Week 10 - Middle East

For the Middle East challenge, I made a three part meal. The first recipe I had stumbled on was from Saveur for makhlama lahm, Iraqi eggs with lamb and tomatoes. That sounded like it would be good over rice, so I searched Iraqi rice on Google and found a recipe for timman. Finally, to round it out, I was intrigued by a recipe for quinoa salad from a falafel restaurant upstate, so that sounded like the perfect side dish. All of these would, of course, be adapted for what we had/could find in our shopping.

Iraqi Eggs with Meat Sauce

The biggest difference between our version of this and the original recipe is that I substituted ground turkey for the lamb since I try not to cook red meat at home. The recipe also referred to "bahar asfar," yellow curry powder, and since I couldn't find any packages with that name (even at Kalustyan's!), I'm not sure if the curry powder we used had everything in it that was intended.

The ingredients we used were:

- olive oil ($0.20)
- 1 lb of ground turkey ($4.30)
- 1 onion, finely chopped ($0.50)
- 1/2 batch of parsley, finely chopped ($0.90)
- 2 vine ripened tomatoes, roughly chopped ($1.15)
- salt and pepper ($0.05)
- a few tsp of curry powder ($0.75)
- 4 eggs ($0.40)

The steps for making this portion of dinner were:

1. Heat olive oil in large skillet and preheat oven to 400 degrees. Add ground turkey and cook until browned, breaking up the meat as it cooks.

2. Add onion and cook until soft.

3. Add tomatoes, half of the chopped parsley, curry powder, salt and pepper, and cook until tomatoes are soft. Season to taste.

4. Grease baking pan and move turkey mixture to baking pan. Create 4 wells in the pan and drop each egg into a well. Cook until eggs are set. (Recipe suggested 7 minutes, but they weren't quite done yet. We let them go too long after that though, so I'm not sure of the exact right time to get them to be soft baked.)

5. Garnish with remaining parsley.

This tasted really healthy and after having it, I thought that we probably didn't need the rice as it wasn't really greasy or full of liquid that a starch would need to soak up. It was fine with the eggs (although probably better if we hadn't baked it as long), but I think the turkey mixture on its own, maybe with more curry powder, would be good on top of rice as a complete meal, maybe also with some more vegetables mixed in. I'll have to try that soon.

Quinoa Salad

We stuck a little more closely to the recipe on this one, other than increasing the amounts of fresh vegetables and using canned chickpeas. There was only so much space on the stove and only so much time to make dinner (which still took the two of us two hours doing it together).

The ingredients for our version of the quinoa salad were:

- 1 cup of quinoa ($1.33)
- 2 vine ripened tomatoes, chopped ($1.14)
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped ($0.99)
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped ($0.89)
- 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed ($0.75)
- 5 green onions, chopped ($0.65)
- salt and pepper ($0.05)
- about 3 tsp sumac ($0.50)
- 1/4 cup lemon juice (about 3 small lemons) ($0.64)
- 1/2 cup olive oil ($0.75)

The process for making the salad was pretty easy. The steps were:

1. Prepare quinoa according to package instructions.

2. Move quinoa to large bowl to cool. Add tomatoes, green pepper, red pepper, chickpeas, and green onions. Mix well together.

3. In separate bowl, mix the dressing - salt, pepper, sumac, lemon juice, olive oil.

4. Mix dressing into salad and season to taste.

This was probably my favorite part of dinner. It was so fresh and healthy, and the dressing was great with all that sumac and freshly squeezed lemon juice. I could definitely see us making this again. It was pretty simple to make and would have been even easier if we hadn't been doing so many other things at the same time.

Timman

This was really just basmati rice cooked in chicken stock, but I wanted to try following the original recipe here for the different method of preparing the rice. I was wondering if it would indeed produce different results from just cooking the rice according to the package instructions. I was originally going to leave out the pine nuts and probably could have, as they didn't add that much.

The method of making this rice was to heat some olive oil and butter in the pot, add the rice and stir it around for a few minutes over high heat, and then add a few cups of chicken stock (1:3 rice to stock ratio). The rice was then cooked over medium low, simmering for 15 minutes covered tightly. After fluffing the rice after those 15 minutes, we turned off the burner and just let the pot of rice sit near where the heat escapes the oven (since it was already on for the eggs). At this point, you're supposed to put paper towels over the top and around the rim of the pot, and then re-cover it tightly for at least 25 more minutes.

