Souk in the City: Moroccan heaven

We had a company lunch at Souk in the City this afternoon and I was clutching my little food buddha, completely happy, during and after the meal. I'm still rubbing it in satisfaction. All I can think about right now is when I can go back for more.

First of all, the host is absolutely charming. Delightful even. And I never describe people as being delightful. :-D When I made our reservation on the phone he asked for the pleasure of knowing my name. I mean, seriously. Very cute. Our host was very attentive, but wonderful, and not annoying in the slightest. He had a great sense of humour and he even helped us to cut up certain tricky entrees we were sharing amongst 5 people each.

When all 11 of us were seated, half of us sitting against very comfy pillows, we were greeted with rose petals being dropped cheekily over our heads and shoulders, onto the tables and booths and chairs. Besides looking very pretty, the petals smelled divine too.

We shared a lovely mix of entrees, mains, and dessert, so we were very lucky to get to sample so much. Usually when you do this at restaurants there are dishes you love and then there are dishes that are just so-so and you just don't go back in for more. For the first time in ages, there was no so-so dish. All of them were delicious.

I highly recommend everything we had, including the following entrees:

- b’stilla fassia filo pastry filled with fragrant almond chicken, infused with rose water and cinnamon and served with delicate orange saffron sauce
- sumac prawn and squid stack with roast capsicum, smoked eggplant and balsamic glaze
- confit of vine ripened tomatoes with smoked salmon stuffed zucchini flower and cumin glaze
- roasted field mushroom with couscous, green bean zucchini salad and preserved lemon dressing

And let's not forget the delicious mains as well! We had:

- vegetarian tagine assorted vegetable marinated in moroccan spices
- saffron braised lamb shank tajine with boiled egg, honey, cinnamon, prunes and roasted almonds
- kefta meat ball tajine in rich tomato sauce, with peas and poached eggs
- corn fed chicken tajine cooked with olives, saffron, preserved lemon and noisette potato

Yum.

And for dessert, we had them all, all delicious:

- cinnamon panna cotta with pomegranate jelly
- rose water poached pear with saffron ice cream
- moroccan pudding with dates and figs
- mint tea créme brulée with white fig compote
- chocolate truffle cake with candied orange and dates

We had the traditional mint tea at the end - so good, I could drink it all day if I knew how to make it taste just the same! It's the "traditional mint tea du maroc" and it was the perfect way to end the meal, even if you're sad it has to end at all. Mint tea with mint leaves and lots of honey, I'm guessing. Sounds simple, but I've certainly never had mint tea like that before. Our host very impressively poured the tea with great grandeur into glasses 3 times each, with his arm raised high, in order to make sure everything was mixed together nicely. He said everyone has a lot of time for their food in Morocco. ;-)

Entrees were about $15-19 (just rounding here, please check the website for the most up-to-date prices)
Mains ranged from about $21-33
Desserts were about $12-15

Nice decor, lovely vibe, gorgeous food presentation, fantastic warm service from the host (we each got a handshake on the way out!), delicious food, fragrant rose petals. We were all impressed and busy undoing the top button of our pants!

I'll definitely be back here again soon!

--
Souk in the City
St Margarets | Shop 5
'Henry' 431 Bourke St
Surry Hills Sydney
www.soukinthecity.com/
(02) 93 577 577

French Toast + Goat’s Toast, Oh my…

I have been really upset since hearing that my favourite breakfast place in Sydney (Satellite in Newtown) is up for sale, so I’ve been poking around the hood to see what goodies I can look forward to if my delightful breakfast den is shut down. Toby’s Estate on City Road has two particularly amazing brekkies on offer at the moment…the french toast, beautifully drowned in berries and syrup, with pieces of bacon adorably rolled on either side of the plate, and my other favourite, toast with olive oil, pesto, garlic, roasted tomato, heavenly goat’s cheese, and basil leaves.

I can die happy now.

What’s hilarious to me is that I’ve had sandwiches, croissants, tea, hisbiscus juice, brekkie, pies, and, well, pretty much everything at Toby’s except the coffee. Ooops. Well, I try to avoid coffee on weekends when I don’t need it to stay awake and alert at work anyway. ;-)

Get thee to Toby’s for brekkie. Go with a friend and share the French Toast and the “Goat’s Toast”. Immediately.

