Lakemba-My home away from home

It's only been one month since I moved to Sydney and I've already started missing my mom's cooking. For the first few weeks I lived on Maccas and KFC, but as time began to pass my Bengali appetite kicked in and I soon started craving good ol' traditional fish curry and rice.

Fortunately, I got to know about Lakemba from my my 'Desi' peers, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. From the outside, Lakemba looks like an ordinary suburb. But once you delve deep you'll find a section where most of the shops are titled in Bengali. As I walked down the streets of Lakemba, it felt as though I journeyed back to the streets of Dhaka. Lakemba is the only place where you can find authentic Bengali cuisine. Most notable of which is Banoful. Whenever you visit Lakemba, don't forget to taste Alauddin's sweets as well.

If you're someone from the 'South-Asian belt', Lakemba is one of the rare places where you can find all the spices and herbs for your cuisines, so it is an interesting place to do your grocery shopping.

Lakemba served me more as a home than marketplace, as the place gives me a sense of belonging I couldn't find anywhere else in Sydney.