Rouj Modern Lebanese Restaurant

Last night I went to Rouj Modern Lebanese restaurant in Rosalie, for a birthday celebration for a friend.  When I left, I could feel my skirt and stomach had become best friends. 

Instead of ordering the banquet (I couldn't imagine eating anywhere near 4 courses, especially when I'd seen a photo of the birthday cake), we ordered 2 trios of dips for starters.  Really good pita bread, with dishes of hommus, babaganoush, and ... something else yummy.  Pretty vegetables sat alongside the dishes - slices of tomato and cucumber, gherkin, olives, pickled chilli, and something pink, which turned out to be pickled turnip.  The verdict from those who tasted it was that it was prettier than it was yummy. 

I ordered an eggplant kebab for a main, which came with my choice of salad (tabbouleh) and fries.  Really good fries. 

Birthday cake.  Mm, birthday cake.  At the appointed time, all the lights in the restaurant went out, and out came the cake-bearer as a modern rendition (with birthday girl's name) of Happy Birthday was played.  Sparklers, and a bonus baklava (with sparkler, too) made it rather exciting.  About 15 minutes after our cake, the scene was repeated for the table next to ours.

The decor was, I guess, upmarket cafe.  Nice light fixtures (if a bit low - every time we got up for something we had to hold one out of the way); a nice wall tapestry; comfy bench along a wall; tiled tables.  Apart from the quantity of food listed in the banquet, we could not as a group see how it would fit (even one course at a time) on the small tables.  We were a largish group, so space was a tad limited - my elbows kept knocking those of the friend next to me, until we decided to be traditional and use our hands...  Service was really good - knowledgeable staff, and although it was a busy night (full, as far as I could tell) they were on hand at the merest suggestion of a question.  My glass was filled whenever it was dipping below half-full, so they get my tick.  And even though it was a Saturday night in a swanky area and we were a large group, there was no problem in splitting the bill as some people (myself included) had to leave a little earlier than the rest. 

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

I very nearly made a chocolate truffle cake for yesterday's birthday get-together.  But I made that last year, so I looked through a couple of cookbooks to see if anything else caught my eye.  (The truffle cake is amazing...).  In the Women's Weekly Chocolate Cakes book I found this recipe for a chocolate buttermilk cake, and the only ingredients I needed to buy were buttermilk and chocolate.  Plus, this is a layer cake - possibly my first ever.  I'm quite happy with the result.  I'm also looking forward to being able to run again so I can fit into my clothes again.

Recipe:
180g butter, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups (330g) caster sugar
4 eggs, separated
3/4 cup (110g) self-raising flour
1/3 cup (35g) cocoa powder
3/4 cup (180mL) buttermilk
chocolate filling:
400g dark eating chocolate, melted
250g butter, melted
1/2 cup (85g) icing sugar mixture

Preheat oven to moderate.  Grease deep 20cm-round cake pan, line the base with baking paper.
Beat the butter, vanilla and sugar until light and fluffy; beat in egg yolks, one at a time, until just combined.  Stir in sifted dry ingredients and buttermilk.
Beat egg whites in a clean small bowl until soft peaks form; fold into cake mix in 2 batches.  Pour cake mix into prepared pan.  Bake in oven about 1 hour; cool in pan.
Make chocolate filling by combining the chocolate and butter in a medium bowl; stir in the sifted icing sugar.  Cool filling to room temperature, and beat with a wooden spoon until thick and spreadable.

Split cake into 3 layers.  Reserve about 1 cup of chocolate filling.  Place one cake layer onto serving plate, spread thinly with some of remaining filling; repeat layering with remaining cake layers and filling.  Spread reserved filling all over cake.  Refrigerate 3 hours before serving.

I made the cake on Friday - which made for a super-stress-free Saturday.  It did feel a little dry on Saturday though, but today moist again.  Weird.  And my icing is far more set than the picture in the book.  The whole thing was really hard to slice (all that icing...) but all that icing also makes it quite rich.  It apparently serves 8-10, and there were 8 people present.  I knew one wouldn't be having any and another would only have a tiny bit, but there was still a lot of leftover cake.  The thing about buttermilk though, is that it only comes in 600mL cartons.  So I still have just over 400mL of buttermilk... and a recipe for blueberry pancakes...and one for orange syrup cake... this could be dangerous.  I'm trying to find slightly more forgiving outfits for this week!

Today's photo:

Like yesterday, I ate breakfast in the armchair by the courtyard.  The basil grows right next to that part of window, and the light was shining through the leaves.  I wasn't sure how it would turn out, with a whole lot of backlight, but the result I rather like, better than I thought it would look.

Outfit #57 - Special Occasions

Outfit details:

Skirt and Jacket: Portmans.  Top: Dotti.  Stockings: Target.  Earrings: from Eumundi Markets.  Shoes: Hot Options.  (Top photo by Jeannie, who called out 'happy birthday!' before every photo - hence the big grin.  She also said I looked like Coco Chanel, but I'm not sure Coco would have worn the Nordic knit print stockings).

Today my brother played a solo lunchtime concert in St John's, so a few of us went in to listen.  Unfortunately he began the concert by having everyone sing me happy birthday.  Fortunately that was the only rendition I had to hear today.  While he was warming up, Jeannie and I had coffee (at Reception), and I took a photo of the beautiful counter mentioned in Monday's post.

Because I went to the concert, I only had 3 students to teach at school plus the string group, so I didn't take my violin.  This meant I could wear longer-than-normal earrings - these are just a tiny bit too long to wear when playing, they knock against the violin as my head moves.

Photos today are obviously from outside the cathedral.  Just before I took the earring photo I could see someone across the street taking a photo of the cathedral.  Then another, and another - cue small tour group.  Yippee.

Well, not the shoes.  Still not a huge fan of these shoes.  I like the height, and the shape of the front, but the block heel... meh.

So many photos today!  I think the top pic would be this:

When I was a kid (and, admittedly, on many occasions since leaving home), birthdays meant croissants for breakfast.  This morning I made my special breakfast of porridge with dark chocolate and marmalade.  Grating the chocolate inevitably produces some excess, which then goes on top of the coffee.  And, because I could, I had breakfast in bed.