We had never really tried making the rice using this "towel method" before, but I imagined that it was supposed to result in fluffier, softer rice. It did, although I didn't think it was dramatically different from making the rice our regular way and skipping that step. It does seem to be a good thing to do though if you're making a bunch of other dishes and aren't sure how long the rice is going to be sitting around waiting, as it keeps the texture nice and fluffy.

Concluding Thoughts

Overall, this was a tasty, healthy Middle Eastern meal, although we ate way too much of it late at night. The cost for the entire meal was about $16.94, which seems like a lot, but there was some salad leftover, as well as a bowl of rice with turkey topping for lunch. I was really glad that I had A's help to make this or otherwise it might have taken another hour as I went back and forth from recipe to recipe. It was a bit ambitious as far as amount of work for a Monday night, and I think if we were to incorporate any of these into our rotation, it would be the quinoa salad or the turkey skillet - separately.

Sahara

After driving through the majority of Pennsylvania and Ohio, we stopped in Maumee, Ohio (a suburb of Toledo) for the night. We had eaten a lot of junk on the road between our McDonald's lunch and the giant bag of onion rings, so we definitely wanted to eat something fresh and healthy for dinner. We weren't tremendously hungry after the onion rings, but the nearby places we found in Maumee weren't open super late so we had to eat soon after arriving. Luckily the place we chose, a Mediterranean restaurant called Sahara, had half orders for all the entrees, which was perfect for how we were feeling.

The first thing to arrive was a complimentary basket with a small bag of fresh pita and some fried pita chips. We tried some of the chips, but didn't eat too many of them since we were really more in the mood for healthy, clean stuff. They were pretty good, but we might have eaten more of them if they had come with some sort of sauce, like a Mediterranean style chips and salsa.

The next dishes to arrive were salads. Both of our entrees came with side order choices, and we both chose salad. We were expecting something on the boring side, mostly lettuce, since it was just a side order, but we were pleasantly surprised when what came was a big plate of salad with romaine, tomato, red onion, green peppers, cucumbers, and vinaigrette dressing. This was exactly what we were looking for after a day on the road, and the salad was very good, very fresh, and well-dressed with a simple olive oil and lemon dressing.

M chose a half order of the chicken shawarma ($10.95), described on the menu as "charbroiled chicken strips marinated and served over rice with garlic sauce," and also served with one side (she chose the salad). M wasn't sure what the garlic sauce was going to be, thinking it was just going to be some sauce drizzled over the rice, but was pretty happy when she saw what it actually was - toum. As a garlic lover, she had always loved toum, that thick, creamy garlic whip, and was pretty excited to see that on the plate. The chicken was pretty good, not too dry, the rice was buttery and soft, and the garlic sauce was full of strong, delicious garlic flavor. The entire dish felt so healthy, and it was exactly what she wanted out of dinner.

A got a half order of the hummos with meat ($12.95), which had meat options of gyro, beef or chicken saute, and he chose the gyro. His half order also came with a choice of 2 sides, so he got the salad and rice. This type of dish is the type of thing A really likes. The combination of meat and hummos always seems to hit the spot for him, and this was no different. The saltiness of the meat combined with the nutty creaminess of the hummos paired together perfectly. It was heavier than what M got, and A ended up using some of the aforementioned pita to wipe up the remaining hummos, but it was still a healthy dish. The rice was a basic pilaf with a nice buttery flavor and some spice that A couldn't quite place.

We both were pretty surprised and pleased to find a good Mediterranean restaurant in a relatively small town in the middle of Ohio. The flavors were solid, and we loved that they offered half sized portions, perfect for what we needed. We wish places in NYC would do that as well. Overall Sahara was a very good, healthy eating option, and a great end to our day.

Week 31 - Represent Your Region

Week 31's theme, represent your region, was all about honoring and spotlighting the food from where you live. I wasn't really sure what to make. New York style cheesecake? Pastrami sandwiches? Black and white cookies? Bagels and lox? Knishes? New York pizza? A Coney Island hot dog? None of those really appealed to me and some I couldn't even make at home, since it's not like we own a brick oven. After thinking about it for a bit and wondering what people come to New York to eat, it hit me - street meat! People come from all over the world and line up at 53rd and 6th for a platter of their famous chicken over rice. That certainly would represent my region.