Toby’s Estate

32-36 City Road,
Chippendale NSW 2008
http://www.tobysestate.com.au/
Phone: +61 2 9211 1459

Opening Hours:
Monday - Friday 7am - 4.00pm
Saturday 8am - 4pm
Sunday 8am - 4pm

The secret to happiness: Chimichangas!

It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I adore Mexican food. I love Mexican food even more than I hate ABBA. My current favourite Mexican delicacy is the chimichanga at Baja Cantina in Glebe. I’m considering naming my first born Baja Cantina…or just Chimichanga. Ahh, I’ll leave it up to a coin toss… ;-)

I get the vegetarian chimichanga (even though I’m not actually a vegetarian) because I am happy with just the delicious lightly fried tortialla, rice, black beans, cheese, guacamole, sour cream.

Absolutely everything that I’ve eaten at Baja Cantina is amazing, but, I insist that everyone tries the chimichanga at least once. Chances are, you’ll never go back. Top it off with a Classic Margarita, and salsa con queso (salsa with cheese) to start, and you’re set for a fantastic night which will require you to have someone roll you home because there’s no way you’ll be able to walk properly afterwards. Wearing pants with a loose waist is highly recommended, as is eating a light lunch. Otherwise, be prepared to be undoing some buttons like there’s no tomorrow.

The red sangria is also delicious. The white sangria is lovely too, but to me, it just isn’t sangria if there’s no red wine.

If you want to eat here on a Friday or Saturday night, you should definitely make a booking if you don’t want to be disappointed. Everyone’s catching on to how awesome the food is here, so be prepared.

Baja Cantina

43-45 Glebe Point Rd
Glebe NSW 2037
Phone (02) 9571 1199

food: best hommous in sydney...

file under insanely great 'food'

In Surry Hills there is a magical place called Erciyes that makes the most amazing orgasmic hommous. I had no idea hommous could be orgasmic until I had a taste of this restaurant's heavenly dip. It is like no other hommous I've ever had. I always thought hommous was nice, but nothing spectacular. But thanks to this restaurant, my entire tastebudding life changed. :-) I think the key is that there is a fab garlicky flavour to it, which makes the whole chickpea thing MUCH more exciting!

Erciyes
409 Cleveland St
Surry Hills NSW 2010
Phone (02) 9319 1309
BYO, bellydancing on certain nights

The turkish pizzas are also super yummy, quite large, and extremely reasonably priced ($12 and it's big and filling!), but it would also be quite easy to make a meal out of a selection of all their great dips. I went with a friend the other day and we ordered 2 pizzas and 2 dips and some bread, and neither of us could finish our pizzas. We devoured all the dip and I had the leftover pizza for dinner the next night.

I would also highly recommend ordering their pizzas and dips to cater for a slumber party or any party really - AND you can just buy the dips in large takeaway containers (okay, the containers come in all sizes, but why would you choose any size other than large?). A large container goes for about $12 and they give you a huge loaf of Turkish bread too. I once bought a large container of hommous and I was a very happy gal, snacking on it over the next few days. Okay, who am I kidding. It was my dinner one night and a snack over the next two days. ;-)

music: homebake 2005

file under 'music'

Anyone visiting Sydney in early December (any year!) should plan on booking tix to Homebake, but you gotta book SUPER EARLY! Register your email at the Homebake website so you know as soon as tix go on sale. Tix aren't cheap, but if you want to see as many bands/artists as you can in December, you can't go wrong. Homebake is an annual all-day, all Aussie/New Zealand music festival featuring heaps of awesome Aussie/Kiwi bands, solo performers, DJs and things in between. From 11am-11pm+, multiple acts play at the same time at Sydney's Domain, so you'll have to pick and choose, but whether you prefer to mosh or dance, or some combination thereof, there's quite a cool selection of acts.

Sorry, dudes, Homebake 2005 is currently sold out. It's happening this coming Saturday, the 3rd of December.