Posts tagged Kosher

Breakfast and Bubbles: Kazbah, Balmain

Festivals Review
Poached, scrambled and fried eggs, toast and lebanese bread with sides of merguez sausage, bacon, roasted tomato, hash brown, grilled haloumi, mushrooms, baby spinach, and baked beans

Poached, scrambled and fried eggs, toast and lebanese bread with sides of merguez sausage, bacon, roasted tomato, hash brown, grilled haloumi, mushrooms, baby spinach, and baked beans

They say you’re meant to eat breakfast like a King, and Kazbah is more than happy to take on that challenge with their Banquet Breakfast Feast, taking it upon themselves to feed you until you’re stuffed, and then proceed to bring out dessert.

Usually available only for bookings in groups of eight, they have decided to shrink the serving sizes to allow groups of 2 to sample the feast for the New South Wales Food and Wine Festival at $30 per head, bubbly included.

Turkish CoffeeTurkish Coffee

We start off with a Turkish Coffee, because when in Rome right? It had fabulous caramel notes and its strength was only tempered by the sugar that was added. There was none of the burnt aftertaste that I always associate with darkly roasted coffee, and finished smooth on the palate. It sure provided one heck of a caffeine hit though, and we needed it for the food coma that was soon to follow.

Sweet cous cous with nuts, dried fruit, stewed rhubarb, and cardamom milkSweet cous cous with nuts, dried fruit, stewed rhubarb, and cardamom milk

Warm Rice Pudding with Saffron Poached Pear, Cinnamon and HazelnutsWarm Rice Pudding with Saffron Poached Pear, Cinnamon and Hazelnuts

Wholegrain Barley and Oat Banana Porridge with Brown Sugar and Date CompoteWholegrain Barley and Oat Banana Porridge with Brown Sugar and Date Compote

They started us off sweet, with a trio of breakfast grains and cereals. Sweet Cous Cous, Saffron Rice Pudding and Barley and Oat Banana Porridge set the scene for a breakfast in the middle east, and “sits on your stomach like a sack full of quarters” (Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations, Season 4, Ep 18, 16:10). We were advised very early on not to fill up on these, but I can’t resist the comforting starchy texture of a rice pudding or porridge. In fact, the Rice Pudding with Saffron-Poached Pear (with it’s beautiful notes of vanilla and orange zest) reminded The Boy very strongly of what he used to have as a kid: Haleem, which is a creamy porridge made from whole wheat berries. The Sweet Cous Cous with Dried Fruit, Stewed Rhubarb and Cardamom Milk presented like breakfast cereal with a twist – the cous cous is cooked in a rose and cinnamon spiked liquid, topped with sweet dried fruit, and served with a warm, frothed cardamom milk that you pour over the top.

Move over, Captain Crunch.

Duo of Roasted Pumpkin, and Lamb TaginesDuo of Roasted Pumpkin, and Lamb Tagines

Then the tagine: a half and half of Roasted Pumpkin on one side, and Lamb on the other. Usually marked by the high conical cap that tops the shallow dish that holds the food, the tagine, much like the paella, actually refers to the stewing pan and not the food. In this one, the Roast Pumpkin was sweet and light, and y’know, good, but it wasn’t the lamb. Oh the lamb. Spiced lamb mince (secret spice mix recipe and all that) lays thick and rich on the bottom of the tagine, couching a baked egg that retains its oozy yolk. Grilled bread on the side, of course, because you need to be full, right?

If I die from being overfed tomorrow, I’m just glad that I have had this lamb.

