Restaurant Review: Abla Patisserie, Dulwich Hill

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I need to get something off my chest right now: I adore pastry and Lebanese sweets cater right to my pastry fetish (I have at several points in my life, considered moving to France just to eat pastry). The idea of golden pastry soaked in a fragrant syrup and studded with nuts just sends me into gustatory overdrive.

My friend M is a firm Lebansese sweets fiend. I know that if I suggest that we stop at Abla's Patisserie, a place that I've always meant to go to, I know that she'll be more than happy to come along bringing her two boys who will be pleading "spring rolls please Mummy!" (the Znoud el sit).

The neon green and red sign beams at us and we follow and we're soon walking past a perfectly arranged array of golden pastries. Choosing is hard but we get a selection of the sweets that we like the look of with some guidance from the friendly regulars and the girl behind the counter. We get a big selection for the princely sum of $19.

We take a seat at a table while they prepare our sweets and M looks around and is impressed by the decor. They bring our desserts to our table and they do look magnificent, with fluffy ashtar (also known as ishta, ushta, ashtar, eshtar or kashtar) the mysterious thick cooked cream similar to ricotta, and vivid green finely ground pistachios.

First up is my choice, the Damascus Rose. It's a temple shaped square of filo pastry, lightly baked so that it is a pale colour as opposed to the golden shade of the rest of the pastries. It's a towering sweet and large, generously filled with ashtar. Delicious!

In favourite, the Znoud El sit are the "spring rolls" that he yearns for. Here, unlike at Chehad El Bahsa, they come with a servings of ashtar and a sprinkling of ground pistachios. He begs for another after polishing off his two. I should really tell him that they mean "Lady's forearms", I'm sure he'd either be grossed out by the idea of eating lady's forearms or reveling in it.