Despite not being able to attend the dates she suggested, she persisted and we managed to schedule dinner a couple of weeks ahead… only to have the dinner cancelled right on the day we were supposed to meet! Oh alright, more like postponed, as a week later, we all finally congregated at Souk in the City (I’ll just call it Souk from now on, shall I?).

Souk is a restaurant I’ve been meaning to come back to for ages, while Sisiely seems like she’s been dying to try the food here ever since she went past it one night (and it was too busy to accommodate her party for dinner).

We arrived at Souk at different times, so I missed her expression when Omar, the owner, showered her with rose petals and a very warm welcome upon her entry. I know for me I was quite embarrassed and awkward with the attention, but deep down inside it made me feel rather special.

Souk in the City

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Post tags: beef, Dessert, lamb

We’re in Billy’s hometown and he’s full of advice on what to eat. According to him, Ipoh is famous for their:

• Rice Noodles
• Bean Sprouts
• Rojak
• 3 in 1 coffee

The list is endless and exhaustive but you know what, in the end he’s right (just don’t tell him that!).

Once again we’re tackling the winding roads from the Cameron Highlands down towards Ipoh, it’s a place close to Billy’s heart, he’s lived here for most of his life and a lot of his family is still in the area.

Pit stop – Perak Tong Cave Temple

It’s a bit early in the day for eating (pretend I didn’t just write that) but it doesn’t stop the heat from beating down on us. Having being up in the mountains has made me utterly forget how punishing the heat is, especially for those fool enough to wander around in the middle of the day. Billy’s a little nonplussed when we ask him what there is to do in Ipoh and decides to take us to Perak Tong Cave Temple.

(...)
Read the rest of Malaysia Mondays – Ipoh, Part 1 (1,591 words)

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Post tags: malaysia mondays

With the constant fantastic food that always seems to find its way into my stomach, the lack of exercise and a thin wallet, it seemed unlikely that we would have a big breakfast any time soon. Unlikely, but I guess not improbable… hence our fattiness on a sunny, but chilly Saturday morning.

Carcade - Egyptian Hibiscus Tea ($3.80)

(...)
Read the rest of Kazbah on Darling, Balmain (Round 2) (1,006 words)

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Post tags: Dessert, pork, Seafood

It’s not surprising then that she decided to have a big group dinner at a Moroccan (slash Egyptian) restaurant for her birthday. The restaurant itself wasn’t all that large and our fairly big group of 14 hungry people filled up most of the place.

As there were so many people in our party, we had to get the Tagine Banquet at $45 per head. Considering that you get 5 dishes and a dessert, I thought it was pretty good value.

It took a while between courses for the dishes to come out, but when they did everyone dug into them with gusto.

Entrée

Mixed Dip Platter - Chickpea & Harissa, Smoked Eggplant with Paprika, Olives, and Tzaziki

I think tzaziki and hummus are always battling to be the top favourites in a mixed dip platter, but this time things were a little different. I noticed that a lot of us adored the olive dip with its slightly salty and creamy flavour. Indeed it seemed an almost perfect bite with some Lebanese bread, but I totally fell in love with the smoked eggplant with a touch of paprika for a bit of flavour kick.

Chargrilled Marinated Vegetables

These vegetables were actually served with our mains (which I suppose in a way, made more sense) but it’s here as it’s under the Entrée section on Tagine’s website.

Chargrilled vegetables are a perfect way to balance out heavy, meaty dishes and it most certainly did its job here with its chargrilled perfection. They were almost all gone as soon as the dish hit the table.

Main

Mmm banquet...

Although our mains came out quite a long time after our mixed dip platter, they all came out together and piping hot too.

Couscous and Rice

I heart couscous. There’s something so enjoyable with eating hot, fluffy couscous and having it lightly spiced with cinnamon was absolutely heaven. The rice was really good and fluffy as well, but being Asian I find it hard to appreciate something I have every day (even though I love rice to bits, having it outside from home is always a bit different I think). I thought the sultanas sprinkled throughout both bowls were a nice touch.

Vegetable Tagine

F found the sauce a bit salty, which says a lot as he loves salt, but interestingly, I didn’t find them to be. In fact, I thought the vegetables were well-seasoned and really liked how it was swimming in sauce.

Meatballs with Raisins in Spicy Tomato Salsa

Not all meatballs are created equal – some are too hard, while some are too soft and crumbly, too big or too small (insert immature snigger here).

Interestingly, all that is a matter of perception as these meatballs were a bit hit or miss at our table. Some thought they were too big, had too much spice… or thought they were perfect sized and had a really robust flavour that tickled their fancy. F and I were firmly in the latter camp, though I tried to stay away from the sauce as it had a bit too much heat for me.

Lamb Shoulder with Potato and Roasted Garlic

Being cooked in a tagine, you would expect the meat to be super tender and retains its succulent juiciness. And you would be right for this dish… the lamb practically fell apart to the merest touch. I thought it was a touch salty, but nothing that more couscous wouldn’t fix! Hehe.

The potatoes in this dish was absolutely delicious too (no bias here haha) and were so soft! Mmm potatoes…

Dessert

Feteer Meshaltet

So Tagine’s website tells me that this dessert is an “Egyptian delicacy of home-made layers of pastry covered in butter served with honey, double cream and molasses”. To be honest, I don’t really care what it was. All I know is that it was freaking awesome and it boggled the mind that there was one dessert dish to share between 4 people!! Utter tragedy.

