Zufa Lebanese Restaurant, Northwood Hills - make it a date!

Picture of date drink from Wikipedia.

Problem
What does a Lebanese restaurant serve? I need time to learn my way around the menu.

Answer
Go on to Zufa's website and you can read all about it. If you are not nearby, or can't wait, you can download their app and order online.

Starters include
Hot and Cold mezze
(A huge choice; a mixture of dishes)
Soups

Main course
FISH
Sea bass
King Prawns

MEAT OR CHEESEInclude chicken, kebabs, lamb, salad, cheese, rice, wraps.

Drinks
Dates drink - Jallab
Yogurt Drink - Aryan
Juices
Colas

Desserts
We'll start with the familiar:
Baklava. It says nuts, without specifying which nuts. Before ordering, I shall ask.

Blinis
Well, I know these. Russian and East European restaurants from the Middle East and more.

Miracle Cake
Belgian chocolate cake.

Useful Websites
orderdirectly.biz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jallab

Date drink
I already know what I want, the date drink. But I once went to a restaurant specially for a speciality and it was not in stock. So I shall check first and ask them to save one for me.
If they have a date drink, I'll definitely make it a date.

I think I'll make one at home first, then see how theirs compares, and what extra ingredients they have to enhance the flavour.

Zufa Lebanese Restaurant
1-3 Joel Street, Northwood Hills
HA6 INU
tel: 01923 840192
www.zufarestaurant.co.uk

Open Monday to Sunday from around noon until around 11 but check because I was confused between the restaurant opening times and the food ordering times and when I checked a second time they appear to have different opening times on different days of the week.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See previous post on Zufa restaurants in Northwood Hills and Hatch End. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Oops - I missed pancake day! Quick - where's the maple syrup?

Oh, dear, I missed pancake day. I'm supposed to be on a diet and this would have allowed me to eat pancakes. I love pancakes, especially with maple syrup. One hundred percent pure Buckwud Canadian maple syrup. Yummy.

In England traditionally we would eat maple syrup with strawberry jam or lemon and sugar or lemon and honey. Countries all over the world eat pancakes. The French have large thin pancakes with Grand M a r n i e r (spell check keeps inserting Mariner) served around Mont St Michel. The Americans eat tiny round thick pancakes, like the slice off the top of a muffin.

The Russians have pancakes with savouries, as do many European countries. Blinis, with sour cream.
The Italians have cannelloni, a tube or spiral of pasta around spinach (Florentine) or meat in white sauce, with a white cheese sauce on top.

The Indians have pancakes, or sweet breads. Masala dosai with potato - my favourite.

The Chinese serve Peking Duck with shredded spring onion and soy sauce, wrapped in wafer thin savoury pancakes.

Pancakes, Shrove Tuesday, were originally a way of using up last year's flour before lent when you gave up eating goodies.

The basis, the origin, is supposed to be the Jewish festival of Passover, (Jesus's last supper), when matzoh or unleavened bread is eaten.

A Discovery Channel programme went through the ten plagues afflicting the Egyptians when Moses said, 'Let my people go'. The angel of the Lord passed over the houses of the slaves but the firstborn of the Egyptians died. Why? What was the mysterious illness and why did it affect the firstborn? How could so many have died or been poisoned in heavy guarded homes the slaves could not enter?

The answers were:
St Vitus's dance, is a widespread poisoning of wheat when it grows mould after a long rainy season. The cure is to clear out all the old wheat before the next harvest to ensure the new flour is not contaminated. The firstborn died because they were always treated to extra portions of food.

I gave up pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. I'm running late this year. Can I celebrate with pancakes at the weekend? For anybody who doesn't follow tradition, but just like celebrating seasonal customs, why not eat pancakes all week. The latest commercial idea is matching pancakes with wines. A sweet wine?

An amusing idea. But for those of us who eat pancakes for breakfast, and didn't' drink before the working day ends at six, it's just pancake with maple syrup. Delicious!

Useful websites
https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/buckwud-100-pure-canadian-maple-syrup/538317-197920-197921?gclid=Cj0KCQjwtOLVBRCZARIsADPLtJ1RnHSwL9f-5muxQySjmeGHzfhWDTVkjs42nH-ZAggT4sn6XKcCJAEaAuxcEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CN3rtdPMitoCFcmi7Qod_64JbA

https://www.facebook.com/buckwudmaplesyrup/

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