I don’t think that I could ever get tired of eating Lebanese food. Having gone to Jasmins on a previous occasion, and thoroughly enjoying  that experience, a suggest was brought up on Twitter to check out Al Aseel, as it was implied that the food here was good, and possibly in the same league as Jasmins. If you’ve been to Jasmins, that’s saying quite a lot.

Does Al Aseel have what it takes to meet, or better yet, exceed the quality and value of Jasmins?

The mixed grill plate ($20). The “I want a bit of everything” or “I don’t really know what I want” sort of meal, which along with the complementary side dish and flat bread (more prominent in the opening image), serves as quite a hearty meal for one or a decent meal for two if you don’t happen to be big eaters.

The grilled meats of chicken, lamb and lamb kafta are moist, flavourful, & smokey delicous. The accompaniments aside from those mentioned previously are (from L to R) hommus dip, falafel, tabouleh, a small container of toum (garlic dip), baba ganoush dip, and a little parcel of deep fried pastry with a minced lamb filling, the name of which elludes both my memory and notes. All of these are nice too for the most part.

Sadly, however, for me Al Aseel doesn’t quite make the muster in two areas.

Firstly, the falafel pictured above is, at least by comparison, pales in comparison to the ones served as Jasmins. Though the falafel are cooked to order, the crust is more crispy than crunchy, lacking the delightful bite that is so revered with Jasmin’s version. The centre is also rather dry, requiring the aid of a dip or a beverage as an accompaniment to serve as lubrication.

The other area is that of price. For an additional $7 (at the time of the post), there was less perceived value in my mind at Al Aseel than what can be obtained at Jasmins for cheaper and better.

This is not to diminish the meal at Al Aseel. Overall, it was still a good meal, as advised, and one I could see myself going to again.

Well, only if Jasmins was closed.

If you’ve dined at Al Aseel before, or if you know of a good place to get a mixed grill plate such as the one in the post, I would love to read your thought on it.

Al Aseel
4/173 Waterloo Rd, Greenacre
02 9758 6744
Sun – Thur: 9am – 9pm, Fri – Sat: 9am – 10pm

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When dining out with friends, do you find that you often order dishes to share amongst the group, or order individual dishes for each person to enjoy on their own? When faced with a plate of these fantastic lamb cutlets from Sahara, I wouldn’t blame you if you’d wanted these all to yourself.

For me, despite how fantastic these may be, sharing is by far and away the preferred option. Perhaps that’s due to my Asian heritage, where the concept of communal eating is as integral to life as breathing. However, when five succulent & smokey lamb cutlets are to be shared amongst six food bloggers (none of whom are vegetarian), you find yourself caught in what I refer to as the “yum cha dilemma”.

At yum cha, you’re often faced with the situation where there are an insufficient or uneven number of dumplings or portions to be shared equally. The question is, do you order more? Cut up & divide the portions evenly? Choose to fore go your portion in an act of self sacrifice? Or does it come down to a wild-west-like showdown of the quick and the dead unfed?

However, that was towards the end of the meal. As is often the case, the meal began with drinks.

Turkish Apple Tea ($3). A couple of the ladies ordered these glasses of fruity sweet elixir. Though, be warned – the apple tea was served really hot! A few minutes were required before the glasses could even be handled, let alone be drunk from.

Mezze Dips Platter ($14.90). As with a lot of Turkish restaurants, the meal often begins with bread and dips. In the case, wedges of pide were served with three dips, namely the ubiquitous hommus and baba ganoush, as well as a creamy spinach dip.

Though the particular dips they serve are not specified explicitly on the menu, there is meant to be a beetroot dip in place of the spinach dip that normally accompanies this dish. There was some disappointment over the lack of beetroot dip. However, the spinach one sufficed as a replacement.

Diablo Chili Garlic Prawns ($16.90). I imagine this dish was ordered in part due to its rather impressive name. Unfortunately it did not deliver, whether it be with what should have been the devilish heat of the chili (diablo is Spanish for devil), or the impact of the garlic (or rather lack thereof). The true devil was not in the dish itself, but in the marketing of this dish through its name.

To be fair, aside from the lack of any real punch, this dish wasn’t too bad. The prawns were cooked just right and there was plenty of mild, tomato sauce to dip the wedges of pide into. However, there aren’t a lot of prawns to go around, so the asking price might seem steep for some.