Street meat from the famous Halal Guys

I remembered that Serious Eats had published Kenji's recipe for halal cart-style chicken and rice with white sauce, and thought that would be a perfect starting place. I've always wondered how close that came to street meat, since it usually seemed to us like there were more seasonings in the chicken from the carts than just lemon, oregano, coriander, and garlic, but we're not expert tasters. What better time to test it out than for this challenge?

The ingredients for the chicken portion (slightly adapted from the original recipe because I wasn't going to go out for fresh oregano just for this) were:

- about 1 lb of chicken thighs ($5.88)
- 2 tbsp lemon juice ($0.20)
- 1 tbsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander ($0.05)
- 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped ($0.08)
- 1/4 cup olive oil ($0.75)
- salt and pepper ($0.05)
- 1 tbsp canola oil ($0.05)

The chicken was the part of dinner that took the longest to prepare, in part because you had to marinate it in advance. The first thing to do is to make the marinade by combining the lemon juice, oregano, coriander, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Although the instructions said to do this in a blender so that the sauce would be smooth, I really hate dragging out the blender to use for 10 seconds to make a sauce. Our kitchen is really not that big. So I just mixed it together by hand. Maybe it wasn't as smooth, but it was fine.

Anyway, after you make the marinade, you put the chicken in a ziploc bag, add half of the marinade, coat the chicken with it, and then let it marinate in the fridge for a few hours. (I think I did 2 or 3.) The other half of the marinade gets stored in the fridge for later. I should also mention that before I put the chicken in the bag I tried to trim off as much of the fat as I could, since these were really, really fatty chicken thighs. (See all the fat in the photo with the package?)

After the chicken has finished marinating, you pull it out of the bag, pat it dry, add salt and pepper (I usually just do one side and then season the other while the seasoned side is face down in the skillet), and then it's time to cook. The canola oil gets added to the (not non-stick) pan and then the chicken gets browned and cooked through (about 5 minutes per side).

Once the chicken is cooked, it cools for a few minutes, and then you chop it up into small pieces. After that, you put it in a bowl with the other half of the marinade, cover it with plastic wrap, put it in the fridge, and let it sit until everything else is done and just about ready.

Also essential to a chicken and rice platter is the rice. The ingredients I used for the rice portion (again, slightly adapted) were:

- 2 tbsp butter ($0.40)
- about 1 tsp turmeric ($0.05)
- about 1/2 tsp ground cumin ($0.05)
- 1.5 cups Basmati rice ($1.23)
- 2.5 cups water ($0)
- 2 spoonfuls of chicken bouillon ($0.60)
- salt and pepper ($0.05)

Making the rice was pretty easy. You melt the butter, add the turmeric and the cumin for about a minute, add the rice, coat it with the butter sauce, toast it for a few minutes, and then add the chicken broth (water/bouillon in my case). Once it starts to boil, you reduce it to a simmer and cover it and cook it for 15 minutes covered. After that, turn off the heat and let it sit for 15 minutes. It actually came out pretty well in terms of texture with that water to rice ratio and had a nice yellow color from the turmeric.

Besides the chicken and rice, the other components of your usual street meat platter are white sauce, hot sauce, and a side salad. (Of course there are others we love, like Trini Paki Boys, which also give you chickpeas and other things, but this challenge was going to be about the famous street meat platters from the Halal Guys. Places like the Halal Guys also give you pita, but we had enough food already and I didn't feel like buying pita when we really didn't need it.) The only part of those that we made from scratch was the white sauce, for which we used:

- 1/2 cup mayo ($0.54)
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt ($1.25)
- 1 tbsp sugar ($0.05)
- 2 tbsp white vinegar ($0.10)
- 1 tsp lemon juice ($0.05)
- 1/2 bunch of parsley, chopped ($0.50)
- salt and pepper ($0.05)

Adding 2/3 of a head of romaine lettuce ($0.55) and 1 Roma tomato ($0.29) to the chicken ($7.11), rice ($2.38) and white sauce ($2.54), the total for our 2 dinner platters was approximately $12.87. (You could probably tack on a few more cents for some Cholula that we used, since we didn't have a harissa-based hot sauce, but that amount is negligible.) The price isn't that different from getting 2 platters from the Halal Guys, and both are filling. I guess the big difference is that with this one, I know exactly what's in everything.

