Zufa Lebanese restaurant in Hatch End

 Zufa Lebanese restaurant.

Inside Zufa Lebanese Restaurant. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. 

We had two types of bread as well as chicken, lamb and excellent meat balls, good rice, hummous, and lots of salad. Baklava and chocolate baklava.

Leftovers wrapped up to take home for lunch next day.

Drinks

To start

I turned down the date drink when they said it was made with syrup. Instead, I chose the yogurt with mint. This was a mistake. It tasted salty and bitter and I did not drink it. Next time, never mind my diet and teeth, I shall try the date drink which sounds more unusual.

To finish

 Lebanese coffee. Served Lebanese style from a miniature metal, waisted saucepan. (Oops - don't call it Turkish or Greek coffee. If you want it boiled up with sugar, you should remember to ask for it. Luckily my husband likes his coffee strong. I like mine sugared, which is why I have to diet at home to control my weight, whilst he diets just to keep fit.

Food - starters and main courses shared

Our food included chicken, lamb, hummous, two kinds of bread, rice, yogurt dip, lots of shredded salad.

Baklava

The baklava was fine. Small size, just right.

Too much to finish.

However, we had food wrapped up to go, no problem, from smiling, serving staff on a dead Sunday night, the ideal time to eat with a toddler because there's hardly anybody to be disturbed and it's only Sunday night, not Saturday night out.

Toilets

The toilets were modern. More than modern.

The ladies toilets are ultra modern with a very effective hand dryer.

Locations, Hatch End, Northwood Hills

Useful Websites

www.zufa.co.uk

The Rodon (Rose) Hotel in Agros, Cyprus had the best baklava

Angela Lansbury on the balcony of a bedroom at Rodon Hotel, Cyprus. Photo by Trevor Sharot

We stayed at the Rodon hotel in the Troodos mountains in the centre of Cyprus for a walking, and hiking holiday. The name Rodon means rose in Greek.

The Rodon Hotel and my rosy view of it

We were a group of 16 (Java Lava in exile) in about 12 rooms so we had to stay in a large hotel and the Rodon Hotel is the largest in the area. Oddly, it is given only three stars, although we thought it deserved four. The hotel has a large free parking area in front. 

Swimming Pool

At the back, in theory two outdoor swimming pools - the lower one being the best, curvy and cool but warm once you start swimming. (The upper pool was small, square, had a few leaves on it, and the adjoining small indoor pool was being renovated.) I also noticed a small gym.

Bedrooms

The balcony overlooked the mountains, trees and car park.

Our first bedroom was short of power point sockets, needed by two people. They gave us an extension board. 

However, we transferred to a larger suite, which cost more, about 20 Euros more. 

Toiletries

The toiletries provided were just two kinds, shower gel and shampoo, plus a shower cap. We bought a bottle of hair conditioner in the supermarket just around the s-bend mountain road, within walking distance. The suite did not have more kinds of toiletries than the plain bedrooms.

Towelling backless bathroom slippers were hidden in a drawer under the safe.

Beautiful Buffet

The buffet was great, a huge choice. The meats consisted of three or four choices such as chicken in sweet and sour sauce, two more meats such as beef or lamb and pork, meatballs, and what the serving person said was a Cypriot speciality - ground beef (I call it mincemeat) in tomato sauce. 

Breads included seeded rolls, white or brown bread, one with seeds on the edge, or plain. (At breakfast time a toaster.) 

Vegetables and Salads

Assorted hot vegetables included potatoes and rice or pasta. 

Two to four salads. We had three or four dips for starters, such as hummous, tahini, yogurt. 

Drinks. A cold water machine. A coffee machine. 

Delicious Desserts

Best of all were the desserts. Two kinds of mini mousse such as chocolate or vanilla. A jelly or two, green or red. Three or four kinds of Cypriot Greek sweet desserts such as baklava, or cake with coconut topping.

Drinks

Waiter service for drinks you wanted to order and pay for, such as Prosecco. All over Cyprus, no problem if a large group all wanted to order different drinks or food. In hotels, they took each person's or couple's or family\s room number. They put your bill for that order in a drinking glass. You signed for it. You paid on checking out of the hotel.

