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Year: 2017

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Blog Lebanese Food

6 Traditional Lebanese Dishes From Our Menu You need To Try

Lebanese cuisine has a long and colourful history. Fresh and delicious, using vibrant ingredients and age-old techniques, it is diverse, with a range of iconic sweet and savoury dishes that every food lover should try.

Here at Manoosh we bring the Middle East to the Inner West, offering a traditional Lebanese experience unlike any other. If you haven’t eaten Lebanese food yet, you are missing out. Here are 6 dishes from our menu that you absolutely have to try.

Lebanese dishes
Lahembajin – photo by B-Kyu

Lebanese food is absolutely delicious, and if you haven’t tried it yet, you are missing out. Here are 6 traditional Lebanese dishes from our menu that you need to try.

Sambousik

Sambousik is a small pastry filled with either meat and/or cheese. In Lebanon, lamb is a traditional choice, and cheeses can range from haloumi to feta. Onions, herbs and spices add more flavour while pine nuts impart a deliciously nutty texture and taste. These popular pastries can be either baked or fried and you’ll often find them on a classic Lebanese mezze spread.

Sujuk Pizza

Sujuk is spiced Lebanese sausage that is somewhat similar to salami, with its three main characteristics being that it is salty, dry and has a high fat content. It is traditionally made using ground beef (though mutton and pork are also used) combined with spices such as garlic, salt, cumin, sumac and red pepper before being piped into a sausage casing.

Our folded sujuk pizza is packed with cheese, sujuk, olives, capsicum and tomato. Yum.

Shawarma

Shawarma is the Lebanese variant of a Turkish kebab or Greek gyros. It is made from marinated meat that has been slow roasted on a vertical spit for many hours. Once cooked, the meat is carved off in thin, wide strips and stuffed inside a flatbread along with a variety of vegetables, such as lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, onion, pickles and parsley. Condiments can range from garlic yoghurt to hummus to chilli.

Our shawarma is filled with juicy beef fillets, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles & parsley topped with our garlic yoghurt sauce.

Lebanese dishes
An assortment of kebbeh – photo by MilkTea Eats

Lahembajin

Lahembajin is made from flat bread topped with a mixture of ground meat, vegetables and herbs and baked in a wood fired oven.

The meat is commonly lamb or beef, the vegetables are usually onion, capsicum and tomato, and herbs can include parsley, mint and coriander. Just add a squirt of lemon, fold it up, and you have one mouth watering snack.

Kebbeh

Kebbeh is another Lebanese classic you will usually find as a part of a mezze spread. It is made from finely ground meat, onion, herbs and spices, combined with burghul (cracked wheat) and rolled into balls then deep fried to golden perfection.

There are even vegetarian versions of kebbeh made with hearty vegetables that hold their shape, such as potato or pumpkin, replacing the meat. Served with fresh hommus or a yoghurt sauce with garlic and mint, they are a delicious snack.

Za’atar Flatbread

Manoosh have some of the best za’atar bread in Sydney! This traditional dish, known as man’oushe or Lebanese pizza, is simple but delicious, featuring baked flatbread topped with olive oil and zaa’tar – a tangy mixture of herbs and spices, namely ground thyme, sesame seeds and sumac.

If you’re on the hunt for authentic Lebanese dishes in Sydney then look no further than Manoosh. Stop by Manoosh or order online – we guarantee you will be glad that you did. Or if you’re after top quality mobile pizza catering, give us a call.

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Blog Pizza

The Way You Eat Pizza Says Loads About Your Personality, According To Body Language Expert

We’re all for diversity here at Manoosh. You’ll find something on our menu no matter what you like to eat, from classic pizzas to, traditional Lebanese food, heaps of vegan and vegetarian options, salads and desserts.

We also have observed over the years that everyone has their own way of eating pizza – some like to fold it and tuck in, others like to eat it with a knife and fork, and there’s those who do things a little different (say, eat the crust first).

The way you like to eat your pizza says loads about your personality, according to body language expert Patti Wood. Which personality type are you?

