Tarbush

Tarbush, a place I have been twice in this month. A friend and myself, came across it one night while we were walking around at Batu Feringghi. This restaurant it located just next to The Ship. From the main road you would not have guessed there is a makan place. The place is blocked by the small shops in front. But you can look out for this huge signboard. See pic above. There is a lot of car park for customers so don't worry if you cannot find a place to park.

Tarbush serves Arabic and Lebanese Delicacies. It is something different for me. In my first visit here, came here with my girlfriends. Since it was our first time here and we were not familiar with this kinda food, we took awhile to decide what to order. In the end, we had to get the waiter to recommend us what dishes to order. It was exciting to have that feeling of not knowing how it was gonna taste like. How did it go??? Well let's say we left the place feeling all satisfied with our bulging tummies. Food was good that I had to bring my parents over to try in the second trip. So below are what I have tried so far.

In chinese restaurants, you will get peanuts served on every table. Here at Tarbush, they will serve you Lebanese bread with pickles. But I should warn you about the pickles. They are EXTREMELY saltish. Please do not take the whole piece into your mouth. I warn you.

Pickles

Lebanese bread

Appetizers

First of was something that I had ordered for myself. It was called Labneh. What made me order this was because the word cottage cheese caught my attention. But when it was served, I was so disapointed. Not that it was bad, but maybe just not what I expected it to be. On the menu it wrote "Cottage cheese drained through cheesecloth until thick and creamy then topped with dry mint leaves, olives and olive oil." I was thinking to myself it was gonna be something cheesey, saltish and cheesey-licious. But instead it was so sour and not saltish at all. It tasted more like a creamed up plain sour yogurt mixed with olive oil. I was confused, so very confused, how can this be an appetizer? Perhaps if it was a dip then it would have made sense. Anyways I shall not complain further as this cuisine is new to me.

Next appetizer was called Falafel. Falafel were actually patties formed from chickpeas combined with spring onions. It was deep fried and served with a sauce called Tahina which tasted like plain yogurt. It went well with the Falafel. The taste of the Falafel reminded me of the Indian Vadai minus the strong spice taste to it. Perhaps imagine a milder taste of a Vadai.

Tahina Sauce

Soup
Addas
Had tried out 3 types of soup here. First of was their recommended soup called Addas. It was made from yellow lentil mixed with cumin and coriander. Taste wise, it was good. Rich and flavourfull in taste.

Lamb Soup
Had a strong lamb taste to it somewhat similiar to an Ox Tail soup. Perhaps spices used were about the same. A friend of mine said it tasted "curry-ish".


Oxtail Soup
It was lovely. Had nice chunks of meat in it and strong cumin taste.


Salad called Tabouleh
A friend who did some research about the place before coming, ordered this salad dish called Tabouleh. It was a bowl full of chopped up parsley, tomatoes, cucumber and a touch of lemon juice. It had a very raw green taste to it. Some of my friends enjoyed it but for me, it was "tak boleh" for me. I could only take half a spoon of it.

Drink called Lemon Na Na
This drink was something unique. It 's lemon juice mixed together with blended mint leaves. It was very refreshing indeed. A must try if you are a mint leaf person.

Main course
Some of the main courses are more of a meat dish and anothers come with rice and meat. So I would recommend to share your main course so as to enjoy more dishes together. May I remind you that the dishes here are quite big in servings especially those which comes with rice. So sharing is good.

So first of, their recommended Mixed Grill whereby you have 3 types of meat and a stuffed lebanese bread. The 3 meats were called Shish Tawook, Shish Kebab and Lamb Cubes. Shish Tawook was made from boneless chicken breast marinated and grilled. The meat was tender and well marinated. Shish kebab on the other hand was minced season lamb grilled and shaped like a thumb. Absolutely delicious. The lamb cubes, or rather lamb chops, were wonderfully marinated and grilled. So very tasty. Wished I had more of it. The lebanese bread on the other hand, was stuffed with some minced lamb meat. It was so so only. Served together with this Mixed Grill was an interesting sauce which they call it Garlic Sauce. Imagine whipped cream that has a garlic taste to it....oohh wonderfull. Went so well with the meats.

Garlic Sauce

Second dish was called Dawood Basha which had meat balls cooked with tomato gravy. This reminded me of meatballs in a bolognaise sauce.

Dawood Basha

Third dish was called Maklouba Lamb. This portion was huge. About 3 people could share the rice actually. It is said to be a famous Middle Eastern home cooked rice with eggplant and lamb chunks. Rice taste was alright but the lamb chunks were wonderfull. So very tender and tasty. Oh watch out for those peanuts on the rice too. It's nice and crispy.

Fourth dish was a kebab dish called Nashif. This was tried in my second visit here. It had a similiar taste with the Shish Kebab but it came served with tomato gravy. Tomato gravy was intensived with a lot tomato puree and had a touch of chilly to it.

Fifth dish was another kebab dish called Kebab Kash Kash. Could not differentiate the taste as it all tasted similiar to the other kebabs. Only difference here was that it was served with juicy grilled tomatoes. So actually all the lamb kebab dishes all tasted the same, it is just how it is served with.