At lunch places, they gave each diner in turn a number. So when the food arrived, you got what you ordered. When you paid, they knew that number one ordered this and that, and checked it with you.

Fruit

Plus orange oranges, green or red apples, yellow bananas. Cut fruit was half moon shapes of red watermelon with a green rind. Also a yellow or green sliced melon. It would be easy to over-eat.

Breakfast

At breakfast we had boiled eggs, fried eggs, or scrambled egg, ham or processed meat, bacon, sausages and mini frankfurters, flat triangles of cheese. Fruits. Yogurt and cereals and nuts and sultanas and dates. Mini croissants, not flaky but with pleasantly chewy centres. Good enough. Yellow cake dotted with dried fruit in green and red colours. Miniature marble cake in plain and chocolate. 

Rose Shopping and Waterfall Walking

I shall describe the rose factory which is in walking distance, and the walk to the waterfall in other posts.  

Useful Websites

https://www.booking.com/hotel/cy/rodon-mount-and-resort.en-gb.html?aid=311076&label=rodon-mount-and-resort-

TANGLIN CLUB BIRTHDAY LUNCH IN THE CHURCHILL ROOM

Where could I go for a birthday lunch? We are members of the Tanglin Club. The Tanglin Club has several options for eating. For a moderately priced meal with lots of choice at lunch or dinner, there's the pub called the Tavern. My favourite.

Upstairs is a small Oriental restaurant. We had a table for two once. Such a tiny table. Cramped. A bit like eating on a train. But no window. Claustrophobic. A huge price for a mushroom with a fancy name. Still hungry.

Down by the poolside, noisy, a lot of coming and going, more casual dining and lots of exuberant children distracting you.

Over in the sports area, bright and airy and informal. Expensive sandwiches and waiter service. But no service. Play hunt the waiters. You feel abandoned, like you are eating leftovers on a table tennis table. Need a fork? Jog to the other end and around the corner.

None of these venues was right for my birthday. I had a better idea.

The Churchill Room

The Churchill Room with its grand piano. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

For a grand meal, choose the Churchill Room. It is a grand, high-ceilinged, wood-paneled room with a grand piano. On one side is the bar, and window, on the other side, a stage for a band in the evening, or a presentation at the AGM.

The dining room used to be too big and half empty often at lunch times. However, they have divided it off so that most of the tables are occupied and it seems cosier.

We had a wonderful lunch. A set meal with limited choice, but perfect.

Set Meal Prices
I like a set meal. Too many choices takes up time and makes my impatient husband get impatient. Predictable price. Drinks extra.

I like the French system of making it legal requirement for every restaurant to have a set meal, giving the price including one drink and the service. They can have a second meal at a higher price. That way, you know exactly what you will have to pay.

I was given a menu without prices. That's a nuisance The lamb cost an extra ten dollars. I was quite happy to save ten dollars and eat something else.

The napkin is arranged like a fan on the table.

Elegant and inviting table setting. Photo by Angela Lansbury.


Best of all, the napkin has a buttonhole in the corner so you can wear it to protect your clothes.

Angela Lansbury wearing the Tanglin Club napkin which has a handy buttonhole. Photo by Trevor Sharot.

The Churchill Room
The Churchill Room is the grand, large restaurant, usually with waiter service (occasionally a buffet on a family day). The name honours Winston Churchill and reflects the age of the club and the fact that the original membership was mainly British.

The waiters appear fast and catch your eye when needed.

The free bread and butter arrives first. Hot bread. Black bread. White bread.

With a tiny tub of hummus. Another of tomato sauce. A third of oil. The bread disappears fast.


Free hot bread and hummus. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Drinking A Glass Of Prosecco
To accompany the drinks we ordered Prosecco for me. I am what is known as a Cheap date. I like Prosecco. From Italy. It is usually cheaper than Champagne, which is made in the Champagne region of France. (Except that the French region has now expanded into the USA.)