But did you know that the way you eat your pizza says a lot about your personality? At least, it does according to Patti Wood, a human behaviour expert who teaches at Emory University in the USA (and who the Washington Post has dubbed the “Gold Standard of Body Language Experts”).

According to Wood, “everything you do—and the way you do it—comes together to form a story about yourself,” including the way you tackle a slice of delicious Manoosh on a Saturday night.

She says there are four key character traits that can be identified by your body language, and the way you move and interact: are you a driver, an influencer, a supporter, or a careful corrector?

According to Munchies, the adherence to these behaviour traits is based on the DISC theory of American psychologist William Moulton Marston, which focuses on on dominance, inducement, submission, and compliance.

Cosmopolitan asked Wood to apply this critical approach to the way the people eat pizza. Here’s what she found.

If you tend to fold your pizza before getting stuck in, you are a “driver”, meaning you like to take charge, don’t like to mess around or “waste time”, and don’t necessarily care about following the rules, because for you, “being the best is top priority.”

If you like to eat the crust first, you are an “influencer”, meaning you “like to be dramatic, often talk loudly, and love getting attention through your actions.” You’re a trend setter, and are often to first to say something is cool before the rest of the world does.

If you like to eat it with a knife and fork, Wood says you are a “supporter”, meaning you are steady and stable, the kind of friend everyone needs in their life. You are “system-oriented”, “loyal, reliable, and resilient. And you make great party host!

Lastly, if you like to straight up bite it, you are a “careful corrector”, meaning you are a bit of a perfectionists who “like[s] to go with what you know works so you’re certain to get it right every time.” Wood says you’re also not one to take eating pizza lightly.

So, which one are you? Why don’t you drop by Manoosh or order from us online to find out. We guarantee you won’t be disappointed by our delicious range of pizzas, Lebanese food, desserts and more!

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Blog Lebanese Food

What Are The Health Benefits of Falafel?

Falafel is a cultural icon in Lebanon. While there are many who can make a tasty falafel, few can match the fresh, healthy and authentic Lebanese version made from chick peas which are soaked, ground and mixed with spices, such as cumin, chilli, garlic and coriander, then deep friend to golden brown perfection.

is falafel healthy

We all know that falafel is absolutely delicious, but did you know it’s also super healthy? Let’s take a look at some of the health benefits of these golden brown balls of perfection.

Aside from being a delicious snack, falafel is very good for you, though it might be hard to believe how something so delicious can be healthy. To convince you, let’s take a look at the health benefits of falafel.

High In Fibre and Protein

Like other legumes, like lentils and beans, chick peas are high in fibre and protein, both of which have a multitude of health benefits including good heart health, muscle repair and development, weight management, digestive health and more.

Loaded With Vitamins and Minerals

Chickpeas are loaded with a range of vitamins and minerals crucial for heathy bodily function including calcium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, folate, potassium, B vitamins and magnesium.

Low in Calories

Compared to other fried goodies, falafel is very low in calories. Similar dishes, such as shawarma or doner kebabs all contain high calorie meats, whereas the chickpeas that falafel is made from offer a much lower calorie count.

Rich In Healthy Fats

Falafel is rich in what are known as “healthy fats” and does not contain any trans fats or saturated fats, which are two of the biggest contributors to high cholesterol.

Good For Blood Sugar Levels 

Foods that are rich in fibre also help control your blood sugar levels. Fibre slows down digestion, and lets sugar transfer slowly from your digestive tract into your bloodstream. This means there is no sugar “high” after eating falafel, and no fatigue or irritation from a blood sugar crash.

Low In Salt

Falafel is low in sodium. And maintaining a low-sodium dietary intake is essential for maintaining a low blood pressure.

While there are many who can make a tasty falafel, few can match the fresh, healthy and authentic Lebanese version. If you have fallen for falafel and are looking to indulge your newfound love, stop by Manoosh or order online, we’d be happy to prepare this delicious and healthy Lebanese food for you!

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Have You Indulged in Halawa Yet?