For the sauce, I just had to wash and chop the parsley, and then combine it in a bowl with the mayo, yogurt, sugar, vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper. It was pretty easy to make. I also chopped up the tomato into smaller slices. I would have chopped the romaine then too but I did that the day before for the BLT salad and then just stored it in the fridge.

Once everything is done, it's time to finish off the chicken. You pull the bowl of chicken out of the fridge and add everything (sauce and all) back into the skillet, cooking until it's done. That part was simple.

The finished product didn't look exactly like the Halal Guys plate, but I wasn't expecting it to. For one, the salad portion was much bigger, but that was purposeful since I really hate going without a decently sized vegetable component for dinner. As for the flavors, as I tasted each individual component to see if any adjustments needed to be made, I wasn't sure if this was going to taste like your traditional street meat platter. The chicken tasted more Italian than anything else (perhaps from the use of the dried oregano?). The rice tasted fine and we love Basmati rice, but I couldn't remember much about the rice from our street meat platter to see if it was the same as we remembered. The white sauce on its own tasted vaguely like the cart's white sauce but also just kind of tasted like a creamy salad dressing.

But when we tried everything together, our opinion completely changed. When you got a bite with rice, chicken, and a good dollop of white sauce all together, it absolutely tasted like cart-style chicken and rice. It's hard to pinpoint the exact parts of each flavor that combined to make us think of street meat, but the flavor was absolutely there. We were pretty pleased with the results of this experiment.

Middle Eastern Bakery

When I first moved to Chicago many, many years ago, I was living on the South Side and A was living in Uptown, meaning long, gorgeous drives up and down Lake Shore Drive to visit each other. One of the places that A introduced me to while he was living up there was the Middle Eastern Bakery and Grocery. We enjoyed their food so much that even after he moved out of the neighborhood and we were both living further downtown, we still drove up every so often to stock up on some treats. It's a great neighborhood spot that I wish we had a version of in our current neighborhood.

The shop has lots of grocery items, especially spices, but we didn't do a lot of from-scratch cooking back then, so we mostly went for one thing - the pre-made pies in the bakery cases. There are a bunch of different varieties, and I think we tried most of them during our time living in Chicago. Since we were in Uptown for lunch at Tank, we decided to stop by the bakery, see what was new in the shop, pick up some spices, and definitely buy some pies.

The only challenging thing about buying the pies (which didn't occur to us until after we bought them) was that we weren't planning to eat them until the next day. Back when we lived in the city, we would buy large bags of pies, stick them in the fridge, and then heat them up for breakfast (at least for me it was usually breakfast). Our hotel out in Rosemont had no fridge for us to use (and you had to pay if you wanted them to empty the minibar and let you use it as a fridge, no thank you), so we were faced with a dilemma. Leave the pies at room temperature overnight (probably okay, but still a risk) or try to cool them off somehow. I decided to try to rig some sort of rudimentary cooler using the ice bucket to try to at least keep the pies a few degrees cooler until we could eat them for breakfast. Nothing happened, so either the pies are fine to keep out overnight or the cooler worked. Who knows.

We only got two pies from the bakery, even though we wanted to buy more. The one above was chicken with mushrooms, onions, and peppers, and the one below is the artichoke and feta pie. Both were good. They probably would have been better if we could heat them properly instead of just taking them out of the cooler, but these were not ideal circumstances. I think I liked the chicken pie more, and A did as well. The chicken was cut very small, and the mushrooms, onions, and peppers were nice and soft so the textures paired up very well. The artichokes were marinated and had a nice sourness to them that went well with the salty feta. The pies were just as good as we remembered.

It was great to be able to stop by the bakery to get some pies and also buy spices to bring home. (Our "souvenirs" from trips always seem to be largely food-related.) It brought back a lot of great memories of our time living in Chicago and how life was, in so many ways, much simpler back then. What a nice treat for our weekend.

Middle Eastern Bakery and Grocery, 1512 West Foster Ave, in Andersonville/Uptown.