Champagne is made in the bottle, whilst Prosecco is made in tanks. Prosecco has smaller bubbles and less alcohol. I can drink Prosecco and rely on my own wit to make myself smile.

Champagne is stronger and, after only two sips, I am dipping towards the diagonal. Champagne contains an h for hiccups. Save money and avoid embarrassment by giving me Prosecco.

Two small  two choices of starter. One contained shellfish, and I am allergic to shellfish.

That makes ordering easy. I'll have the soup.


Tomato Soup at the Tanglin Club. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Red Tomato Soup
So I had the tomato soup. It arrived in one of those plates with a huge rim and a small bowl- -like centre. Looks very grand.

The white rim contrasts with the red tomato soup. The red accentuates the pristine white. The white accentuates the vibrant red.

Just the right amount of soup. Enough. But not too much.

I asked the host, my husband, "How do they make tomato soup taste so good?"

He is a keen cook. He answered, "Probably not ordinary tomatoes. Sundried or roasted tomatoes."

About four main courses to choose from.

Gleaming domes concealing the main course at the Tanglin. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The domes over the main course keep it hot. If the waiters co-ordinate you get to see your plate of food before looking across to see somebody else's.

Main course in a bowl. Churchill Room. Tanglin Club. Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Main Course
My chicken and al dente asparagus was just right. Not exceptional. But just right.

However, the piece de resistance was the dessert. Irresistible!

Light baklava dessert at The Churchill Room, Tanglin Club, Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Delightful Dessert
No choice. Only one dessert on the menu. Only one - but what a dessert.

I had queried whether I could change the vanilla ice cream for something more interesting. They had chocolate or vanilla ice cream. Or lemon sorbet. But the waiter suggested that the desserts came ready prepared with the vanilla ice cream on top - did I want it removed to one side - and the flavours were matched. I agreed to stick with the vanilla ice cream.

Although I could not taste vanilla, I cannot speak too highly of the dessert. We concluded that it must be a Greek style baklava. But not like the usually gritty shredded wheat. Something finer, more delicate visually and texture wise as well as taste-wise, a melt in the mouth hair-fine crunch. Nuts and syrup - whatever it was, it was gorgeous.

Finally, we ordered a single espresso coffee which arrived with a small biscuit.

Single espresso coffee with biscuit.

Perfect.

When prompted, they brought along a dessert with happy birthday writtEnd in chocolate. Two members of staff sang happy birthday.

Happy Birthday cake with candle at the Tanglin Club's Churchill Room. Photo by Angela Lansbury.


Useful Websites
singaporeair.com
https://www.tanglinclub.org.sg

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Tash Turkish Restaurant Review And Photos

More about T a s h Restaurant (Autocorrect turned T a s h into last!)
A fuller review of this restaurant is in the previous post.

Problem
Restaurant menus are full of unfamiliar terms.

Answer
Check menus online in advance, check with translate and ask at the restaurant.

Story
The last thing I did before I left was ask what Tash meant. I had assumed it was somebody's name. No. Tash means stone. The owner, I presume, he could have been the manager, proudly showed me the stone with hot coals behind glass in the cooking area which is right in front of you. That's reassuring if you always wonder what staff are actually doing to your food. The chef looks pretty happy.

He was cooking the flat bread and the 'kebab'. I have referred to kebab because that's what I and most diners in the UK already know from the many ethnic restaurants in London and around the UK. It's called what looks like cop on the menu. The menu is all translated, no problem.

Still to try and do?
The toilets. Ask who owns the place and if the chatty man we met was the owner or manager.
One thing on the menu I wanted to try was the root vegetable drink. I think it was turnip. They said it was not available and all year only one person other than me had asked for it so they were going to remove it from the menu. Please go in and ask for it! I want to try it. Why? Novelty. Extra healthy option.

It's not Michelin but it's an excellent lunch place. Our bill was about £74 for four without tipping. That included mixed cold hors d'oeuvres for four. The hot or mixed hot and cold hors d'ouvres is lightly more expensive. We had enough food to take some home.

