[Review] Kazbah Restaurant

My friends and I decided to utilise a $50 voucher and go out for dinner. We chose Kazbah because it was apparently the cheapest out of all the restaurants. AND.. it had my vote because it had a halal menu.

Note: despite the restaurant having a 'halal menu' there were still some items that were not halal.

Not going to go into details but what went down that night. I guess this post will take on a review style!


The atmosphere and setting 4/5
Was pleasant. It was a weeknight and most of the diners were sitting outside smoking argileh and drinking wine.
We came in around 6.30pm and there was only 2-3people in the actual indoor dining place.

The room was dark but we had a nice view of the harbourside. We were seated at wooden table and chairs. But there was also those booth chairs with extremely comfy-looking cushions on them too.

I also saw a private space in the corner with curtains. So if any of you guys come in as a group and would like some privacy during your meal, I guess the restaurant can cater for that :)

Not sure if you can book it though. Probably should call up to check, especially if you're thinking of going on a busy night.

The Bathroom 3/5
Yes! They have a bathroom. It was quite small. But the essentials were there.. the toilet was clean and they have a nice sink. The floors were a little wet but not slippery gross wet as if a monsoon had filled up the floor.

The service 4/5
The waitress serving us was real nice and kindly pointed out which meals were not halal. There were some desserts that had vodka in it, but she took note of our requirements and arranged for the dish to not have alcohol in it which is super nice.
We didn't have to wait too long for our meals either. However, the waitress did know that we were sharing our plates so it would've been nice if she divided the meals equally between the three of us.

And now.. for the important bit...

The Food

Mains

• Kazbah's Mezze Plate - Goat, Black Olives, Pumpkin, Saffron Yoghurt Sauce, Pinenuts % Almond Burnt Butter (with couscous) 4/5

I loved it. The side dishes (to the right of the blue bowl) was interesting. The top was some chilli powder, the middle was I think some saffron spicy thing and the bottom was a salty and sour pickle thing. I love salty and sour things!

This dish was REAL good. The goat was tender. And it's not everyday that you eat goat. It was a nice blend of curry with the couscous. It was like the fused together in your mouth and gave you this warm feeling in your belly.

• Shish kebabs - Camel Kafta, Brown Lentil Moujadara, Tunisian Style Ratatouille, Date Sauce, Crispy Fried Onions 4.5/5
  

This was SO yummy! I love camel! This is the second time I've eaten camel this year (possibly my entire life) and I loved it! Only downside was that it didn't have enough side dish. I assume the rice surrounding it was the side dish. Well, it needed more of that! But the camel was tender, juicy and there's just something about the texture of camel meat that makes it special. Definitely one of those exotic dishes to try out in an exotic restaurant.

• Specialties - Roast Duck, Falafel, Honey Baked Quince, Sweet Potato Chips 3/5

It was nice, to say the least. I wasn't too sure about what I was expecting from this dish. After coming in after the goat and camel dishes, it was quite plain. The duck didn't really absorb the sauce it was sitting on. It wasn't tender or juicy, but I guess it's safe to say I had tastier things that night. I felt slightly ripped off as it was the most expensive thing we ordered that night! But the dish was not bad.

Drinks

I haven't been to many harbourside restaurants, but their drinks menu was packed with alcoholic drinks! But to fit in with the fancy setting, decided to go for the mocktails.

Mocktails

I ordered a lychee mocktail while my two friends ordered a mixed fruit.

Left (yellow): Mixed Fruit mocktail
Right (pink): Lychee mocktail

The lychee mocktail was so good. No regrets. I was hesitant to pick it as my friends ordered the mixed fruit. But after tasting theirs, I LOVE the lychee more. It was sweet and very syrup-py but I highly recommend it. I can't remember what the other flavours were though..

The mixed fruit had I think apple and pineapple amongst other things which I cannot recall at the moment. I thought those fruits were pretty everyday-ish. And the drink mostly tasted like pineapple.

Lychee mocktail 3.5/5
Mixed fruit mocktail 3/5

Desserts

Wow.. where do I begin with desserts. Let's start with the nice one - but not the best one of the night.

• Fruit mince bisteeya, raspberry and custard sauce, pistachio coated halawa ice cream 3/5
  
  

This dish was really yummy. I loved the whatever pastry thing was underneath. And pistachio-covered ice-cream is my 3rd favourite ice cream. The raspberry sauce in the custard though.. to quote my friend "tasted like dimetapp". LOL. I didn't think of it when I first tasted it... but I can't find any other words to describe that red liquid any more accurately. But I think the custard saved that bit.

It's a dish I wouldn't really go for again though.

