taste tour guide, Latife at Wetherill Park for our first taste experience.

Wetherill Park

Wetherill Park was named after John Wetherill who donated 21 acres of his property to the government as a park, possibly around 1878. Small amounts of settlers arrived and a school was established in 1882 with 8 children, named Boothtown, after Samuel Booth, a local store owner who donated land for the school. All the streets in Wetherill Park are named after famous ‘dead white male writers’, (credit to David Williamson) e.g., Shakespeare St and Park, Dickens Rd, Frost Close. Wetherill Park Nature Reserve is a large recreational park and urban forest just a block behind the main road of industrial sites. Today most residents live in the south-east corner as the larger portion of the suburb is industrial.

We started our day with a coffee at the award winning Goliath Coffee Roasters. The owners, David and Clarissa are fourth generation Australians, (their great grandparents migrated to Cabramatta) who met working at the local pizza place whilst studying. They have been roasting their specialty coffees for ten years, five at this site (which used to be flower farms). When they started, specialty coffee was not a big deal in Western Sydney but they wanted to stay true to and stay in the area they grew up in. They use their regulars as tasters of potential new blends. Fortunately for us one group of regulars appeared as it was FIREMEN FRIDAY. Eight of the men and women who keep us fire safe turned up for their regular Friday coffee, lucky no fires occurred during the time they were there. Have I said how much I love a fireman? What a treat! Be still my beating heart!

Back to David and Clarissa who were incredibly proud, passionate and informative about their coffee and the business. There are four coffee blends to cover our collective subjective tastes and others tailor made for some of their business partners. They talked of the importance of their customers and partnering with other businesses, some of which we visited during our day.

Our coffees were great and were complemented by a deliciously delectable donut from the The Doughnut Mum, a 2022 award winner of the Baking Association of Australia. Off to the next stop in Smithfield.

A perfect combination
The coffee bar
The variables of water, barista, weather, roaster, storage. So much to learn!
Firemen Friday - good timing
What a couple, David & Clarissa
The bags of beans
The beans, much paler in colour than expected

Smithfield

Established in 1836, known then as Chisholm’s Bush (James Chisholm of the NSW Corps) and the first major settlement of the Fairfield area. In 1803 a Male Orphan School was established in the area for the many homeless boys turned onto the streets by their convict parents. Not sure what happened to their daughters. Very sad.

The area was named Smithfield after the meat markets of London and Dublin by John Brennan, a lawyer and later Police Magistrate who bought land in the area. Early settlers were attracted to Smithfield because of the soil, water supply and easy access to other towns. Its now a mix of industry, commercial and residential, mainly residential.

We enter the cool modern building that houses Cello Liqueur and are greeted by Domenico Cece. Domenico’s family had crafted a signature recipe for Limoncello four generations ago. Its first Australian public airing was at their (Domineco, his brother and mother’s) family Pizza restaurant in Bargo. Customers were offered a complimentary Limoncello after dinner, loved it and begged to be able to buy the liqueur. Domenico, with his science background and mum’s blessing, developed the Cello range ‘to make memories with Limoncello’. In 2010 the liqueurs appeared in his local bottle shop and the following year they received First Place in the World for their limoncello at three prestigious competitions in London, Chicago and Hong Kong. The flavour range has developed to be interesting and broad, their coffee liqueur is made from Goliath’s Little Hero brand and the rockmelon liqueur had so much flavour, made from the fruit nearest to the seeds. They have gone on to range their products nationally and win many international awards. We were fortunate to have a tour of the factory and some tastings. The ingredients for limoncello are as expected: premium lemons without wax or sprays, alcohol, water and sugar and the magic is due to the secret family recipe, e.g. the length of time of marination is a secret. The tax on distilled alcohol is $97 per litre, a large chunk of the cost of production.