Kusbasi Shish ($22.90). Normally this plate of charcoal grilled chunks of lamb backstrap marinated in herb & spices, served with salad, pilaf rice, pide and aioli would be a worthy dish for one. However, due to our sharing-is-caring nature, this meal for one became a shared platter. It was as if it were always meant to be consumed in this fashion.

The lamb was quite nice. Tender, flavourful & delightfully smokey.

Adana Shish ($21.90). You can be forgiven for feeling a moment of deja vu. However, if you look closer, you should notice that aside from the otherwise identical fixing for this dish, namely the salad, rice, pide bread and aioli (if you can even make it out!), instead of the pieces of lamb backstrap, the Adana Shish consists of spiced lamb mince cooked in long, sausage-like forms.

The darkened regions on the Adana Shish are wonderfully crispy, smokey and flavourful. The meat is juicier than the Kasbasi Shish, with its juices soaking into the bed of pide below. A piece of pide that was much sought after.

Lamb Cutlets ($26.90). Thyme marinated tender cutlets of lamb served with garlic mash and seasonal vegetables (carrots and broccoli in this case).

Now we approach our dilemma; a catalyst for conversation. “Had we known beforehand that five cutlets were to be served, we surely would have ordered a sixth”, we’d lament. However, by then it was too late.

In the end we decided to evenly divide the cutlets amongst the six of us, the responsibilities of which, as with the knife, were placed firmly into the hands of Minh. As for the arcs of bone with the tastiest remnants of the meat still clinging to its frame? A showdown of the quick and the unfed :)

Dondurma ($11). Traditionally a “chewy” ice cream, a property due to two of its ingredients, salep and mastic, this chocolate flavoured dessert lacked any real chewiness to it. It pales in comparison to ones that can be found at places such as Mado Cafe in Auburn.

Thankfully, this was the only dondurma we ordered. Actually, this was the only dessert we ordered, with the intention of sharing this small challis amongst the six of us.

“Why”, might you ask?

Dinner at Sahara was merely the prequel. We knew that more food was to come. Food that we were eagerly anticipating prior to our dinner. Food that we couldn’t wait to get to afterwards.

With our hunger sufficiently satisfied, we pushed onwards to what I would certainly consider to be the main event of the evening. The details of which, unfortunately, will have to wait for another post.

Sahara (Parramatta)
218 Argyle St, Parramatta (cnr of Argyle & Marsden St)
(02) 9687 7898
10am til late, 7 days.

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Lebanese food holds a special place in my heart as one of my favourite cuisines. If I were asked to articulate why that was so though, I’m not sure that I would have a suitable answer. Probably the closest I could come to an answer would be that it’s food that I find is often good, uncomplicated and inexpensive. It’s food without the pretension that more often burdens formal dining than not. It’s food in a casual environment for the common man. My kind of food.

That’s precisely the experience that a couple of fellow food bloggers and I had received when we dined at Jasmins one evening. A casual environment, without pretension, serving good food. A feast of really good food. The kind of good food that frequently has you coming back for more, at prices that makes such endeavours affordable.

A couple of bottles of Pampa tamarind soft drink. Not as bad as it sounds. Actually, far better than it sounds. Having never tried this before, I was expecting a really sour, mouth-puckering sort of drink. Something that people may refer to as “an acquired taste”, often a euphemism for “most people hate the taste”. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was no sourness at all. Just a pleasant, sweet beverage with a light effervescence.

If you’re looking for something different, give it a go. I don’t think that you’ll be disappointed :)

As with almost all Lebanese restaurants I’ve been to, a complementary side dish of various pickles (green chilis, gherkins, turnips & olives in this case) & fresh vegetation such as tomatoes, onions & mint is served with every meal. I’ve found that the items on the side plate are perfect accompaniments to grilled meats or dips. The acid, found either in the fresh vegetables or the vinegar from the pickles, helps to temper the richness of the fat in those dishes.

Another staple, and one that I consider a very necessary one for these sorts of meals, is the seemingly endless supply of Lebanese flat bread (no photo unfortunately). Nothing like the ones that you may find in a supermarket that tastes like it’s been stale for a week. No, this is the good stuff, at least by those standards. Soft, elastic, fresh tasting bread. Like with all good breads, I would be content with just eating these on their own.