• Kazbah bomb for Two, Turkish Delight Ice cream, Blueberries 4.5/5

This dish was originally "flamed with Vodka". But we asked the waitress to omit the vodka bit.

This dessert is one of the tastiest things to ever enter my belly! I LOVED the Turkish Delight ice cream. I am not a big fan of Turkish delights.. but that ice cream was just LOVE. And it was coated in some crumb thing (like they do with fried ice cream), and covered in meringe which I think made the overly sweet ice cream taste even better! And to complete the flavouring, the blueberries added this acidic tinge to the dessert which makes this so perfect.


Cost
It's a harbourside restaurant in Sydney. Expect dishes to be on the pricey side. To be honest, $30 for a dish is just ridiculous. But well we had a voucher..

oh damn that triple digit bill!

Yes. I THOUGHT we had a voucher until for some reason their eftpos machine couldn't read the voucher card! Well.. the night did not end well. Spent A LOT of money. We emailed the voucher company and apparently they got some new eftpos machine. Still waiting to hear the outcome.

Vanilla Cupcake + Green Tea Icing [makes ~24 cupcakes]

You sure you really want to make this thing?

Okay... here it goes.

I've always been a diagram sort of person. I love looking at pictures over reading words. So I always turn recipes into a giant flowchart. To some people, it probably looks like its overcomplicating it. But to me, it makes it easier. I've been making an entire notebook on it. And I guess that's something to hand over to my grandkids ahahha. Even though the recipes weren't originally mine.

I find my recipes online.. and mix them together to make my own I guess.

Basic Cupcake + Frosting Flow Chart Recipe

And to have green tea, add in the matcha powder with the icing sugar whilst making the frosting/icing :)
voila!

Yummay!


いただきます！！ ケーキはおいしかった！

Baking Green Tea Icing Cupcakes and a Long Weekend of Delicious Food!

It's not only been an intense week in the Honours world.... but it's been a busy week for my body trying to process all the tasty food I've consumed!

So much Chocolate.
What a sweet surprise it was when I found these chocolate eggs on my office table one morning.

Wednesday Morniing - Creme egg and 2 malteser chocolate eggs!

Thursday morning - a hollow chocolate egg

I must admit, I have never tried a creme egg before. Nor have I ever tried a Malteser chocolate egg. When I bit into those.. it was just.. AMAZING. I wish I knew who was giving them out.

By the way, I think there were two different people involved in this chocolate egg distribution. The person on Wednesday morning, who gave the creme egg and malteser egg must've been from my lab group.  Since nobody else in the research institute got one.
While on Thursday morning, the hollow chocolate egg was put on everybody's desk.

I must admit, I loved the 'solid' or 'filled' eggs more than the hollow ones. More value for money, and hence makes the receiver (i.e. me) feel more special :D

OH! And just when I decided on Saturday morning to make a lifestyle change.. I find on the kitchen benchtop an ENTIRE jar of MnMs, Twix and Milky Way.

OMG.

A jar of 'on-sale' chocolates

Way to go mum for buying it all since they were all "on sale". Aiyyyaaa. I am munching on the MnMs as I type this post. And I've really wanted to get thinner and healthier. I came across a picture of Ricki-Lee and she is SKINNY. Not bony-skinny, but fit-skinny! She used to be so curvy before! And I've read an interview of hers and it's inspired me to get healthier. If she can do it, I can do it! And I am starting by cutting down on the sweets!
And then doing exercise! Hopefully I can finally sign up for those Taekwondo classes this week now that my literature review has been submitted insha Allah.

Indonesian Night Festival
Unfortunately, I was enjoying myself far too much to take pictures. MWAHAHAH.

Just kidding. It was too dark. And I don't really have those chunky, expensive cameras. All I had was  a mobile phone camera (and for the record, its a Samsung Galaxy Note II).

I didn't stay long enough to do all those fun activities. I brought my uni friends along, but alas, we were pressed for time and they had to leave so soon. And then I had to leave so soon :(

My mum and little sister came though :)

And the happiest thing, was when I was reunited with my beloved sate padang and teh botol. I am crying. I am happy. :)

And what better way to end that night market, but with an epic moon above my university's campus. So beautiful, SubhanAllah~

High Tea Farewell Party
The lab group's admin assistant was leaving and we threw a small farewell party for her. She's such a sweet old lady and I am going to miss her. I didn't know her too well.. but we had our moments. We even hugged when I had to leave the party for my dark room induction training.


The food was.. really yummy. Of course, I didn't touch the wine or the meat foods. But I did taste some of the cupcakes and chocolate peanut cake. SO YUMMY. Every was fancy dandy. I didn't get to eat everything as they were on the other side of where I was sitting.. but I did manage to take pictures.