The process has been automated, the most recent machinery purchase 8 months ago a spring loaded lemon skin peeler, able to cope with the variations of skin thickness due to winter lemons having more peel and other idiosyncrasies. Prior to the purchase lemons were peeled by hand, hard to imagine. No one wants bitter pith in their limoncello. The marinater, mixer (holding 1000 bottles worth of liqueur), and bottler (typically 1200 bottles per hour) are all part of the process. We were fortunate that Domineco shared some recipes for our purchases.

The passionate Domineco
Getting ready for a taste - and purchase
Everyone needs a lemon peeler
The alcohol, ready and waiting
Bottles waiting to be filled

We said goodbye to Dom and, with bottles clinking, headed to Monte Fresco Cheese, founded in 2015 by Sam Montalto. Sam’s father learnt to make cheese from his grandfather. Their ricotta is the star, winning several gold medal awards at the Sydney Royal Easter Show even though the family also make feta, haloumi, bocconcini and many other cheeses.

Sam’s daughter Stephanie isn’t far away, running the La ltaliano Panini & Donut Café out the front of the cheese factory and shop. She served us haloumi and panini with bocconcini and artichokes (delicious), with many of the ingredients from Sam’s shop. The people next to us regularly travel from the Northern Beaches for Stephanie’s fare. We then headed to Horsley Park.

Horsley Park

Horsley Park was originally part of Colonel George Johnston's 2,000-acre property named ‘Kings Gift’, which was given to him by Governor King for his role in putting down the Irish Rebellion at Vinegar Hill in 1804. It was renamed Horsley after Johnston’s death by his daughter, Blanche and son-in-law George Weston after Weston’s birthplace in England. They built Horsley House, now protected by the Australian Heritage Trust. Today the area is known for its rich Italian and Maltese heritage and the small farms populating the area. We stopped at Sun’s Fresh Farm for great fruit, vegetables and honey, fresh and well priced. The Fenech Family Farm nearby sells fresh eggs and quail.

Our next stop was lunch at Alma’s Middle Eastern Kitchen at Greenway Plaza which has been open for two years - nothing like weathering a covid storm! We shared shanklish, baba ghanoush and some amazing potatoes. Alma learnt to cook helping her mum in the kitchen as she passed on ancient techniques and family cooking secrets.

Back to Smithfield and The Dutch Shop - ‘Twinkeltje, which sells imported food and souvenirs from Amsterdam. Then on to Carramar, our fourth suburb.

Carramar

Carramar’s name comes from an aboriginal word meaning ‘shade of trees’. Originally known as South Fairfield, it has been known as Carramar since the 1850’s and the railway station name was changed to Carramar in 1926. Our final two great food places were close to each other. We entered Gato’s Pastizzi to be warmly welcomed by Charlie Hili. His father, Geytano (Gato), came to Australia after his home in Malta was bombed in WWII and met his wife here. They settled in Brook’s Lane Darlinghurst and established the business which grew from feeding Maltese men at the various Maltese clubs in Darlinghurst in the 50’s to 70’s to today when they manufacture wholesale pastizzis for retailers and food service operators. The original Pastizzi flavours were peas and cheese, with Geytano making his own ricotta with seawater from near the harbour bridge. Those were the days! Charlie and his brother Jo worked for their father then bought the shop from him in 1989, obtaining new premises and developing the business. There are now 14 flavours of pastizzis on offer.

Charlie and Jo
Frozen pastizzis in 14 flavours
Charlie and our pastizzi samples, mmm
Maltese biscuits on sale

Our final stop was the amazing Art of Gelato Michelangelo with a wall full of awards, including the Sydney Royal Easter Show and the Gelato World Cup. This international sporting event has been held every two years since 2003. In 2024 five continents will compete in five trials of gelato, pastry and chocolate making, ice sculpture and haute cuisine in Sigep Rimini, Italy. Who knew?

The Gelateria has been operating for 12 years and, in a nice link, uses the lemon flesh from Cello for its lemon gelato. A great way to finish a great day.