Lebanese/Egyptian Food

Last Friday Frankie and I were deciding on a place to go for dinner, when I suggested Morris's Egyptian restaurant. If you had been watching the series called "the chopping block" then this restaurant would seem familiar to you. It looked alright from the show, and it was nearby, so we thought we'd try it out. I looked at the eatability website comments on it too and it was quite a mixed bag, so i thought it would be interesting.

Morris's claims to be the only eqyptian restaurant in sydney, but i think Egyptian food is the same as lebanese food. Correct me if I am wrong here.

So we walked in and sat down. There weren't too many other people in the restaurant. The restaurant itself looked very different from what it looked like on tv. The place was small, dark and poorly decorated. There was no atmosphere in the place at all, nothing to make you want to stay there for a while, just eat and get out.

I had read that the banquet wasn't very good value, but we decided to go with it anyway to see what it was like. It was $35 a head and started off with a selection of dips - Hommus, Baba Ghanouj, Tahina, and Lebna (pretty much your standard tzatiki). See if you can pick the dip!

Dip 1

Dip 2

Dip 3

Dip 4

I think, could be wrong cause i don't know for sure, that these were all store bought dips. There was nothing special about any of them. I think they were just there to fill you up, so you didn't realise how much you were getting ripped off.

Next we each got a plate of meat

This included a chicken kebab, lamb kebab, kofta, Waraaq Enub (dolmade), Taamiyeh (falafel). All the meats were good, nothing special though.

The thing that was the best though was the tabouli

This was really good. I could have eaten heaps of this.

Also in the banquet came dessert and coffee or tea. We decided to take home the dessert (baklava and "eqyptian delight" (turkish delight)) as we didn't want to stay there any longer as it was depressing.

On the Sunday we went out for a late lunch to Lakemba. Frankie said he used to go to this place there all the time called La Roche. The restaurant was very small and we got there just in time cause all these people started coming in after us and leaving cause there were no tables. We both ordered a mixed platter each (which included a soft drink). The total of our meal there came to $26 (13 each) which is less than paying for one of us at morris's and the food was 10 times better!

First came out some bread, and some pickles, tomatoes, onion, olives and a garlic dip. This was so good i could have just eaten that.

Next we got our mixed platter.

How good does that look! Everything was so good and fresh. I wanted to eat it all, but there was no way i could eat all of that. I tried though!

So much better value and a much better atmosphere.

I don't know if anyone else has been to Morris's, but i wouldn't recommend it!

Morris' Eqyptian Restaurant
445 New Canterbury Road
Dulwich Hill
Ph: 9560 1346
Open Tues - Sat 6pm - Midnight

La Roche
Shop 5, 61 - 65 Haldon Street
Lakemba
Ph: 9759 9257
Open 7 days 8am - 9pm
No alcohol, No cards

Schonegg Country Guesthouse

A couple of weekends ago was Mother's Day, and as my parents are now out near Canberra, I drove there on Sat to help cook dinner with my sister, at her and her husband's place in Belconnen, for the Sat night and then on Sunday Mum, Dad, and I went out to lunch to a beautiful guesthouse in Murrumbateman.

It was a set menu of course, which seems to be the norm on special days like these. The deal today was 2 courses for $55 or 3 courses for $68, we went for 3! We all also got a complimentary glass of champagne, which was great.

For starters our bread came out in a cute pot plant. It was fresh out of the oven and was really light and tasty. It had a mustard seed flavour to it and came out with rosemary infused oil and butter. It was so good. I could have eaten heaps more, but then i wouldn't have been able to eat anything else!

A short while after this our entrees arrived.

I started with the ravioli which was stuffed with pumpkin and had a balsamic glaze to it. It was quite nice, but i found the pasta a bit too thick for my liking and it needed more seasoning.

Mum had the smoked salmon which i tried and was great. You can't go wrong with a crepe filled with smoked salmon and cream cheese!

Dad had the prawn and calamari salad which was served in a crunchy pastry shell. I didn't try this, but Dad thought it was very good.

For main both Mum and I got the Lamb Rump with Sweet Potato mash. This was so so good. Very big portion too, which was good and bad, good cause it tasted so good, but bad cause it meant i had to eat all of it! The vegetables were perfectly cooked too. Snow peas were one of the best snow peas i have tasted in ages.


Dad went with the steak which looked very attractive with it's festive colours!

For dessert I chose the apple ice cream, which was very nice, but too much for me cause i was quite full. It wasn't really a creamy ice cream, more of an icy one though. The owner said that they got the apples from Helm Winery, cause they had an overflow of apples. So it was good to see they were using local produce.

Mum went with the coconut malibu mousse which tasted really good.

The best dessert though was dad's white and dark chocolate tart. If i hadn't have been so full i would have definitely finished this off for him!

Mum and I also got a small box of lindt lindor balls, which just happen to be my favourite chocolates in the world, so that was great.

Dad!

Mum and Me

Mum also bought herself a little mother's day present. A tiny little dog called Missy! She's so cute! Jack and Charlie were very excited to have a baby sister...