Halawa is a blanket term for a variety of dense, sweet desserts from the Middle East, Mediterranean, eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Derived from the Arabic word for sweet confection or “sweetmeat”, many cultures have their own take on halwa, as well as their own spellings – you may know it as helva, halva, halvah, halwa, halawi. Nonethless, they all mean the same thing: a damn delicious dessert.

Halawa
Our take on halawa: sweet tahini, pistachios and banana enclosed in puff pastry via Insatiable Munchies

Have you indulged in halawa yet? A blanket term for a variety of dense, sweet desserts, you’re bound to get a damn delicious dessert.

A Little History

According to some sources, the first known recipe for halawa can be traced back to the Arabic Kitab al-Tabikh  – “The Book of Dishes” – which detailed several different variations. This was around the 13th century – a time during which similar dishes were being created in Spain. One in particular, found in a Spanish cookbook, was made with candy made from boiled sugar, honey, sesame oil and flour, rosewater, and ground pistachios.

Over the next few hundred years, the dish proliferated throughout the Middle East, Central Asia, eastern Europe and Mediterranean, with each region putting their own spin on it. Egyptians favoured pistachios, almonds or pine nuts, while Indians put in ghee, coconuts and dates.

One particular variation, created by chefs working for the Ottoman Empire’s longest- reigning sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566), was made with tahini. And this is the kind that made its way to America and beyond in the early 20th century.

Healthy Halawa

As a confectionary, halawa is actually quite healthy, with a range of benefits for your body. The sesame seeds used to make tahini in halawa are nutritious – high in protein, vitamins and minerals – and have similar immune-boosting, cardiovascular-protective properties to other superfoods like olive oil and walnuts. Tahini is also gluten-free and paleo-friendly! You can read more about the health benefits of tahini here.

There is no better way to top off a great meal than with a tasty dessert and once you have tried Lebanese sweets you will never go back.

Our twist on halawa features a delicious blend of sweet tahini, pistachios and banana enclosed in puff pastry. You can even add vegan chocolate!

If you’d like to try the best baklavas and halawa in Sydney, simply drop by Manoosh or order from us online.

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Blog Pizza

This Costume Designer Made a Pizza Dress Fit For a Queen

If you’ve always wanted to wear a pizza to a formal event like a graduation ceremony or wedding, your dreams are about to come true.

Pizza Dress

Cosplay costume designer Olivia Mears has made her most ingenious creation yet: a pizza dress fit for a queen.

Following up her ‘Taco Belle’ dress that made waves when it made its debut appearance on Instagram last year, outlandish American costume designer Olivia Mears has created a pizza-inspired dress. And it’s every bit as magical as you’d expect.

The dress features some standard pizza toppings – cheese, pepperoni, capsicum – and is made from pizza boxes, foam and hand-painted fabrics. She even made a throne out of pizza boxes to go with it.

Have a look below:

Mears even won an award for her creation!

If all this pizza talk is making you hungry, why not drop into Manoosh for slice or ten.  Drop by Manoosh. Or if you’re after delivery or top quality mobile pizza catering, give us a call.

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Blog Pizza

A Study Says Pizza Can Make You More Productive at Work

If you’re in the habit of slurping down three or four coffees a day and taking an ice cold shower every morning just to get into gear and stay focused at your job, there may be an alternative solution: a study has suggested that the prospect of a delicious cheesy pizza can make you more productive in the workplace.

Pizza
Photo: Eatventures

A study has suggested that the prospect of a delicious cheesy pizza is a better motivator in the workplace than a cash bonus.

The study, led by psychologist Dan Ariely and published in his book Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations, examined employees who assembled computer chips at an Intel factory in Israel  – in particular, the motivations that made them work harder.

The subjects were given three messages at the start of the week, each containing a different incentive for completing daily tasks: a small cash bonus (about $40), a compliment from their boss, and pizza (about a quarter received no message at all, thus serving as the study’s control group).