Sixth dish, it was called Arayes Lamb. Reminds me of the Mexican Quesadillas. It had minced meat, onion and tomato stuffed in traditional grilled Lebanese bread. Not forgetting it had melted cheese inside too...REAL cheese. It was nice to eat it together with the kebab meat and the garlic sauce.

Briyani Rice
This was ordered as a side dish. Tasted like any Briyani rice would taste like.

Dessert
A good meal it not complete without some desserts. So this was what I tried.

Mahallabia.
The name of it does sound a bit funny since there is the word labia in it. Well anyways, if you like Jasmine smell and flavour, you would love this dessert. It is a creamy milk pudding garnished with chopped pistachio which had a strong Jasmine smell and taste to it. It tasted nice and creamy, but I could not stand the Jasmine smell. Sort of gave me a headache. My mum loved this, if she could, she would have licked up the whole bowl clean.

Baklawa
This is a traditional and not-to-miss Middle Eastern dessert which is made from pastry that is filled with nuts. Exteremely sweet I must say that I could not eat the whole piece up. The sweetness really goes shooting up to your head. I wonder how some people can eat this. If it was not so sweet, it would have been nice as there were alot of mashed up nuts in it.

Arabic Coffee
This was served uniquely in a pipelike instrument. Coffee was really think, strong and had a strong cumin taste. It was not so good to enjoy. But an interesting masak masak way of drinking your coffee.


Arabic Tea
Tea was put in a cute tea pot kettle like shape. Inside there was a tea bag and some mint leaves in the hot water.


So a good place to try out if you are looking for something different. Prices here are a bit pricey but portions are big so it can be worth paying. I for one would sure be coming back to this place again for more meaty dishes.

Restaurant Tarbush
Lot 413, Sek 1, Jln Batu Feringghi,
Bandar Batu Feringghi,
11100 Penang
Tel: 04-8852558

Amelie Cafe

Found a new food place along Armenian Street called Amelie Cafe. It is a few shops just before Eidelweiss. The place is adorable. From outside you would see a cute shop with lots of green plants nicely arranged with cute wooded signboards saying the time the shop is open and what they sell. Everything here has been recycled. When I first came here with my friend, we were like some girly girls going all gaga with the place. Everything about the place was so cute. See the pictures below to know what I mean.

This is the upstairs where there's more tables

Menu here is kept simple with simple breakfast meals and drinks. Then for a more heavier meal, they have their Today's Specials written on the wall. Another cute thing, they used the part of the wall repainted it into a blackboard. How cool is that.



Food here has its own signature way cooked and served. In my visit here last Saturday, we were the first customers to reach at 10 am. Below is what we had.


First of, as any basic breakfast there is always bread with butter and jam. This is called The Simple Toast. It comes with 2 slices of toasted Mix Grain Rye Bread served with the choice of spread (Butter, Kaya or Fruits Jam).


Or if you would like eggs with your bread, there is the Single Egg and Toast. It comes with 1 slice of toasted Mix Grain Rye Bread served with the choice of spread. (Butter, Kaya or Fruits Jam) and 1 egg of your choice. (soft boil, scramble or sunny side up. )



If you are more adventorous to try something out of the traditional butter and jam, they have their special toast called, Amelie Toast. It comes with 2 slices of toasted Mix Grain Rye Bread served with their special homemade Cinnamon Banana Yogurt. It is something unique. You have that banana taste and a slight yougurt taste to it. It is not sweet nor sour. And the cinnamon taste comes from the Cinnamon powder springkled on top.


Myself, I ordered the Focacia Tuna Sandwich which was on their today's special. I liked it alot. It was served with the focacia bread and tuna bits in it. But what gave a nice taste was that they had spread mayonaise and mustard on the tuna bits. So it had a salty, sour and herby taste in every bite you take.

Items that are on the Today's Special list is served throughout the day till 7pm. So on that day they had Roasted Honey Lemon Chicken, Aglia Olio pasta, Mexican Corn, Chocolate Almond Cake with ice cream and Portabello Mushroom Soup.

We tried out their Portabello Mushroom Soup and Chocolate Almond Cake. The Mushroom soup, well it was extremly thick with pureed mushrooms. It looked good, but taste wise, it was not up to what I expected it to taste. What I can say is that it was abit tasteless and all I could taste was the olive oil. Needs room for improvement here.



The Chocolate Almond cake was nice and chocolatey. It went nicely with the vanilla ice cream.

As for drinks, they have a page filled with drinks you can order. They have various coffee choices, tea, chocolate milk, fruit juice, soft drink beer and mineral water. We had ourselves caffe latte, hazelnut latte and hot mocha.

Hazelnut Latte

Coffee Latte

Ice Water in a jam bottle

Hot Mocha

I think this place would do well. The owner said that so far business has been picking up. They get alot of backpackers coming in. However recently slowly locals are starting to come. But one thing he said, if you plan to eat here, come here with no other appointments to rush too. Reason is that he is a one man show to cooking everybody's orders. So it may take sometime for your meal to arrive. I would suggest, only come to this place when you are free and with good chit chatting company. You would just get lost with time in this cute lil place.

Amelie Cafe (Armenian Street)

Tel: 012-4967838

Open from 10 am to 7pm (close on Monday)