Week 19 - Caramelization

Caramelized onions.

When Week 19 (caramelization) rolled around, all I knew was that I wanted to eat caramelized onions. I love caramelized onions. I thought about throwing them on a burger, but I didn't want to make a burger for the challenge.

Eventually I figured it out - mujadara! A lentil and rice dish which makes liberal use of caramelized onions. I love mujadara (also called mujaddara, moujadara, moudardara, etc) and this was the perfect opportunity to try my hand at it. I didn't want to just eat grains and onions for dinner, so I also decided on caramelized carrots for a side dish. Double caramelization for caramelization week!

MUJADARA

Mujadara is found throughout the Arab world, and according to Wikipedia, it's been around for centuries. It's not really surprising since the dish is filling, hearty, and nutritious, and makes use of ingredients which are usually plentiful and inexpensive. The main ingredients are lentils, rice, and onions, mixed with a variety of spices. I've had mujadara before, but this was my first time attempting to make it. After reviewing a few recipes, I decided to adapt this one from Aarti Party on the Food Network.

The ingredients for the mujadara, as adapted, were:

- 1 cup brown lentils ($0.75)
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil ($0.40)
- 1 tsp cumin seeds ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp cracked black peppercorns ($0.05)
- 1-1/2 large yellow onions, thinly sliced ($0.90)
- 3/4 cup basmati rice (free)
- 1 tsp ground cumin ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper ($0.05)
- 1 cinnamon stick ($0.10)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice ($0.10)
- salt and pepper to taste ($0.10)

The whole thing cost us less than $3 (although that was partially due to the fact that we won the basmati rice at a health fair). Even if we had to pay for the rice, this still wouldn't have been very expensive. It's great as a vegetarian main dish if you're on a budget, since the cost really just comes from the onions and rice. Hearty, healthy and cheap! Made plenty of leftovers too.

The mujadara itself isn't terribly hard to make. The process just takes a really long time. Give yourself at least an hour, but probably closer to 2. This time, it didn't take a long time because of my prep. I can slice onions relatively quickly. For this recipe, you just need to give everything plenty of time to cook.

1. Cook lentils. Sort lentils, rinse, add to pot with cold water to cover by at least an inch. Bring to boil, turn down to simmer and cook until lentils are tender. Drain and set aside. [Recipe here says it will take 20 minutes, but they were not tender after 20 minutes. I had to add more water a few times and also cover them for a bit.]

2. Caramelize onions. While lentils cook, add oil to a large skillet. Once oil is warm, add cumin seeds and peppercorns and cook for about 1 minute. Add onions and salt. Cook until onions are brown and caramelized, adding water to deglaze if necessary. [I didn't need to add water. "Testing" the onions periodically to see how they were doing was such a tasty treat.]

3. Split onions and add spices. Remove a third to a half of the onions to a towel lined plate to add later. Try not to eat too many as they sit there. Add ground cumin, cayenne, cinnamon stick to the onions remaining in the pan. Saute 1 minute.

4. Add (almost) everything else. Add rice. Stir gently until grains start to brown. Add cooked lentils, 3 cups of water, 1.5 tsp of salt. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low (keep pan at simmer). Cover and cook 30 minutes (until water is evaporated and rice is tender).

5. Steam. Turn off heat, keep lid on, allow rice to steam undisturbed for 5 minutes. [See, this step is a bit of a problem. In order to see whether all the water was evaporated and the rice was tender, I had to lift the lid. This let out the steam and when I returned the lid, obviously nothing was steaming undisturbed.]

6. Finish. Add reserved caramelized onions, and salt and pepper to taste. Add lemon juice and mix together. [Can also add toasted pine nuts or Greek yogurt, but I didn't. It was already late and I just wanted to eat dinner!]

The mujadara was good and well-flavored, but it just fell short of my expectations. One of the things that I love about mujadara is the strong onion flavor. The caramelized onions really make an impact. Here, the caramelized onions tasted so good, so sweet and full of onion flavor, on their own, but once I added them back in to the finished combination, it was like they lost all of their strong, sweet onion flavor and got diluted by everything else. That was a little disappointing, but that's mostly because of my expectations.

The other thing was that I remember the rice in mujadara I've had before maintained more of its consistency. Here it got really soft and tender, and melded with the lentils in many parts. The grains were just less pronounced. Maybe that's how it's supposed to be. I don't know. This wasn't really disappointing like the onion flavor, but I wasn't expecting it either.

Without those, this would just be a hearty, tasting, nicely spiced vegetarian dish. I would make it again, but as a side dish to other things most likely instead of a main dish. However, I think it's even more likely that I would just make an entire container of caramelized onions to add to lots of dishes (provided it lasted longer than a day).

CARAMELIZED CUMIN CARROTS AND ONIONS

As I said before, I wanted to balance out dinner by making something other than just grains and onions, so I decided to roast some carrots. I was inspired by this recipe from Bon Appetit to add some cumin seeds, which I thought would complement the mujadara well since it also used cumin seeds. Unfortunately, I thought we had a lot more carrots than we actually did, so I couldn't make an entire side dish out of carrots. I improvised and decided to use the 5 carrots we had, plus half of a large yellow onion.

To roast the vegetables, the ingredients were:

- cooking spray to coat pan ($0.05)
- 5 carrots ($0.75)
- 1/2 yellow onion ($0.35)
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil ($0.40)
- 1-1/2 tsp cumin seeds ($0.12)
- salt to taste ($0.05)

The total was around $1.75. It didn't actually make a lot of vegetables by the time they finished roasting. Just enough to fit in a rice bowl. One rice bowl for both of us.

The process here is very simple. Chop carrots and onions. Add olive oil, cumin seeds, and salt. Mix with your hands so everything is coated. Roast in oven for 40 minutes.

That's how it looked after 40 minutes. I guess I didn't spread out the vegetables that well since the ones on the ends burned a little bit. You were supposed to watch until they were tender and lightly caramelized, and turn the vegetables over once, but I just left them and let them roast. Unlike some of the recipe reviewers, mine definitely caramelized. Even though some of the "border pieces" got a little burnt and crispy, they were still pretty tasty.

Letting the vegetables roast this long (and especially without moving, so they got good and caramelized) was delicious. The carrots browned and were so sweet, as were the onions. Mixed with the smokier crispy pieces, there was a nice diversity of texture and flavor. We were definitely fans. It's great getting sweet vegetables like that without having to add any sugar at all. Next time, I'll just make more.

CARAMELIZATION WEEK

The caramelization cooking project was a success, even if the mujadara fell a little short of my expectations. My favorite part was the caramelized vegetables, and A's was also the burnt roasted carrots and onions. It would be really easy to roast vegetables like that again sometime, and certainly quicker than making mujadara!

Nanoosh

One year ago today, on Mother's Day, we headed up to the AMC Loews Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side for a matinee showing of Iron Man 3. After the movie, we went over to Nanoosh for a healthy Mediterranean lunch. Nanoosh has a few locations throughout Manhattan, but this was our first visit to any of them.

Nanoosh's menu includes soups, salads, hummus plates, wraps and bowls. From their online menu, it looks like they've expanded their selection over the past year. When we were there, the menu only had one option for a chicken wrap and now they've got a few, among other changes.

I got the only chicken sandwich on the menu at the time, the hummus chicken wrap ($11.75 as of last year). Inside the whole wheat wrap, there was chicken breast, hummus, tahini, organic onions and organic greens.

The wrap was pretty full, but a lot of that was with greens. From what I can remember, the chicken was nicely flavored, and the hummus was good. I don't remember that much about it a year later though. I just remember that it was healthy and pretty good (but that I liked A's meal better, more on that later).

Each wrap came with a choice of a small quinoa, tabouleh, or Mediterranean salad. I decided to go with the tabouleh salad, which consisted of bulgur, cucumber, tomato, red onions, organic apple, pomegranate, parsley, and mint. 

The tabouleh was good. It was a little different due to its inclusion of apple and pomegranate, which gave it sweet and sour flavors, in addition to the usual herbal flavor.

A ordered the falafarro ($10.25 at the time), which was sauteed farro topped with falafel, hummus, and green tahini. The sauteed farro was mixed with sun-dried tomatoes, onions, carrots, celery, garlic, and corn.