Tips
Prices
If you want a quick, cheap lunch, there's the one course and a drink on the Lunch Express menu. The price for that in January 2017 was £7.50.

1 Check and ask if you want your yogurt drink sweet, salty or neither. Mine was salty and I didn't like it. My companion thought it was OK. Some people would like a salty yogurt drink with a savoury dish, but I am used to sweet lassi and mango lassi in Indian restaurants and want to limit my salt intake.
2 Check the drinks menu for the coffees and teas on offer. Three of us had Turkish coffee - after my experience with the yogurt I thought to ask for it without sugar. Another alternative to Turkish coffee is mint tea made with fresh mint.
When you type in the name of this place autocorrect turns T A S H into C A S H.
3 Get your leftovers wrapped up to takeaway. Makes another meal and saves you time and money.

If you have had cancer in the family and fuss about food blackened from a grill, which the cancer websites tell you to avoid no trouble cutting off the edges of a chicken kebab, large chunks. I was with three other health freaks, yet I was the only one who wanted to do this.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please read my other posts and more blogs on restaurants, restaurant etiquette, travel, spelling, languages, and more, on blogger.com, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, PinIt, LinkedIn, videos of me on Youtube (to get me rather than the Actress you may have to type in author or poet and look for my picture or the cover of one of my books. My books are on Amazon.com and Lulu.com Do take a look. You can buy them online. If you meet me I'll sign one for you, with an amusing couplet made up to fit your interests or name. Please follow my posts and like and share.
(Photos being added to this post shortly.)

Tash Turkish Restaurant in Stanmore for Fast Service and Large Helpings

Problem
Where to go with our fussy friends for lunch, reasonably priced, not too pretentious, healthy, interesting, ethnic. Somewhere new. Not the old favourites where we eat at so often. (B and K in Hatch End.)

Answer
We drove up and down Stanmore and Edgware looking at restaurants. What about this one? What about that one? This place was too expensive. That place was too cheap. Tash looked just right. At least it was new to us.

We tried to book on the phone but they said lunch time midweek, not necessary, no problem getting a table.

We managed to park on a meter right outside. Another big car park where you pay is behind the shops.

Our friends were already seated in the back room. But we were immediately offered a better seat in the brighter front room at a table which had come free, by the manager or owner. I didn't have time to find out which he was, because we were too busy talking to each other, catching up on a year's news, to add a fifth to the already overcrowded conversational competition.

The back room has walls decorated with enough items to keep you entertained for hours, plus changing coloured lights.

On our table in the front room was a small bust of a famous Persian hero.

We started with a plate of mixed hors d'oeuvres, hummus and taramasalata. You find the same in restaurants all around the mediterranean sea, Greece, Turkey and Israel, all of which I visited long ago as a student in a clockwise tour.

Our main courses were moussaka, lamb or vegetarian, and chicken shish kebab with rice. After the plentiful starter larger enough for a snack lunch, the huge main course was so large that we immediately divided our in half and later asked for two portions to be wrapped up to go home.

I had ordered a yogurt drink. It came up salty, to match the savoury main course. This was a surprise. In Indian restaurants I have sweet lassi.

The dessert of baklava was excellent.

Our meal ended with Turkish coffee.

More photos in next post.

Tip
If ordering yogurt check whether it will be salty and if you want sweet or neither salt nor sugar tell them.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
See my profiles and posts - more blogs on blogger.com, also Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn. Please follow me, like my pages and share. Send me feedback if there is anywhere you'd like me to visit and review, London, Europe, Singapore, worldwide.

Greek Delight - Greek Restaurant, Mosfilo, For Great Lemon Chicken in Hatch End

If you want a jolly night out, large filling portions and friendly staff, Mosfilo is a good place to go. Of the four of us (two couples) who dined there at the weekend, three of us had already checked out the website and chosen our preferred food and wine.

I had checked in advance for several reasons. I don't want to be missing conversation whilst checking the menu, nor keeping people waiting to order whilst I read every word on every page. Nor do I want to be rushed to choose and missing out on the daily special or some unusual dish I had not noticed.

