‘Liquid velvet’: This condiment is one of the best things our critic has tasted this year

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The tahini at Al Amara is, easily, one of the best things I’ve tasted this year. If you doubt a condiment generated from pure sesame could be that good – let alone contain so much flavour and dimension – then head directly to this bakery in Fairfield and buy a jar.

The tahini here could be measured in ripples: it drips rapidly and is always in escape mode. Those supermarket disappointments resembling ambitious cement mix or sad nut-butter substitute don’t even compare. Al Amara’s version is fortifying, spectacularly nutty and lines your mouth like liquid velvet. It’s dual-powered: sweet in one moment, savoury the next. And it has more complexity and character than entire bookshelves.

Al Amara’s tahini is so damn good because it’s freshly ground every day – a fact you’ll smell as you enter the store. That gently toasted fragrance is sensory proof the bakery roasts sesame on site; it then swirls the seeds through its own mill.

You can watch the machinery spin and crush this one ingredient until it becomes an earthy gush you buy on tap. I’ve seen customers press jars and bottles of all sizes against the nozzle, just as tahini flows down with the speed of thickened chocolate milk.

It would be easy to walk past this shop and not realise how special it is. Thankfully, Karima Hazim (who runs Lebanese cooking school Sunday Kitchen) championed it on Instagram. Otherwise, I never would’ve known about Sydney’s only store to specialise in freshly milled tahini.

The tahini has more complexity and character than entire bookshelves.

The ingredient is famously used across the Middle East in hummus, baba ghanoush and other sesame-dependent recipes, but it wasn’t until visiting Al Amara that I learnt how Iraqis love to drizzle date syrup over this nutty paste.

“These two together – like wife and husband,” says co-owner Zuhair Khosho, who opened the bakery in 2018. He’s originally from Al-Qush (Alqosh) in northern Iraq’s Mosul region: his village is so ancient it appears in the Bible. Tahini is one of the first things he ever ate and it’s always been fundamental: it sustains you during religious fasting periods and you team it with date syrup and bread for a classic Iraqi breakfast.

Khosho arrived in Australia in 2003, having fled the Iraq War with his family. He’s a civil engineer by trade, but opened Al Amara because it was vital to offer this staple fresh, organic and on tap.

“Tahini is popular for our people, our community,” he says.

I’ve seen Al Amara filled with Iraqi locals, waiting to top up their tahini from the two working mills in store.

Sesame is also sprinkled throughout the bakery’s many Middle Eastern pastries: seed-studded ka’ak and baksam biscuits, halva flavoured with pistachio or chocolate and different types of kleicha, an Iraqi specialty Khosho savoured at Christmas and on other special occasions (walnut kleicha, which sings with cardamom, is my favourite version).

There are also coconut snacks (shakalama, lozena), various kinds of nougat (including a glitzy golden variety), and a colourful array of Turkish delight. Beyond the counter, there’s also sesame by the scoop, in-house sesame oil, and date syrup for your Iraqi breakfast needs.

Sadly, mann al sama – an Iraqi sweet translating as “manna from heaven” – is sold out when I search for it, but the fridge offers another staple: Al-Qush cheese. “This cheese is from our village,” Khosho explains.

Shaped like a hard disc, it tastes like especially nutty mozzarella. The shop owner enjoyed eating it with apricot jam and other fruity preserves in Iraq. You can also press it in a sandwich with watermelon – something I’m keen to try when summer arrives.

Al Amara offers the best tahini I’ve ever tried in my life, but there’s much more to this bakery. If you’re overwhelmed by the different sweets on display, staff will probably offer you a sampler box without even asking. But nothing beats that matchmaking pair of tahini and date syrup – for breakfast and beyond.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.