This was really good, and better than my wrap and tabouli combo. The farro was nutty and hearty, and mixed with all the vegetables, it was like a healthy version of fried rice or a rice salad. The falafel was crispy and well-seasoned, the hummus was creamy and rich, and the green tahini was a good topping, similar to the green sauce on the table but not so spicy. We really liked the falafarro.

On each (communal) table, there were two hot sauces - a red one that we don't remember too much about and a spicy green sauce. We can't remember the exact flavor profile of the green sauce, but we did like it. Then again, we always seem to like green sauce, whether it's spicy or not. 

Our Mediterranean lunch at Nanoosh wasn't cheap, but it was pretty good and one of the better options near the theater. The food is really healthy, since they use all organic and natural ingredients, which is nice to find. We would return if in the area, probably focusing on anything containing chickpeas and farro. The hummus and falafel were both good, and we really enjoyed A's falafarro. The sauteed farro is something I might even try to replicate at home.

Nanoosh has multiple locations in Manhattan but we visited the one on Broadway between 68th and 69th Streets.

Nish Nush

I found myself downtown last week around (late) lunchtime, which was exciting because it meant I got to try someplace new for lunch! I considered visiting the dosa place inside the Tribeca Whole Foods but my desire for falafel won out and I walked over to Nish Nush.

Nish Nush has a bunch of sandwiches, all ranging from $5-8, and I decided to go with the red hot chili sandwich.

Sandwich assembled in the basket

The red hot chili sandwich has roasted pepper falafel (which the menu says is supposed to be spicy), hummus, lettuce, Israeli salad and pickles inside a whole wheat pita. It also comes with a small plastic container of pickles on the side (hiding behind the sandwich in the photo).

Close-up inside the roasted pepper falafel

I didn't find the sandwich too spicy, but there was a nice zesty flavor to the falafel that differentiated it from your regular run-of-the-mill falafel. It was like it was infused with red pepper flakes. The sandwich itself felt very light since it was just topped with hummus and salads. There are some sauces on the tables that you can add, but I didn't end up using much since the falafel had a pretty good flavor on its own.

I thought the falafel sandwich was good, but not as filling as some others (I'm thinking about our favorite Taim). I think next time I would be interested in trying the deluxe sandwich. It includes all three types of the falafel they offer - the regular green, the red roasted pepper that I got this time, and a spinach/mushroom falafel. That sounds like a good way to sample the best of what they have!

Nish Nush is located in Tribeca at 88 Reade Street (corner of Reade & Church).

Shawafel

When I go to Karam II for lunch, I usually pick up the 3 item small vegetable combo, which comes with a side of pita, for a tasty and healthy meal. When I order at work for dinner, I often get the chicken taouk (grilled chicken cubes in a pita sandwich) or sometimes the vegetable salad combo and maybe samboussek on the side. We discovered last night that Karam actually delivers all the way to our apartment and in honor of trying that out for the first time, I got something different - the shawafel sandwich.

The shawafel sandwich... I can't stop saying shawafel
The shawafel sandwich contains falafel and shawarma (choice of chicken or meat - I went with chicken). It was a really tasty sandwich. The soft falafel mixed well with the small pieces of shawarma and the grilled pita. It wasn't the best falafel I've had (I wish Taim still came to midtown...) but it was good. The chicken shawarma was nicely flavored. Also, unlike some other pita sandwiches, this one had all the ingredients evenly spaced throughout, which meant every bite was full of shawafel-ly goodness. I would order this again.

King of Falafel and Shawarma

One of our favorite vendors at the Vendy Awards in past years was the King of Falafel and Shawarma, which won the Vendy Cup and People's Choice Awards at the Vendys in 2010. (We never had a chance to write about it but we voted for them!) The cart has been located in Astoria and run by Freddy, who is one of the nicest, friendliest vendors we have met and very passionate about serving excellent food. (To see more about the original Astoria cart and Freddy's food, here's the video the Vendy people did before the 2010 awards.)

Since we don't live in Astoria, we don't get to see Freddy very often. But recently he announced that he was putting together a second cart and heading to Manhattan, which we were really excited about. Today was their first day in midtown - at 53rd and Park - and there was a long line for most of the lunch rush. Everyone loves the King of Falafel! I knew what I wanted to do for lunch today...