Website Wine and Drink Choices
I also want to know the desserts and dessert wines, and all the wines available by the glass, the sparking wine such as Prosecco, the rose wine, the dessert wine to go with dessert, before I commit to sharing a bottle of red or white, or bing rushed into a glass of white when I could have tried a cocktail.

Picking Prosecco and Price
I want to know whether I can have a glass of Prosecco. I also like to know prices. In some places a double espresso is twice the price as well as twice the calories, and the kir royale doubles the price of a kir, or a bottle of wine is good value compared to the individual glasses. At other places you see really interesting wines, and would like a glass, because nobody else wants that style or is willing to pay the price of a bottle. Yet at other restaurants you can have a double espresso instead of a single for hardly any more money. Bag a bargain.

Mosfilo's Menu
Browsing Mosfilo's menu page in advance, I spotted that I could have a reasonably priced sweet dessert wine, and / or glass of Prosecco. A glass of rose sparkling was at no higher price than alternative drinks. I noted a couple of cocktails, - if I'd allowed more time I could have checked the ingredients. Lastly, as an alternative to the usual varieties of tea or coffee, you could have a mint tea.

I also looked at the desserts. I could cut down on a starter, or not finish my main course, to leave tummy room and time to enjoy a dessert. I could go Greek, and try their baklava. I do like nuts and syrup, and any kind of pastry, and baklava is my favourite. Alternatively, I could stick to cheesecake. But it's harder for me to find baklava than cheesecake, so my choice would be baklava.

Lemon Chicken
I ordered the lemon chicken and it was wonderful. I haven't had a real lemon chicken for years. This was lemon juice, I presume in butter, with real lemon on the side. It came with risotto which was perfect for smoking up the flavour. So many restaurants, especially Chinese ones, serve strips of chicken in batter, and a glooey, gelatinous gravy (which I had recently in Hong Kong, even in high class and high price restaurants. I was really pleased with my lemon chicken.

Now I come to think of it, surely I, or we, could make lemon chicken at home. How hard can it be. Lemon juice and butter. But do you have to avoid lemon juice curdling the butter. I asked the best cook in my family. He said that butter is just fat. It is solid. Only milk curdles. We'll try it, inspired by the success of the lemon chicken in Mosfilo.

(Yes, you can buy both cheesecake and baklava in many London supermarkets, and other supermarkets worldwide.)

Wine from Greece, N a o u s s a - sorry the autocorrect kept changing this to Naomi, but that's a good reminder of how to remember the name. N a o u s s i is the top region of Greek wine. We had a bottle of red. The grape is Xinomavro not to be confused with the Mavro grape from Cyprus.

The bottle was from 2010, a good year in Europe. Vintage is not so important in warm countries where they get ripeness every year, sometimes a long season, usually with long days, further south. All four of us drank it, not in equal measures (with one driver), but we finished the bottle and all were happy with it.

The Mosfilo menu told me something else new. I knew they were connected to Sea Pebbles, a Favourite in the centre of Hatch End for years. But the owners also have a connection, a half share they said, in Orama just along the road in the other direction from Sea Pebbles.

We had booked a table. We were shown to a table at the front near two large groups. Why are large groups noisy? Is it because they are having a good time? Celebrating special occasions? Shouting over each other? Have had lots to drink? Know people at the other end of the table and want to share jokes and joy with others further along? Apart from the noise, a smaller group tends to feel short of friends. No problem in changing tables.

We moved to a table at the back, away from two larger parties. The decor reflects noise. Once we were at the back it was much better. You would not have noise if you went on a quieter weekday at lunch time. But if you like a crowd and conviviality, a busier Saturday night would be just right.

Finally, when the time came to pay our bill, we were given a cube of Greek delight. The pink one has s subtle rose flavour.

Mosfilo, Greek Kouzina, 308 Uxbridge Road, Hatch End, Middlesex HA5 4HR
tel: 020 8421 6821
www.mosfilo.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer sand photographer, author and speaker.