Gourmet Port

We’ve passed by this restaurant countless times on our way to the Sultan Mosque for Isyak prayers. (we always seem to find a new dining place because of this) One day, our curiosity got the best of us, and we googled the name of the shop, hmm all we got was that it was helmed by a Turkish chef. And I couldn’t really read the menu that was on scribd via my iPhone. The next day, a huge review was written about this very restaurant in the Berita Harian.

The gist of that article was that it serves Mediterranean food and that it’s lamb shanks and greek fisherman soup were amazing! Hang on a sec! Greek and Halal! That’s a Singapore first! We went after Isyak prayers, and we ordered the mezze, caeser salad, Kakavia, lamb shanks, ribs and a sheesh tawouk. We ordered the mojito, which came with kiwi slices.

The kakavia is a traditional greek fisherman’s soup, was simply to die for! I will rave about it to anyone who’d listen…seriously! Pretty similar to the French bouillibaise, this Greek soup is so much heartier. With a rich and robust tomato base, very different from your from the can tomato soup, with generous amounts of fish and the soup was brightened by a good squeeze of lemon juice. My mouth waters just thinking of it. I think they prepared the shanks and the ribs pretty nicely. The meat just fell off the lamb shanks and the ribs, whilst the sheesh tawouk was tender, quite like the sauce that came with it. Perhaps on my next visit, I’d like to try their souvlaki and another bowl of kakavia mmmmmm

Gourmet Port is located at:
734 North Bridge Road
Tel: +65 6288 3421

Al-Tazzaq At Haji Lane

Tonight was our last intermediate class for Arabic, 2 more months till we commence Advanced Arabic. Our teacher invited us to dine at his friend’s restaurant  who was a fellow Egyptian to commemorate our last day of classes.Rapiah, Nadsirah, Naserah, our teacher and myself took bus 960 along Armenian Street and stopped just after Bugis, and walked the rest of the way to Haji Lane. Je suis tres fatigue! On hindsight, we could just have taken a cab there. Haji Lane itself was an interesting path, both sides of the streets were old shophouses of which chic boutiques selling local designers wares and cafes line the way. The lane was lit up by streetlights and yet it still felt odd there, perhaps its all due to the sheesha that was being smoked by the patrons sitting on carpets by the corridors. Anyways, we reached At-tazzaq at 10pm, and our teacher’s former student Ming from Beijing was there with her friend Umay from Egypt were waiting for us. A few moments later, another friend of our teacher arrived  and joined us, Khalid an Egyptian who’s lived in Singapore for close to 16 years.  We couldn’t figure out to order, because everything looked so interesting, and in the end we got 2 plates of mixed grill, a plate of special all in one platter of dips and bread, 2 plates of falafel, 2 plates of foul mademes, a plate of lamb kebabs and ice cold hibicus tea. We had reserved a table on the 2nd floor, the ground floor was packed with people. We sat on cushions on the floor with a low table, all eight of us, cozy ambience especially the lighting. I would have liked it if customers who wanted to smoke sheesha, smoked outside rather then the airconditioned room. My hair and clothes smelt like sheesha at the end of dinner. The falafel was yummy. I hated falafels before, from all my trips overseas the falafels tasted like cardboard, but this was the first time I actually enjoyed it. Their mixed grill platter was huge, wasn’t able to take a picture of it since everyone dug in once it was set. I liked their chicken, moist and tender whilst their lamb was not smelling lamby . Their bread was soft and warm, delicious with the hummus and the baba ganoush, my all time favourite dips. Whilst the Foul Mademes, was not quite I expected, it didn’t taste like the Kacang Pool of our yesteryears prepared by the Arab man in the old Geylang market that came with the french loaf, salt, egg, raw onions, green chilli, clarified butter and a sunny side up egg. The Foul Mademes alone would make me come back for seconds, it wasn’t too heavy and when paired up with the soft warm bread, it was happiness in a scoop of broad beans and olive oil. The Cacade, or ice hibiscus tea was delicious and perfect for a humid Friday night.  My only gripe was that service was rather slow (perhaps due to the thronging crowds) and that I came out of the restaurant smelling like I had smoked sheesha the whole night.  Maybe next time I should dine outside instead

Falafels

My classmates under the street lights of Haji Lane

Haji Lane is so small you might just miss it

Al-Tazzaq is located at:
24 Haji Lane

Zac Cafe

Mi familia

Mummy and me

Yummy Hummous

Mixed Grill Platter

Beef Tenderloin

Chicken Doner Kebab

Lamb Riyah

Vegetable Quiche

Mint tea

Tonight after picking me up from Arabic class, my parents and uncle took my brother,my cousin Roem and I to dinner to celebrate Roem’s 16th birthday. Dad decided on Zac Cafe, which we had wanted to check out for a very long time. The atmosphere inside the cafe was cozy, a we plonked ourselves by a long table, my apologies for the seriously not clear pictures for I had left my mju in the car. We had as a starter, hummus which came with a dish of warm bread.  Oh my gosh, this hummous was so delish! Very different from other hummus in other restaurants located within the Arab St vicinity. Dad and Uda chose the Mixed Grill Platters which had a stick of beef kebab, a stick of lamb kebab, a stick of chicken kebab and 2 grilled sausages on a bed of fluffy saffron rice dotted with sultanas and of course salad. They were really happy with their order, it reminded them of the food they had at Open Sesame, the beef was so tender that they couldn’t stop gushing about the Mixed Grill Platter.  Ariff and Roem ordered the Beef Tenderloin, which was juicy and succulent, they were happy boys Mummy got the Chicken Doner with wedges, I bit into the Doner and it was so good, it tastes as though there’s a special sauce being added to it, the chicken was cooked just right and it was simply delicious.  I ordered the Lamb Riyah, one word “WOW”, the lamb chops were cooked to perfection. I took my time, savouring each bite. The rice that was served with it was just the right partner for the lamb chops. We were given two complimentary servings of warm vegetable quiche, which I must say was wonderful and should be part of the menu. To wash it all down, we had mint tea, the perfect way to end the evening. The service was great and Madam Hanim was very friendly. I’ll be sure to be back there again to try out the rest of the menu. Certainly a fantastic place to have dinner with friends and family. They really know their meats! If you find the name of the cafe vaguely familiar, it’s because they’re the same people who brings to us the HALAL cold cuts, sausages, meat, poultry etc under the name ZAC Meat & Poultry, or basically the stuff that ends up on my brekky table

Zac Cafe is located at:

17 Jalan Pinang
Singapore 199149