We fore go the stereotypical and rather ubiquitous chickpea dip known as hommus in favour of the lighter, pleasantly smokey flavours of the eggplant dip baba ganoush ($6).

The smaller dishes (from left to right) consist of tahini (sesame paste), toum (a superb garlic dip, somewhat like aioli) and a chili sauce that is quite flavourful but without any heat. As with the side dish of pickles and vegetables, these dips were likewise complementary.

Tabouli salad ($5). Ok, zero points for originality but their version of this zingy salad is pretty good. Better than most I’ve had.

Falafel ($6). Of all the Lebanese restaurants that I’ve been to in Sydney, these would have to be one of the best I’ve had thus far. A thick, crunchy crust encases a soft, moist centre without being too greasy. A sublime contrast of textures.

Lamb kaftas ($8), which is great value for four fingers of flavourful lamb mince, grilled to juicy perfection. Lemon wedges are served to help cut through the richness of the fat, as well as to impart a complementary citrus note to this dish.

As nice as the lamb kaftas were, the favourite meat dish for the evening was the chili chicken ($8). For you chili-phobes out there, this is one of the tamest chili dishes that I’ve ever come across. For a person who likes his heat to pack a lot of, well… heat, this is one of the most disappointing spice hits you could possibly come across. Having said that though, from the perspective of flavour this is a great dish. One that I would certainly come back for.

We make our way out of the restaurant, utterly content with our meal and perhaps a little surprised with the amount of money we still had in our wallets. Though this was my first dining experience at Jasmins, it will certainly not be my last!

Jasmins
30B Haldon St, Lakemba.
Ph: 9740 3589

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ARAX Fine Lebanese Cuisine & Wood Fire Pizza, or just simply ARAX, holds a special place in my heart. It’s a restaurant that I’d first been introduced to more than 15 years ago and is pretty much the only place on the North Shore I’d make the approximately 40 minute drive to on a whim.

I find the woodfire oven at ARAX somewhat enthralling. A magic transformation portal that turns often simple ingredients into palate-pleasing platters of pizza perfection. Nowadays for me, the term “woodfire pizza” holds the same sort of meaning as the word “organic” does; there’s an implication of superior quality over the standard variety, which unfortunately doesn’t always deliver. This is one of those places, I assure you, that delivers on that implied sense of superior quality.

Marcelle, owner/operator of ARAX runs the friendly front of house staff while her son Tony works his magic with the woodfire oven as pizza chef. Awards and news articles are displayed around the restaurant proudly show off their accolades in their over 30 years of operation. They’ve even received Heritage status from the local council, something that I’ve learned about only recently.

The restaurant itself is a testament to their achievement as this place was a humble takeaway pizza restaurant when I had my first pizza over 15 years ago.

The restaurant has a casual, almost homely feel to it, which carries through to its service. A beautiful mural of a countryside town adorns a feature wall giving the sense of a calm, relaxed environment. That is except for Saturdays.

On Saturdays, as seems tradition for a lot of Lebanese restaurants, the party engine red-lines as a belly dancer takes centre stage to entertain the diners. As with my experience at Rowda Ya Habibi, it’s sure to lift the spirits and have you keeling over in tearful laughter. As I’d also learned, if you want to avoid the attention and ensuing embarrassment, pick seating along the walls in an inaccessible spot that would make it difficult for you to participate.

If you decide that you want in on the belly dancing action, make sure to book well in advance. Saturdays are always booked out, often days prior.

The dining party of a couple of mates and I order up some drinks. A round of lemon, lime and bitters. All the elements are balanced nicely, unlike a lot of that I’ve had in the past, especially from some bars & pubs that should know better.

ARAX isn’t just about pizzas. They’re also quite a nice Lebanese restaurant as well. “The finest Lebanese food on the North Shore”, according to their signage. Having had a variety of their Lebanese dishes over the years, my favourites being the hommus (pictured above), fatoush salad and a wonderfully crunchy falafel that rivals the best that Sydney has to offer, I would have to agree. Though, to be fair, it’s the only Lebanese I’ve had on the North Shore and frankly the only Lebanese place I’m aware of in those parts.