Poached, scrambled and fried eggs, toast and lebanese bread with sides of merguez sausage, bacon, roasted tomato, hash brown, grilled haloumi, mushrooms, baby spinach, and baked beansPoached, scrambled and fried eggs, toast and lebanese bread with sides of merguez sausage, bacon, roasted tomato, hash brown, grilled haloumi, mushrooms, baby spinach, and baked beans

Then more savoury, because you can’t have breakfast in Australia without bacon and eggs. Laid out on a wooden platter were eggs done three ways (scrambled, poached and fried), hash brown, toasted bread, bacon, roasted tomato, grilled haloumi, stewed mushrooms, baked beans and spinach. It was quite a luscious platter (though not quite as amazing as the lamb tagine) and I really needed the acidity and tang that the stewed mushrooms provided. The scrambled eggs were a touch overdone for me – maybe to keep it from spreading all over the platter, I don’t know – and the hash browns didn’t quite have enough surface area to fluffy inside as I was hoping for. But really, I’m just nitpicking at this point because my stomach feels like overfilled muffin cups that have been put into the oven, and is resulting in the subsequent spilling out over the waistband of my jeans.

Chocolate and Raspberry Pancakes with Chocolate Fudge Ice Cream and Housemade Butterscotch SauceChocolate and Raspberry Pancakes with Chocolate Fudge Ice Cream and Housemade Butterscotch Sauce

Remember how I said that they would feed you till you’re full and then bring out dessert? Well here is dessert. Chocolate and Raspberry Pancakes with Chocolate Fudge Ice Cream and Housemade Butterscotch Sauce. Pancakes larger than your face is drowned in a pool of sauce, and topped with two scoops of ice cream.

Chocolate and Raspberry Pancakes with Chocolate Fudge Ice Cream and Housemade Butterscotch Sauce

And thick, too. I’m sure that this is the food coma talking, but I’m not such a fan of the texture of these pancakes. The addition of almond meal and the sheer size of it creates a tough, cakey texture, which is not quite the fluffy, bouncy texture that I’ve come to expect from pancakes. The butterscotch sauce mixed in with rivulets of creamy chocolate ice cream was nice, like a caramel and chocolate milkshake had a baby.

This is where the Turkish Coffee really came in handy. I was well and truly in a comatose state from the meal, and needed a wooden barrel to help roll me home. I’m told that these portions are calculated to be scaled down from the 8-person banquet, and the only thing that was left at a larger portion was the pancakes, which usually serves four to six. I could have easily been full if The Boy and I shared this with another four people, and with a bag full of leftovers, I can safely say that neither of us ate for the rest of the day.

And maybe that is the point of a middle eastern breakfast. You can like a King in the morning, so you don’t have to consume anything until the next breakfast.

If you’d like to try this luxurious breakfast, it is still available at Kazbah in Balmain till the end of the NSW Food and Wine Festival on the 1st of March. Visit www.nswfoodandwine.com.au for more details.

Insatiable Munchies dined as guests of the NSW Food and Wine Festival.
Kazbah Balmain
379 Darling St
Balmain, NSW 2041
Phone: 02 9555 7067
Website: http://www.kazbah.com.au/

Kazbah Balmain on Urbanspoon

Brooklyn to Bondi: Lox, Stock and Barrel, Bondi Beach

Festivals Review
Ocean Trout Croquettes with Fresh Cucumber Pickle

Ocean Trout Croquettes with Fresh Cucumber Pickle

Going out for dinner is always a hedonistic affair for me. I’ve always held the belief that if I was going to take the time, effort and money to haul my lazy couch potato ass out somewhere, I’d better be getting an experience that I can’t easily replicate at home. And most of the time this also means that the food is also hedonistic in nature. That is, “healthy” is not exactly a word that is used in association.

So imagine my surprise and mild confusion when I got an amazing dinner at Lox, Stock and Barrel in Bondi, but still walked away feeling light, and “healthy”.

Ocean Trout Croquettes with Fresh Cucumber PickleOcean Trout Croquettes with Fresh Cucumber Pickle

Croquettes are the perfect blend of classy dining and unadulterated comfort junk food to me. It basically involves a creamy mix of meat/fish/cream/potato etc shaped into a cylinder, coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried into a crispy-on-the-outside-oozing-on-the-inside logs of golden brown perfection. Now say that three times fast.