I decided to take a late lunch and ventured over after 2, when the line was much shorter but the shawarma was almost gone. I got a shawarma platter which came with salad (lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickles, pickled turnips) and a piece of falafel. They were running out of chicken so I got the last of that plus some of the lamb. (I usually just get chicken.) The cart was so busy the whole time. Freddy kept making falafel and tossing them into the fryer inbetween serving customers. As exhausting as it must have been, it must also have been nice knowing that so many midtowners love their food! What a welcome!


The falafel was as good as I remembered. It's an oblong shape instead of a round ball which keeps the outside crispy and the inside soft and not dry. It's a unique falafel and so good. The white and hot sauces on top of the shawarma and salad were also delicious. The last time we had the chicken shawarma at the Vendys, we went early in the day, so I think the shawarma that time was better than what I had today, which was the end of the batch. That said, it was still really tasty and has such a good blend of spices. I think next time (whenever I can find the time to trek over again and wait in line) I might go for a falafel platter (especially if they're running low on shawarma). The falafel is really that good. Welcome to midtown, King of Falafel!

Taim Mobile Pt 2

Taim Mobile had a special today for Harissa Falafel. Last week I was fortunate enough to try their Sabich so I thought that I would once again go with the daily special. Having never tried their regular falafel, I didn't have much of a basis from which to compare. I didn't really know what to expect either since their menu is always talking about their green falafel. I imagined it would be their regular green falafel with a spicy harissa sauce layered on top in addition to the other toppings they normally put on.

Special of the day

Imagine my surprise when I bit into my first falafel bite and came back to see a reddish inside. The falafel tasted like most other falafel I've had in the past. I didn't notice any distinct heat coming from them, but that could also be because it was somewhat masked by their S'rug which has a good amount of heat on its own. As usual, the hummus was smooth, silky, and delicious, and I had been craving some good hummus since the night before. The pickles today seemed a bit saltier than I remembered so I did my best not to eat them on their own.

Side view of the sandwich
Cross section (bite) of the harissa falafel

Overall, the sandwich was tasty even with the slightly salty pickles, but I would be interested in trying their regular falafel for a comparison.

Taim Mobile

Today I found myself fortunate as Taim Mobile has recently started making a stop on the West Side every Wednesday. I don't know if they're going to keep this location as a regular spot, but I certainly hope so. I also was very lucky as their special of the day was their Sabich, a Middle Eastern Sandwich featuring hard boiled egg and fried eggplant. M had read many reviews talking up how good the sabich was so I almost felt obligated to try it on behalf of her. I ordered the sabich with everything (hummus, israeli salad, pickled cabbage, tahini, pickles, and s'rug and amba sauces), a side of fries, and their pomegranate-honey iced tea.

Taim Mobile truck

Fries with Garlic Aioli

The fries were tasty. They're medium-cut, about the thickness and texture of the fries you might get at Five Guys, and they also come in a brown paper bag. They're lightly salted, and the guys on the truck are smart and poke holes in the bag so that the heat doesn't linger in the bag and make the fries really soggy. The fries also come with their garlic aioli for dipping. It had a good flavor, but I didn't taste as much garlic. It tasted more like a mayo-mustard hybrid to me, but it was still quite tasty.

Pomegranate Honey Iced Tea

The tea was cool and refreshing. As a honey-addict, I was hoping for more of a honey taste, but I was sadly disappointed. I'm not sure if you could really add that much honey, though, as it would thicken up the tea too much even though I really really like honey. The pomegranate flavor was very well balanced.

Top view of the sabich

The sandwich was sublime. My first bite I was lucky enough to capture every ingredient. The egg was an egg, but the s'rug had a wonderful heat to it that didn't overpower the sandwich or utterly destroy all of my taste buds. The hummus was extremely smooth and silky and really bound the bite together. The eggplant? Out of this world. Normally when I think of fried vegetables I think of heavily battered, greasy blocks of vegetable. Taim has either no batter or the lightest batter I've ever seen. The frying is really just to cook the eggplant which ends up having a texture that melts in your mouth while still tasting like a good, fresh eggplant. The sandwich was amazing, and I was so disappointed when I finished it as I kept looking and hoping for more.

Inner view of the sabich

Side view of the sabich showing the egg and eggplant

Overall Taim is a fantastic food truck and one I hope will come by my work neighborhood regularly.