I didn't take any pictures of the scones.. which is a real shame because that was the tastiest thing I could get my hands on that day! I don't think I've ever had scones before.. let alone, have ever been to a high tea party. But they were scrumptious and I think that might be an interesting thing to make more the cooking section of this blog ;)
Scones are quite plain.. but I think it's got something to do with the cream and strawberry jam that makes it taste so magical and posh. :D
I MUST HAVE SOME AGAIN. one day.
Yes.. definitely something to consider baking.

And I absolutely loved the tea set.

 How cute are those polka dot cups? And the tea pot?? WANT.
I made sure to stay clear from the wine though ahhahaha. Totes haram man.

Dinner at Flame's Steakhouse, Bankstown
So apparently, this long weekend, Flame's was having a $35 (per person) all you can eat. I can tell you, I did not go for that $35 buffet ahahha. I went on Thursday night with some old uni friends. And even though I could've gotten that $35, I don't think I'd be able to eat all that food!

So I ordered beef ribs..

Beef ribs cost about $35.. BUT I shared it with two other friends. There were 9 bones so we were able to evenly divide it between the three of us. And they were sooo goood. The ribs came with the salad and mash. The mash wasn't all that good.. it was alright for me but not for my other two friends unfortunately. It tasted like instant mash from ALDI. ahahahha.

And we ordered other things like chips and pizza. We ordered meat lovers pizza and a chicken pizza. I didn't like the meat lovers pizza that much. They used salami! And didn't use the proper 'sujuk' (?) for pepperoni.. if you know what I'm saying. To be honest, it was quite plain.. and I was disappointed. My ma could make better-tasting pizza than that!

But all in all, Flame's steakhouse wasn't too bad. I can't complain much.. it's halal after all. And the atmoshpere was good. A lot of Muslims lol. i guess that comes with it being halal and all..

And we even got a 20% discount because we checked in on FB. But that night, they didn't accept EFTPOS which was a giant disaster for those of us that didn't have cash on us. We had to go to the ANZ ATM next door. I couldn't help feeling that it might've all been a partnered scam with ANZ. I did see a little ANZ globe on their check out counter :/

Astaghfirullah. Gotta give them the benefit of the doubt. But how silly of them to post signs up that no one can even spot! It was literally a sign written in a blue ball-point pen on paper. No matter how many signs you put up buddy, no one's going to see it if you don't type it out and print it on paper!

More Dinner Parties
It's Friday and my distant cousin (who's an international student here in Sydney) comes over this public holiday with his two young lady friends. They're such a loud bunch and they formed quite a group with my mum and they were talking in real fast Indo that I couldn't really take part in any of their convos. And I'm really not that confident in speaking Indonesian. Which is absolutely TRAGIC.

Anyway, they ate my vanilla cupcakes with green tea icing. But it was in the fridge for a while, so the sugar crystallised and you could actually crunch on the sugar. BWAHAHAH.
I don't mind them eating it, but it's just that the cupcakes kinda looked like vomit and I am too embarassed for anyone outside my immediate family to eat them. But my ma went ahead and offered it to them anyway for dessert. There was an insane amount of sugar in them, and the two girls took their time eating them. While my cousin (who isn't that fond of sugar) said it was really yummy and wanted another. Well that's nice to hear :-)

I shall post a recipe soon.

One of the girls actually recommended to me a green tea cafe in the Sydney CBD. It's called 'Chanoma Cafe'. Considering that last post about my Green Tea cravings.. I am DEFINITELY GOING ONE DAY insha Allah. I need to satisify my cravings. Oh.. and here's a link to their Facebook page: Chanoma Cafe. And plus, they're Japanese and they apparently have (and I quote) "a very cute chef".

Just LOOK at this Green Tea Menu!

:D

The rest of the night went okay. Watched the Bulldogs vs Rabbitohs game. Which was epic because the Bulldogs once again won by a point! And we had a BBQ which I really wasn't in the mood for. I ate a couple of lamb sausages and some salad. I guess I was just really sick of BBQ-ed food, considering I was eating out for the past 2 nights in a row. I felt really bad because that night I was like really unenthusisastic sounding, and may have come across as a complete *****. I feel bad. And I know I was rude. No matter how tired I was, I should never have treated my guests that way. Especially since one of the girls had never been to my place before..

D:

Still.. I hoped they liked the indo food and my cupcakes.

****************

So I hope you liked my food post.. do people enjoy reading food posts?
It was quite fun to write this, but I don't really eat out much. Nor do I ever come across some extravagantly tasty food like the ones I've had this week. Oh.. the Honours life. Makes you question what's happening on the other side of all this hahha...

and until next time!

Wassalam~

Nurilen

What I miss the Most about Indonesia

As most of you might know, I was born in Australia.
オーストラリアで生まれました！
But my parents are from Indonesia.
でも、両親はインドネシアに来ました。

Okay, I think that's about as much Japanese I can type lol. After all, this is a post about Indonesia right?!

Maybe I should practise some of my Indonesian as well? Okay, from this post onwards, I will try! I should really stop embarrassing myself whenever I go back to my mother country. My Indonesian just won't come out! My embarrassment will definitely not be one of the things I miss about being there.

Tapi, saya cinta Indonesia~
I love Indonesia!

Waktu saya di Indonesia, saya pergi ke banyak tempat-tempat yang paling indah.
When I was in Indonesia, I went to many beautiful places.

Saya pergi ke taman kupu-kupu di Makassar dan juga lihat air terjun. Tempat itu bikin saya rasa segar karena cuaca di Indonesia selalu panas dan saya tidak bisa tahan panas. Saya jadi keringatan!
I went to a butterfly park in Makassar and also saw a waterfall (see pic below). That place made me feel fresh as Indonesia is always hot and I can't tolerate the heat very well. I sweat really easily!


*********************************
And there you have it. Some English, Indonesian and Japanese. I guess I cringe a bit more when I'm typing in Indonesian than when in Japanese because with Indonesian, I KNOW I sound weird. But with Japanese, I don't know whether or not I'm writing it right so I have more of a "whatever" attitude.

Ahhh.. I really love languages. I hope to travel the world one day and no doubt, languages will get you to places most tourists can't get to. By the way, Insha Allah I might be going to Umrah at the end of next year. And hopefully to Dubai as well. So I gotta brush up on my Arabic! I wish my university offered an Arabic language course. :(

*********************************
So.. on to that actual list eh?

1. The green that was everywhere. The green forests.

I love this picture. So much. 2hours drive from our hotel to see this tiny waterfall..
I was expecting to see a waterfall as large as the ones I've seen in the pictures of Niagra Falls. But this is okay too. I've never seen this much water rushing down before. SubhanAllah!

Waterfall - Makassar

Just a house here in the forest - Makassar

Forest Trek in Makassar leading to caves

2. Giant bodies of water everywhere!

One of the things Australia and Indonesia have in common is that they're islands. Water pratically surrounds us. And I love swimming! But I dislike getting wet though. Being a hijaabi, it's a big hassle when you're trying to remove layers and layers of wet clothes.

By giant bodies of water, I don't mean floods. I visited Jakarta during it's monsoon season and towards the last few days of our trips, it was raining non-stop. And we left just in time before the Jakarta city was flooded some 2 or 3 days later. Alhamdulillah!

Makassar has one of the bluest waters I have ever seen. It was such a clean city! In contrast to Jakarta and Pontianak lol.

Makassar Waters

Bangunan di atas air - Makassar

LOL. Didn't know what else to call it.

Casually sipping some a coconut while overlooking the waters in Singkawang, Pontianak

If green tea is the flavour of the Japanese, then coconut is most definitely the flavour of Indonesia. It probably isn't but I was crazy about coconuts when in Indo! It's cool.. and refreshing! Tastes a little weird the first time, but it is strangely addictive. It must be the Indonesian in me.

Sailing down a canal in Puncak

As I am going through my holiday pictures, I've realised that I don't have that many pictures. So much for being a blogger eh?

3. Cats everywhere!

I love cats! And dare I say this, but I think I'm a bit of a cat whisperer. Every time I meow at a cat, they stare at me and run away. It's as if they're confused about how a human can speak their language!
Yep. Definitely why they run off.

I saw so many cats. Meow meow mew!
Try and understand what I just said there hah!

An island of cats - on an island off the coast of Makassar

I actually found A LOT of cats at my aunt's house! Her nephew is actually a cat breeder. So he breeds those expensive cats. They're all pedigreed and such. And expensive!

 

Fluffy Persian Cat!

Kitten at my uncle's house - Pontianak
(She looks like my uncle - LOL)

4. Food!! But most importantly, it was all HALAL.
I regret not eating more in Indonesia. The food was delicious but the heat really decreased my appetite. And mostly because I was stressed lol. I was just worrying about all the stuff that would be going on when I'd have to get back to Australia that I almost didn't enjoy my holiday!
But I still took SOME pictures.. not many though.