Since we’re in a pizza sort of mood, our venture into the Lebanese menu only extends as far as hommus ($9), served with fresh and fried Lebanese bread. The hommus is smooth and very flavourful whilst the Lebanese breads offers a wonderful contrast in textures.

The Seafood Supreme pizza ($27) is the best of all the seafood pizzas I’ve had in Sydney hands down, and is one of my all-time favourite pizzas overall. The quality of the pizza does vary with the seasons but when it’s at its best, the scallops are large, plump & juicy, the prawns are likewise sizable with a nice springy bite to them and the cured salmon is flakey and deliciously smokey. At its least best, when the scallops and prawns are less generous in size, it’s still far better than most seafood pizzas you’d find anywhere else.

The friend who orders this pizza prefers to have it without cheese. He says that the pizza tastes fresher and the flavour of the seafood comes out more that way. I’m more of a traditionalist and prefer mine with the cheese.

Another favourite pizza of mine and THE favourite of the friend who ordered this pizza is the bastourma pizza with fresh tomato ($22). Bastourma is typically air-dried beef cured with salt and spices such as cumin, fenugreek, garlic and paprika. The thin slices of bastourma, when cooked, ends up being something akin to crispy bacon in texture with a sublime, smokey aroma. The fresh tomato in the pizza is essential to mellow out the saltiness of the bastourma.

If it isn’t the Seafood Supreme pizza, odds are I’ve purchased one of these instead.

In my case, I decide to go with something a little different today as my two favourite pizzas were already ordered. The sejouk & bastourma pizza with fresh tomato ($22) is very much like the bastourma pizza but finishes with a different texture and a little more spice to it. It’s normally served with onions, mushrooms, capsicums and black olives but I forego this option in favour for what I would normally have with the standard bastourma pizza.

There are various other pizzas in their arsenal, including various chicken, seafood, vegetarian, as well as your more traditional toppings. After recommending this place to a former work colleague, he’d recommended the Mediterranean pizza, which comprises of grilled lamb, sun dried tomatoes, spinach, eggplant, spanish onion and rocket. Might have to give that a go at some stage.

We finish the meal with some complementary Turkish delights, which are wonderfully sweet and gooey. These aren’t usually complementary but perhaps Marcelle was in a generous mood that evening. It’s happened from time to time when I dine there and I’ve never taken such generousity for granted.

Before my dining companions and I decide to call it a night, I put in for an order of a Seafood Supreme pizza with cheese to takeaway. I know how my family gets about missing out on some great food, especially my sister. Would never hear the end of it! Anyhow, it means I get a slice or two for breakfast the next day, so I can’t really complain :)

Of all the places that I’ve been to, this is one that I would have no hesitation recommending. Give it a go and let me know what you think of it. Oh, if you decide to name drop about how you’d come across this restaurant, just say that Caine sent you. Pretty much anyone I know who has eaten at ARAX was introduced by Caine, or through him in a Six Degrees sort of fashion :)

ARAX Fine Lebanese Cuisine & Wood Fire Pizza
670 Willoughby Rd, Willoughby
Open Tues to Sun – 5pm til late.

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It’s not often that you have the opportunity to meet with a food blogger from another country. So it was with some excitement that I had the pleasure to meet Brad, the photographer/writer behind the award nominated food blog ladyironchef, one of the most popular food blogs in Singapore. With a name like ladyironchef, I was surprised to not see a woman sitting at the table when I arrived at the restaurant.

Considering it was his first time in Sydney, what better way to be introduced to the Sydney food scene than by having a marathon night out with prominent food bloggers from Grab Your Fork, chocolatesuze, A Table for Two, eatshow&tell, Citrus & Candy, & hungry.digital.elf.

How I managed an invite, I have no idea… :)

Leg 1 of 5 of our night out with ladyironchef (yes, 5!), commenced with dinner at Rowda Ya Habibi, a Lebanese restaurant located on the main strip of King St, Newtown (albeit on the fringe).

Rugs, hung up on the walls of the private room that we dined in, served as murals giving a sense of cultural context to the banquet to come. For $30 per person, we were in for quite a value-for-money, bang-for-buck sort of meal. Well, at least by inner city suburban standards.

We began with the usual starters of hommus & baba ganoush dips, tabouleh salad as well as a large basket of Lebanese bread.

It’s a common mistake to go out hard early, filling yourself up on bread at the beginning, leading to the inevitable struggle through the latter portions of the meal. It’s a mistake I make every time :)

Service is reasonably quick as soon afterwards, plates of falafel arrive. These falafel are not quite as nice as the ones at Jasmin (post to come) but they’re not bad either. Just wish the crust was more crunchy.

Along with the falafel, lady’s fingers containing lamb mince are served. These were a little heavy for me as I’m use to lady fingers that have some acid (usually in the form of lemon juice) incorporated within, helping cut through the grease.

The mains primarily consisted of grilled meats. In this case, a very typical lamb shish kebab, which was wonderfully smokey though the meat was somewhat dry.

The lamb kafta, spiced mince formed into a sausage-like form. Very lamby tasting, which I didn’t mind so much. However, I imagine some might have issues with it.

Every meat-based dish up until now was based on some form of lamb. So, it was with welcome relief when a plate of chili chicken kebabs were brought in.

Oh, were these ever good! Everything the lamb counterparts were not. In other words, very juicy and not at all lamby (as you would hope for chicken kebabs).There wasn’t any chili hit to speak of, though it did lend some colour and a little flavour to the meat.

Unfortunately, this was around the struggle period that I mentioned earlier. Oh, it didn’t stop me. Just meant that I had to work through them a lot slower than I would have otherwise :)

Towards the end of our meal, a belly dancer makes her entrance. The dancer glides lithely into the room, accompanied by an Arabian score, to grace our company with a solo performance.

Initially.

One by one, the siren beckons her victims towards their ultimate demise of awkward dancing and general embarrassment, with the assistance of peer group pressure. Well, at least the ones she has ready access too. A small group of us escape relatively unscathed, aside from teary eyes, stiff jaws, hoarse throats and split sides due to continuous fits of laughter.

Sorry folks. No photos here. I value my life too much :)

We finish off dinner with some desserts, such as these baklava. These weren’t a part of the banquet special and thus were purchased separately.

I wasn’t a fan of these. Too dry for my liking as it lack a suitable amount of the wonderfully buttery sweet syrup. However, for some, this was the perfect balance for them.

This gingerbread house, photo taken from a pastry store in Darlinghurst, will have to service as an interlude as our group frequented three dessert stores, Gelatomassi in Newtown (Leg 2), Gelato Messina in Darlinghurst (Leg 3), as well as wowcow (Leg 4), likewise in Darlinghurst. Unfortunately, no photos were taken during this period of our evening.

Between the three stores, each of us indulged in a couple of desserts. I made a point to sample pistachio gelatos from both Gelatomassi & Gelato Messina. For me, Gelato Messina was the clear winner, its bold flavours winning out over what polite people might say is a subtle tasting gelato. It tasted more like vanilla gelato with a hint of pistachio flavour, at least by comparison.

Should I go one more? Ok, just one more.

After already having dinner, as well as a couple of desserts from one of the three dessert places we frequented, we felt that we couldn’t call it a night without having a late night supper out at Chat Thai (Leg 5).

With the majority of us well beyond full, a number of people stuck with ordering drinks, such as the blended ice drink pictured above. The blended ice comes in various flavours such as lemon, and lychee (my personal favourite), which comes with a piece of lychee fruit.

Two or three people of the group decide to order a couple of savoury, to be shared by the group.

Chat Thai makes a decent pad thai (pictured above), at least by Australian standards. Not the best I’ve had but it’s certainly up there among the better ones I’ve had in Sydney.

This is a late night snack if I ever saw one, preferably with a beer!

Pad Nahm Prik, which is only available on certain days, consists of (clockwise from the rear) pork crackling, deep fried pork belly (with more crackling), boil eggs and some boiled/steamed Asian greens. In the centre is a fiery salsa of sorts made up primarily of green chilis as its base. It may not seem like much at first but after a little while you’ll start to really notice the chili.

With our marathon dining session coming to a close, I bid farewell to a new friend with the promise of another food outing (and post to come) before his made his way back home to Singapore. The rest of us made our way home, which ended up being a rather interesting experience in and of itself. Perhaps a story for another time and another place :)

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