Then again, this is me being greedy and by this stage we were all quite beyond content – pushing towards being too full. It was also quite a large serving for one person, I must admit, but it was so delicious we all kept wanting more despite being nearly uncomfortably full (and past beyond the point where unbuttoning one’s top pants button to ease one’s discomfort).

Fresh Mint Tea

To end our banquet, we were served hot fresh mint tea and “washed” our hands with this perfumed oil, which is a traditional thing to do in Moroccan/Egyptian culture after dinner (if I remember correctly from what I was told).

I love tea and it was just really nice to sit back after such a large meal and relax with a nice, hot cuppa, chatting with friends. Our waiter/owner of the restaurant poured our tea from a really high height (I forget what that’s called, I’m sure it’s called something right?) and we watched in amazement that nary a drop went astray. Unfortunately, he decided to reduce the pouring height when he noticed I was taking pictures of the pour and so this photo is not as suitably impressive as it would have been. Hehe

Tagine is a pretty cozy setting with a great, chatty atmosphere. While the food might take a while come out for large groups, the dishes are well worth the wait and you’d go away feeling quite satisfied.

Tagine
679 Darling St
Rozelle, NSW, 2039
Ph: (02) 9810 6108
Web: http://www.tagine.com.au/

© squishies for eatshowandtell, 2010. | Permalink | 21 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: lamb, vegetarian

When we got there, I was thankfully more my sunny self but we were both disappointed to find out that the cafe was closed! For a moment we were at a bit of a loss at what to do until an idea struck me. “What if we went to Kazbah?” I asked. “I’ve been meaning to go there for ages! Come on, let’s go… pleeeeease?” I was wheedling at this point and I didn’t care, but as F didn’t have a back up plan, he shrugged and said “Why not?” Woohoo!

As we turned up without a reservation on a supremely busy Sunday morning, the next available timeslot for us was about an hour. We were about to decline the booking when an awesome looking dish went by and we simultaneously asked the waiter to book it in for us.

I have to admit that this post is a bit of a mixed bag, as waiting an hour for a table at Kazbah on Darling enabled us to check out what’s around the area.

Random Stuff

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The restaurant was “atmospheric” (aka dimly lit hehe) and gorgeously decorated – such attention to detail! Even the toilets were pretty nice.

When we were seated and perusing the menu, the manager (I think) came up and showered us with yellow and red rose petals. Weird, but nice.

Rassel el hanout dusted scallops with tomato, avocado, mint and coriander salad

This was really tasty, even though I don’t really like coriander. The scallops were tender and juicy – cooked just right.

b’stilla fassia filo pastry filled with fragrant almond chicken, infused with rose water and cinnamon and served with delicate orange saffron sauce

I didn’t get a chance to take a photo of the whole thing, as our waiter presented the dish, then promptly cut it up for us and placing a section of the morsel on our plates. The colours turned out odd here, but it was more of a golden-y colour, almost bronze-like. Anywho, the flavours were simply divine – they just complemented each other so well! You can really taste the individual flavours when you think of it, especially the rose flavour.

Pan-fried saffron barramundi fillet with spanish green peas mush and chermoula

This had to be one of the best dish I have ever tasted. I’m actually not too partial to fish (unless perhaps when it’s fish and chips), but this was really an amazingly scrumptious dish. Again, the flavours – of the pea mush, chermoula (whatever that is, but Wikipedia says it’s a marinade), spinach, and the barramundi itself – worked so well together. The barramundi was soft and succulent… and boneless!

Roast duck infused in orange blossom jus with zucchini ribbon, asparagus, and date jam

The sauce really made this dish – without it, I think it would have been quite plain and rather average. It was a good thing there was so much sauce, as we mopped it up with pieces of duck (which wasn’t dry and I thought it was well-cooked) and vegetables.

Saffron braised lamb shank tajine with boiled egg, honey, cinnamon, prunes and roasted almonds

While the lamb didn’t taste very “lamb-y”, it was actually quite an average dish compared to what we’ve had – taste-wise anyways. It was cooked so that the meat pretty much fell off the bone and was still rather juicy, but other than that, it didn’t quite wow us.

Hot hariss

This was super hot. While, yes, I admit I’m a total pansy when it comes to chilli (and pepper if I come to think of it), this was hot for even Ruby, who’s pretty much chilli resistant. We each had a piece of the lemon though, which was I think soaked in brine, and I was the unlucky one to get the bit that was resting on the hariss.

Fluffy couscous

This was really fluffy! Went great with the lamb and duck.

Creme brulee with figs something

The figs, as a dessert, I wasn’t too sure about, but the creme brulee was quite nice. Not the best, but above average.

Something panna cotta with pomegranate jelly

This was the second highlight of the meal – it was… wonderfully flavoursome, for lack of better adjectives. The jelly was more gelatinous than we thought it would be, but it went so well with the panna cotta and raspberries (I think it was raspberries) that our surprise was quickly overcome. The creme brulee really paled in comparison to this dessert.

While the food and its presentation was overall excellent and almost flawless in taste, the meal took us a little over three hours. Even though the entrees (the scallops and almond chicken) came out relatively quickly the mains took what felt like forever; it was a good thing we weren’t too hungry. Being a Saturday night though, they were super busy.

While Ruby and I loved it, Myle wasn’t too partial to the rose taste though and unfortunately for her, seemed to be prevalent in the dishes we ordered. She still quite liked it, but I think not as much as us.

Souk in the City
431 Bourke Street
Surry Hills, NSW
Ph: (02) 9357-7577
Web: www.soukinthecity.com

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Post tags: lamb, poultry, rose, Seafood, Sydney, Surry Hills