Right off the bat, the prospect of free pizza proved to be a powerful motivator, with productivity up by 6.7 percent over the control group. Those with the promise of a compliment increased their productivity by 6.6 percent. And surprisingly, the cash bonus increased productivity by just 4.9 percent in comparison to the control group.

Over the course of the week pizza continue to prove a strong motivator, and despite dropping to closer the baseline set by the control group, came out a close second to compliments as the mos powerful incentive.

However, as The Cut notes, Ariely believes pizza would have come first if his original plan for the it to be delivered to the workers’ homes had come to fruition. He says in the book: “This way […] we not only would give them a gift, but we would also make them heroes in the eyes of their families.”

Interestingly, the cash bonus ended up costing the company more money and resulted in a significant drop in productivity. Who can blame the workers though – we’d take a piping hot pizza over cold hard cash any day!

If you need a little motivation at work, drop by Manoosh today. Or if you’re after top quality mobile pizza catering, give us a call.

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Blog Pizza

What Is Vegan Pepperoni and How Does it Taste So Good?

Here at Manoosh, we strive to cater all people, no matter what their tastes or preferences for eating are. Our menu is packed with delicious options for meateaters, vegetarians and vegans alike, and we are proud to know everybody will find something they absolutely love on our menu.

vegan pepperoni

What exactly is vegan pepperoni and how does it taste so good? Let’s take a look at this delicious vegan alternative for this classic pizza topping. 

For vegetarians and vegans, options range from delicious salads, delectable dips, tasty wraps, and of course, our famous pizzas. We have a vegan cheese option for all of our pizzas. But for the full vegan pizza experience, you can’t go past our meat-free pepperoni.

We source our delicious vegan pepperoni from Daiya, a renowned vegan food producer who has been making delicious plant-based products since 2009. Their food is so delicious, sometimes its hard to tell the difference between it and “the real thing”. Daiya’s meatless pepperoni is made with their own special blend of mushroom, pea protein crumble, herbs and spices.

But what exactly is vegan pepperoni? How is it made and how does it taste so good?

What Is Vegan Pepperoni?

Rather than using animal derivatives, vegan pepperoni is made from plant-based products such as soy proteins, wheat glutens, tofu, legumes and vegetables. Different manufacturers use different bases to substitute the ‘meat element’ of real pepperoni, however, the result is usually the same: small, firm slices.

How Does It Taste So Good?

Just like real pepperoni, which is made from a mixture of cured pork and beef, all of the flavour comes from the seasoning. Pepperoni has a bold, spicy flavour, often with a slight smokiness and of course, that vibrant red colour. All of these elements come from natural herbs and spices, which, obviously, are vegan. And this is they key to how vegan pepperoni tastes so good.

The ingredients that make up the base of vegan pepperoni have a similar density to meat: firm but supple enough to absorb flavour and colour. Paprika is where it gets its vibrant redness from, as well as its subtle smokiness. Other herbs and spices often used in vegan pepperoni include salt, garlic powder, onion powder, red, black, chipotle and cayenne pepper, oregano and thyme.

Trust us and give our vegan pepperoni pizza a try. You’ll be hard pressed to tell the difference.

You don’t have to be a meat eater to enjoy eating at Manoosh, we firmly believe we offer the best vegan food Sydney has to offer and we love searching for new ways to cater for our vegan friends. If you’re feeling hungry – vegan or not – drop by Manoosh. Or if you’re after top quality mobile pizza catering, give us a call.

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The Evolution of the Humble Pizza Box

There’s nothing quite like eating a hot fresh pizza straight from the oven, unless it’s eating a fresh hot pizza from the comfort of your own bed. The advent of large-scale pizza delivery in the 1950s was a revolution for the way we consume food, and it would not have happened without the humble pizza box. But how did the pizza box come to be? Who invented it and what did people do before it became the norm for transporting pizza? Let’s take a look.

Spotify 5th birthday

We take a look at the evolution of the pizza box, from humble beginnings to the classic that we know and love today.