One of things I noticed when I went to Indonesia is how much it's changed. There are now new malls, and there has definitely been an increase in the amount of Japanese and Korean restaurants! The last time I went to Indonesia, which was around 5 years ago, I have NEVER seen these restaurants before. But I definitely appreciate Indonesia importing these Japanese and Korean restaurants.
It is so difficult to find that type of food here in Australia that is HALAL. So I got to eat as much as I could!

I would usually eat these fried bananas with cheese on top as a snack.

Fried Bananas with Cheese

Hot Pot - Singkawang

At Makassar, we ate at one of the best seafood restaurants ever! The atmosphere was really good! The lighting was good and the food was delicious. And I was also mistaken for a Malaysian there. LOL, I was wearing baju kurung so it was no wonder ahahah.
I believe the restaurant was called RM Bahari. And apparently, the Indonesian president SBY also ate at that restaurant. You can see a picture of him at the restaurant hanging on the wall.

 

I would seriously give RM Bahari 6MMMMmmms! out of 5 MMMMmmms!
The fish was fresh and I kept coming in for seconds and thirds! Now THAT's a good sign! Although I was starving that day so maybe that's why my appetite was so large? And it was also raining that day too...

At the Chocolate Museum - Makassar

 It's not every day that you get to eat this hot pot! Especially in Australia where it isn't halal in restaurants. To my surprise, it didn't really meet my expectations. I was expecting flavours from Japan.. lol. Maybe because I ate this the night after I arrived from Japan and had high standards. ROFL. I forgot the name of this restaurant.. but it was a restaurant in the Grand Indonesia Mall.

But OMG. I just LOVED what I had for dessert! Now THIS definitely reminded me of Japan. I think it was Green tea shaved ice. LOVED ITTT! I didn't have any of this when I was in Japan so you can imagine my delight when I dug into this!

The one dish that is high on my favourite Indonesian foods is: Sate Padang. My FAVOURITE.
And my favourite Indonesian drink? Teh Botol!!
So yummy.. omg I am remembering the taste of it all on my tongue. It makes me cry because now I want some so bad TT_TT

We stayed at Hotel Santika for new years. I forgot which hotel santika it was, but it was the one that was across that water park, and attached to the mall. I think it was Hotel Santika BSD?

Well, I really LOVED that hotel. It was fun to get away for new years and muck around. It was joined to this mall called Teras Kota and I had never felt so free in Jakarta till then. It's so convenient just going downstairs from your hotel room and then being in an entertainment district!

We had Korean BBQ there too! I thought we'd be cooking the meat ourselves like they did in those Korean dramas, but it was actually the dude that came in with his trolley and cooked next to our table. Nawww :(
But it was still tasty! I've never had a Korean BBQ before. And now I have! ^_^

At Teras Kota, there was also a stall that sold crepes! They had nothing on the Harajuku crepes, cos my standards for Japanese food are so high since I've been to Japan and all... (LOL jokes jokes). They were still good though!

 

Also at Teras Kota, I had an iced green tea shake? I think the name of that store was "The Coffee Bean". So good...

Hotel Santika BSD also had a new years party which guests of the hotel were invited to attend! We even won a ticket that would let us stay at Hotel Santika Lombok for a night! Unfortunately, it was going to expire this year, so we gave the ticket to my cousin's wife.
It was such an awkward moment when I went up to get the hotel ticket and the male host extended his hand to congratulate me. Of course I just pressed my palms together in front of me, in the usual Indonesian manner of greeting. Dude, I thought since Indonesia was a majority Muslim country they would know these Islamic customs?
Well, I'm not going to delve into the state of Islam in Indonesia in this post.. so, moving onwards!

And here's the food we ate at the New Year's party. The food was average I guess.. but I ate roast beef! What is it with my meat cravings? I was craving a juicy Aussie steak and Alhamdulillah they served Western food at that party.
By the way, it wasn't a dancing type of party. It was more.. a dinner party LOL. Food was good. I give it 3MMMmmms out of 5MMMmmms!

5. The low currency karena aku pelit
One of the best things about holidaying in a developing country is that you can buy things there that would usually cost a fortune in Australia, especially Sydney! Sydney's in the top 10 in the world for most expensive cities..
In Indonesia, I got a full body massage and scrub (green-tea flavoured! LOL what?), cheap hotel tickets, cheap everything. Even bought myself an Arsenal jersey. Whether or not the jersey is authentic or not.. err I don't really mind.

6. I guess I could go on and on.. but I really should sign off now. Indonesia is a beautiful place! Indonesia adalah negara yang sangat indah dan saya menyarankan anda libur di sana.


I still have much exploring to do. I feel like I hardly know Indonesia, despite being there a couple of times. One of the most important things I believe I should preserve is my heritage. Knowing who you are, and where you come from is one of the most important things you will take with you in life.