At Lox, Stock and Barrel, we start the night off with Ocean Trout Croquettes, which contain little pink flecks of ocean trout, and all of the above-mentioned decadence. This was a fantastic way to whet the appetite, each log just large enough to tempt us with its oozing innards, and small enough to keep us wanting more. The Fresh Cucumber Pickle on the side was a nice touch, doing away with the need for the typical tartare sauce and the tangy notes that it provides.

Green Asparagus, Labne, Jerusalem Artichoke, Smoked Salt and OreganoGreen Asparagus, Labne, Jerusalem Artichoke, Smoked Salt and Oregano

Then comes the Green Asparagus, Labne, Jerusalem Artichoke, Smoked Salt and Oregano. because EAT YOUR VEGGIES. And what delicious veggies they are. If this was the way my mother wanted me to eat my five servings of vegetables a day, I’m sure I wouldn’t have spent so much of my teenage years hiding in a closet with a mini wheel of camembert. The asparagus held a light amount of char on it, tempering the bitterness with a light nuttiness. The fried jerusalem artichoke provided an exotic crunch, and the labne – a sort of yoghurt cheese made by straining yoghurt to create a thicker consistency – tied it all together.

Duck and Pistachio Cabbage Rolls with Mushroom Consomme and Baby HerbsDuck and Pistachio Cabbage Rolls with Mushroom Consomme and Baby Herbs

I have a love/hate relationship with cooked cabbage. When overcooked, cabbage can stink out your house, much like over cooking Brussel sprouts can do. Thankfully, this plate of Duck and Pistachio Cabbage Rolls retain that al dente crunch in the cabbage, adding texture to the duck. The mushroom consommé here is more sauce than soup, leaning toward the salty side of things, but delicious in its umami mushroom flavour nonetheless. It seems that they are building up the heaviness of the dishes with each course that passes, though I must say that I would have been very happy to just have this as a main by itself.

Slow Roasted Eggplant, Tomato, Haloumi, Quinoa and Spiced NutsSlow Roasted Eggplant, Tomato, Haloumi, Quinoa and Spiced Nuts

Now we’re moving into the heavyweight arena, with a stew of Slow Roasted Eggplant, Tomato, Haloumi, Quinoa and Spiced Nuts. Now this is what vegetarian cooking should be like. All too often, vegetarian dishes are left to be afterthoughts, scrapping together meat substitutes, chasing a flavour that can’t really be faked. This, however, is unabashedly intended to show off the gorgeous veggies, meat be damned. The small cubes of haloumi add pops of salt, and the quinoa and nuts add heft and texture. The Boy and I agree that this would be fantastic winter comfort fare, and a guilt-free one, at that.

Grilled Rangers Rump Cap, Caramelised onion puree, watercress and field mushroomsGrilled Rangers Rump Cap, Caramelised onion puree, watercress and field mushrooms

And finally, a finale of Grilled Rangers Rump Cap, Caramelised onion puree, watercress and field mushrooms. I have a soft spot for soubise – a puree of onion sautéed in butter and cooked in cream – so I’m already all over this. The rump cap was a nice medium rare, and the mushrooms plump and juicy without being soggy. The watercress seemed somewhat superfluous, but I guess you need something green to balance the rest of it. At this point, we were pretty stuffed, so a delicious dish was good, but not quite as out of the park as the others.

Before this, I always associated Lox, Stock and Barrel with lunch sandwiches and bagels. And witty names, yes, but not this creative, delicious, food that walks that fine line of the dining out experience and the showcasing of beautiful ingredients and produce. I’m glad to say that I was very wrong in my assumption.

This glorious menu of Lox, Stock and Barrel’s best dishes is available till the end of the NSW Food and Wine Festival, and costs $96 for two people.

Insatiable Munchies dined as guests of NSW Food and Wine Festival.

Lox, Stock and Barrel
140 Glenayr Ave
Bondi Beach, NSW 2026
Phone: 02 9300 0368
Website: http://www.loxstockandbarrel.com.au/

Lox, Stock & Barrel on Urbanspoon