The Original Pizza Box

Containers for transporting freshly baked pizzas have been around since at least the 1800s. But before there was a pizza shop on every corner of every street in every city, bakers would put their pizzas multi-layered copper containers known as ‘stufe’ to be taken to street vendors. These stufe were aerated so steam could escape, which would stop the pizzas getting soggy. But they also kept the pizzas quite warm, as copper retains heat very well.

A Base and a Bag

Despite the relative efficiency of these crude pizza containers, stufe weren’t the most portable of things. As pizza really began to boom following WWII, more and more pizzerias started offering a takeaway option. How were these pizzas served? In a bag of course.

The pizza would sit on a piece of corrugated cardboard, which would act as an insulator to keep the base warm, and the whole thing would sit snugly in a paper bag, which still allowed steam to escape. This classic technique is still used today in some traditional pizzerias. And you will still find lots of pizza places around the world using corrugated cardboard in their pizza boxes.

A Step In The Right Direction

In the 50s, the popularity of pizza was reaching unprecedented heights – and bags don’t stack very well. Pizza makers began using thin paperboard bakery boxes to transport their pizzas, which were flimsy, but still offered more support than bags, and meant that multiple pizzas could be stacked and carried without the contents getting ruined.

Nonetheless, paperboard didn’t quite cut it when a pizza was left in for too long. The moisture would impact on the box’s structure, causing them to collapse too easily. So a new solution was sought.

The Father of the Modern Pizza Box

The development of the modern pizza box can be attributed to none other than Tom Monaghan, founder of a certain global pizza chain. Monaghan needed a way to efficiently transport pizza for his new pizza delivery services so he sought out a company to develop a corrugated cardboard box in the mid 1960s.

According to Monaghan’s autobiography Pizza Tiger, it was more difficult than anticipated to make a container that was scored properly for folding yet strong enough to hold its form. After a long development process with Detroit-based corrugated box company Triad Containers, they finally achieved success.

And so, the industry standard for the humble pizza box was born.

The pizza has remained much the same since the 1960s – why try and fix what isn’t broken? However, there have been some developments. Recently, Apple patented as design for their own pizza box, which is slated to be the ultimate in pizza transport technology. You can read all about it here.

Here at Manoosh, our delivery team are some of the best in the business, ensuring your pizza arrives hot and fresh every time.

If all this talk of delicious pizza is making you hungry, stop by Manoosh or order online. You won’t be disappointed.

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How the Ooshman is Keeping things Hot & Other News

Rumours bouncing around Manoosh HQ indicate that in addition to his amazing culinary proficiency and interior design wizardry, the Ooshman is also a accomplished engineer, and is currently working on a top secret project to engineer a new delivery box to keep all your favourite Manoosh menu items hotter for longer.

Not only does the Ooshman have otherworldly pizza making ability, he’s also a skilled engineer and is currently designing the future of pizza delivery boxes!

In other news, the Manoosh management team across both stores are performing incredibly to ensure all menu items are consistently excellent. Manoosh would like to thank management for all their hard work and continuing efforts to maintain consistency.

If all this talk of extra hot pizza delivery and consistently ambrosial pizzas is inducing uncontrollable bouts of drooling, why not drop by Manoosh or order online, and if you haven’t already, you can subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop.

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New Chicken Potato Crunch is a Big Hit

Chicken Potato Crunch

The Ooshman knows that many of his loyal customers have been laying awake at night feverishly pondering the future of their favourite new menu item… Well Manooshers, allay your worries and spread the joyous news! After a short trial period and a TON of positive feedback, the exquisite new Chicken Potato Crunch now has a permanent place on the Manoosh menu.

Chicken Potato Crunch

Due to popular demand, the magnificent new Chicken Potato Crunch now has a permanent place on the Manoosh menu!

Chicken Potato Crunch  | ½ Doz  |  $8 Doz $15
A delicious blend of shredded chicken, tomato, onion, parsley, garlic and spices encased in a crumbed potato dough

If all this talk of scrumptious chicken delights is causing you to voraciously lick your computer screen, why not drop by Manoosh or order online, and if you haven’t already, you can subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop.