Mecca Bah Restaurant Gold Coast

Kataifi is a popular Middle Eastern pastry made with a special form of shredded phyllo dough that is also called kataifi. The dough used to make kataifi is a thin dough made with wheat and water. This dough is then shredded into very thin strips.

Most forms of this pastry are sweets, typically with nuts and honey which make them flavorsome and crunchy. Some chefs also use the dough to make unique savory appetizers that may be made with ground meat or vegetables.

Here at Mecca Bah we serve our very own type of kataifi pastry dish using Middle Eastern cheeses. The shredded pastry is wrapped around a delicious mix of haloumi, mozzarella and feta cheeses, pine nuts, onion, coriander, parsley, mint and lemon zest. The kataifi balls are then baked in the oven and served warm.  It is a perfect sharing appetizer for a group of people that are looking to try something different and will always come highly recommended by the Mecca Bah staff.

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Turkish delight or Lokum is a tradional sweet based on a gel of starch and sugar. There are varieties that consist largely of chopped dates, pistachios and hazelnuts or walnuts bound by the gel; the more common ones are mostly gel, generally flavored with rosewater, mastic, or lemon. The confection is often packaged and eaten in small cubes dusted with icing sugar to prevent the pieces from sticking together. Other common flavors include cinnamon and mint.

The sweet as it is known today was invented by Bekir Effendi, who moved from his hometown Kastamonu to Istanbul and opened his confectionery shop in 1776.

Originally, honey and molasses were its sweeteners, and water and flour were the binding agents, with rosewater, lemon peel and bitter orange as the most common flavors (red, yellow and green). Lokum was introduced to Western Europe in the 19th century. An unknown Briton reputedly became very fond of the delicacy during his travels to Istanbul and purchased cases of it, to be shipped back to Britain under the name Turkish delight. It became a major delicacy in Britain and throughout Continental Europe for higher class society. During this time, it became a practice among upper class socialites to exchange pieces of Turkish delight wrapped in silk handkerchiefs as presents.

Mecca Bah serves traditional rose water flavored Turkish Delight. It can be enjoyed on its own as an after dinner sweet, in our Turkish Delight Chocolate Brownie or as a garnish on our signature Turkish Delight Martini.

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Turkish coffee is a method of preparing coffee to drink. Roasted and then finely ground coffee beans are boiled in a pot with sugar, and served in a cup where the grounds are allowed to settle.

Turkish coffee is normally prepared using a narrow-topped small boiling pot called a kanaka, a teaspoon and a heating apparatus. The ingredients are; very finely ground coffee, sugar and cold water. It is served in a small glass or ceramic cup. Some modern cups have handles; traditional cups did not, and coffee was drunk either by handling the cup with the fingertips or, more often, by placing the cup in a metal container with a handle. This container is called a Zarf.

Traditionally, the pot is made of copper and has a wooden handle, although other metals can be used. The size of the pot is chosen to be close to the total volume of the cups to be prepared, since using too large a pot causes much of the foam formed during heating to stick to the inside of it. The teaspoon is used both for stirring and measuring the amount of coffee and sugar.

A moderately low heat is used so that the coffee does not come to the boil too quickly as the beans need to be in hot water for long enough to extract the flavor. In a modern setting normal gas or electric heating is satisfactory. Traditional heating sources include the embers of a fire, or a tray about 10 cm deep filled with sand. The tray is placed on the burner. When the sand is hot, the coffee pot is placed in the sand. This allows a more even and gentle heat transfer than direct heat.

As with any other sort of coffee, the best Turkish coffee is made from freshly roasted beans, ground just before brewing.

The coffee and sugar are stirred until all coffee sinks and the sugar is dissolved. Following this, the spoon is removed and the pot is put on moderate heat; if too high, the coffee comes to the boil too quickly, without time to extract the flavor. No stirring is done beyond this point, as it would dissolve the foam.

Just as the coffee comes to the boil, the pot is removed from the heat. It is usually kept off the heat for a short time, then brought to boil a second and a third time, then the coffee is poured into the cups.

Getting the thickest possible layer of foam is considered the peak of the coffee maker’s art. One way to maximise this is to pour slowly and try to lift the pot higher and higher as the pouring continues. Regardless of these techniques, getting the same amount of foam into all cups is hard to achieve, and the cup with the most foam is considered the best of the lot.

A well-prepared Turkish coffee has a thick foam at the top and does not contain noticeable particles in the foam or the liquid.

Turkish coffee is taken at extremely hot temperatures and is usually served with a glass of cold water to freshen the mouth to better taste the coffee. All of the coffee in the pot is poured into cups, but not all of it is drunk. The thick layer of sludgy grounds at the bottom of the cup is left behind.

Fortune-telling

The grounds left after drinking Turkish coffee can be used for fortune telling. The cup is commonly turned over into the saucer to cool, and then the patterns of the coffee grounds can be used for a method of fortune telling known as tasseography

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The most common question the staff at Mecca Bah are asked is: “What’s a Tagine?”

A tagine, pronounced tah-sheen, is a Berber dish from North Africa that is named after the earthenware pot it is cooked in. A traditional tagine is made of heavy clay, which can be painted or glazed. It has a base that is flat and round with low sides and a large cone shaped lid that sits over the base during cooking. This cone shaped lid is designed so, that when the steam forms in the peak of the cone all condensation returns to the bottom of the dish, rather than falling onto the meat or vegetables on top. The cover is removed when the dish is ready to be served. All our tagine dishes at Mecca Bah are served with the conical shaped lid still on. This lid is removed at the table once it has been presented to the guest.

In traditional Moroccan cuisine, tagines are slow cooked stews, braised at low temperatures, resulting in tender meat with aromatic vegetables and sauce. Spices such as cinnamon, saffron, ginger, turmeric, cumin, paprika and pepper are added to tagines to create flavor. These flavors mixed with a medley of ingredients such as olives, quinces, apples, pears, apricots, raisins, nuts and prunes. Combined with fresh or preserved lemon and a dash of honey, these spices and ingredients form a delicious stew in which the tender meat will continue to simmer as it is eaten form the hot, clay dish.

At Mecca Bah we are passionate about replicating the traditional Moroccan flavor as best we can. We serve five types of tagine: lamb, chicken, vegetable, mussel and kofte tagines. All these tagines are cooked in aromatic, flavorsome, traditional sauces and come with cous cous. The staff at Mecca Bah are more than happy to answer any questions you might have about tagines and will gladly recommend any dishes that they feel are a must have part of your Mecca Bah experience.

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