Happy Mothers Day Mum xx

Country Guesthouse Schonegg
381 Hillview Drive
(en route to Helm winery)
Murrumbateman NSW 2582

Cabramatta

This is just a quick one. Frankie and I went on a day trip to cabramatta (the Vietnamese Capital of Sydney) last weekend, as i had never been there.

Let me tell you it's harder to park there than in the city! You will be very lucky to find a parking spot close to the main strip.

It's so good there though, you feel like you are in Vietnam with the amount of fresh food and cooked food that is sold there. I have never seen so many places selling pork rolls. So cheap too. Where else in sydney can you get a baguette with lots of fresh and tasty fillings for 3 bucks! I have only been to Hong Ha for pork rolls, cause it's close to work, but here there are so many different fillings you can get.

We were going to get a pork roll for lunch but saw this restaurant that had nice outdoor seating and wasn't too packed (unlike most of the places there). Also after walking around through the crowds we just wanted to sit down and enjoy our lunch.

Pork Chop, w/ Shredded Pork and Egg and Rice - $9.50

Frankie went with the Pork Chop. I tasted some of it too and it was really good. Nice and tender. Look how good that egg looks too. I will be getting that next time!

Crispy Chicken w/Tomato Rice - $9.50

I went with the crispy chicken, which was also very good, although you don't get too much chicken on there and it's quite fiddly. Both meals came with a nice hot clear soup as well, which i love. The soup is always so good. I remember when i went to Thailand and ordered from food courts you would get a soup as well.

I just wish Cabramatta wasn't so far away and hard to park at, otherwise i would be there every day!

Kammadhenu

I had a couple of my friends over last Saturday to check out my new place have a few drinks, and then go out for dinner in Newtown. We had nothing planned, so we just walked along the streets for a bit when I thought of a place that I have been wanting to try.

I was watching the food safari series and they did an episode on Sri Lankan Food and had these stringhopper things which looked really interesting, so i did a search of sri lankan restaurants close to me, and Kammadhenu was the closest.

The menu is huge and is a combination of Sri Lankan, Indian, Malaysian, and Indo Chinese Food. The prices are very very reasonable too! The first page has a list of snacks which includes

We found the place on King Street and walked in and asked for a table for 3, we were told there were no tables downstairs and that we would have to go upstairs. So we waited for someone to take us upstairs, but apparently they meant for us to go upstairs ourselves and find a table.... Let me tell you the atmosphere downstairs from upstairs is very different. I would recommend if you are coming here to book a table downstairs. Apart from the erratic service, the food was very good, apart from the goat which was more bones than meat.

You really can't complain though when you order a smörgåsbord of food for 3 people for about $20/head and can't eat it all.

Tandoori Chicken

Masala Dosai

Stringhoppers

Butter Chicken

Lamb Rogan Josh

Goat Curry

Condiments

Kammadhenu
171 King Street
Newtown NSW
Ph: 9550 2611

Open 7 days 11am - 11pm

Erciyes Restaurant

It has been a while since i have been on here pretty much due to the fact that i have been busy finding a place to live and moving. I have now settled into my own place after my psycho flatmate practically kicked me out of our apartment because she was lonely. And if that wasn't bad enough she decided to steal my bond from me. So no more sharing with strangers again!! I guess it was a blessing though, cause i am 100 times happier now.

Anyway onto the food. Frankie and I went to this restaurant a few weeks ago now. I have always walked past Ericyes but never gone in or bought any food from there. I didn't realise how massive the restaurant part was, I always thought it was just a take away place.

Small Mixed Dips Platter - $14

We started off with a small mixed dips platter. One of my favourite things to eat would be dips and nice bread. It's very moreish though, so can sometimes be a problem. Now because it was so long ago i am going to have a guess at what each one was going from left to right - Carrot, Baba Ganoush, Beetroot, Hommus, Parsley, Cacik (cucumber, garlic, mint and yoghurt), and Chilli. Now the first and last ones could be interchangable, cause they were both very similar colours. They were all really good and tasty though and a pretty big helping for $14. You can get individual ones for $7 each, or 6 different for $14...which would you choose?

It also came with a big basket of warm turkish bread cut into pieces perfect for dipping. I am sure they would have replenished our basket too if we had run out, but that was plenty of bread for the 2 of us.

Mixed Grill Platter - $26

For our mains we shared a mixed grill platter, which also came with rice and salad. The platter looked and tasted awesome. On the platter was a mixture of kofte, lamb cutlets, and chicken and lamb shish. The meat was really tender too. Good size to share also.

Tabouli - $7

We also got a side of tabouli, which i think we could have done without. I have never been the biggest fan of tabouli, but love it in kebabs. This one was just ok. Next time i will have to try one of their vegetarian sides instead like stuffed eggplant!

The restaurant also has a belly dancer on fri and sat nights, as do most of the lebanese places on crown street. They do banquets too (which we were wanting to get, but it's a minimum of 4 people) which i always think is really good value for this type of food.

Ericyes Restaurant
409 Cleveland Street
Surry Hills NSW

Ph: 9319 1309
Open 7 days a week from 11am to Midnight