What ensues is a conversation about "what to eat for dinner" that can last literally hours. First off, we're all "easy." None of us want to offend, and none of us want the others' eating to suffer (I mean we're all food-sensitive in the emotional sense). Second, inevitably, Mom and Dad want to go to their standard, the Missouri Athletic Club, which is a men's club with nice traditional upscale food (but whose chefs have a hard time remembering not to put the ham in the pasta primavera). And the rest of us want something ethnic (Nepalese? Vietnamese? Afghan?). So the conversations go something like this:
Brother: "how about Govinda's, that Hari Krishna restaurant?"
Sister (trying to mediate): "um, Dad can't eat curry; how about Vietnamese? Mom, it's almost like Chinese. You can order chicken!"
Mom: "Well, I'm easy, but we were thinking of the MAC. But I guess you can't eat there [because of my near-veganness]"
Sister: "Well, I'm sure they'll cook me something off the menu. I'm easy. Mmmm.... how about Greek? Dad, you can eat Greek, right?"
Dad: "I'm easy."
Sister-in-law: "Ooohhh... Thai!"
Brother: "Yeah! Thai!"
Mom: "Well, we're easy (whispering: but your father doesn't like that stuff)"
Dad: "I'm easy!"
and so on. Forever. People joke that our family starts planning what to eat for dinner over lunch. And it's really not an exaggeration.
But anyway, brother's in town, the kids decide we want Mediterranean, and I select one of my FAVORITE restaurants, Aya Sofia. Holy couscous this place is yummy. Mom isn't sure about the menu, and Dad can only eat the swordfish because of it being a religious holiday, but we are feeling middle eastern and they are feeling obliging. More or less. So we go.
Wine: I start with a really lovely Montepulciano. They were late arriving so I sat at the bar and enjoyed it solo. I felt so New York! It had obviously been refrigerated all night, which I know is acceptable nowadays, but I have to say, I like my reds at the standar
d room temp. It took almost an hour to warm up, but it was good anyway. It was fruity but not sweet at all, and it was nice and bold, with a little zing, but not overly acidic.Then when the family arrived, Dad ordered a bottle of Malbec; I liked it too. It oddly had no end flavor, but rather stopped short, just after a big initial burst of raspberry and what I usually call rubber eraser. I'm no wine expert; I just call it like I taste it.
They brought warmed pita and a kalamata olive tapenade, which typically I would avoid because of my love-hate relationship with olives (I want to love them, but I secretly hate them) (and I secretly hate people who love them), but this stuff's good. It's really salty and somehow that kalamata twang is subdued by garlic? oil? Something. Oh, I hope there aren't anchovies in there! Yikes! Crap. Anyway, I ate it and I loved it.
Then we ordered the appetizer platter with humus, biber ezme (roasted red pepper puree), and babaganouj. I was going to order humus for dinner with a salad, but the table wanted to share, and "I'm easy," so I ordered something else. Now this is good: the humus is really garlicky and chickpeay, but it's also nice and textured. I've had humuses all across the country (Here are the rankings: 1. the former Blackberry Cafe in St. Louis that wouldn't tell me the secret to their recipe and then shut down. I like to think I hexed them. 2. The Hummus Place in NYC, which is actually just hummus. Oh holy hummus, oh holy hummus. 3. Probably this humus. Truly, it's that good.) and this one is tasty. Then the red pepper puree: I likey; my Dad described it as a mild salsa, and I wouldn't disagree. It's sweet, tangy, fruity; it's spready, it goes well on pita. Then the winner, actually, however, was the babaganouj. I'm not a huge eggplant fan (jeez, all these confessions of vegetable insecurities coming out in one post!), but I try. Part of why I don't heart eggplant is that it's hard to cook with. It's SO eggplanty, and the texture is often so tough. And another reason is that so often eggplant parm is the sole "veggie" item on menus. That's irritating.
Anyway, this one rocked. It is nice and cold, first of all, but also creamy, but not creamy in a half-and-half way, rather it was blended nicely, and it was eggplanty, but also garlicky, and salty, and almost nutty? Is that what it was? I was two wines in at that point, so that's my best recollection.
Next: salad. This was a very standard chopped salad (a wonderful reprieve from the goat and green salad week I just had) but the flavors were freaking amazing. It was simple: diced tomatoes (good fresh, meaty ones), diced green peppers, and diced cucumbers. But here are the hidden gems of this salad: lots of green onion, sliced into an equivalent size as the diced veggies. And lots of parsley. And a lemon and olive oil vinaigrette. This was so good, it tasted in color--yellow from the lemon and green from the parsley (although it looked rather red). It was the reason why you eat veggies. It was like Turkish Delight, but a salad, rather than a nougat.
Finally, the entree: I ordered the falafel since we'd already had hummus, but I wasn't really hungry at that point, so the less-than-exciting balls that appeared didn't disappoint, they merely intrigued. Here's why they intrigued: first, the texture was totally smooth. I guess I know you can grind up chick peas into a smooth consistency, but why? Especially since the hummus is so nice and lumpy. And second, the balls were perfectly round and totally solid. I've had baked falafel, fried falafel, patty falafel, ball falafel, chunk falafel packed in oil (or in yogurt sauce), but never smooth, round, shooter-marble falafel. And it was very so so. Actually, I'd give it just a so. Again, 3 wines in, full of humus and salad, but still, this was, eh, meh. Next time I'll stick with the sides, as I had planned from the get go.
My mom ordered the Turkish equivalent of fried mozzarella sticks, which
were phyllo-dough-wrapped feta cheese sticks. They were hot and fried
and melty, and even accompanied by a red tomato-based sauce, but the surprise was the dill weed in them. That made them tasty. Odd, but tasty.
In sum, yum. Salads, spreads, and red wine = wow. Balls and sticks = eh. But I still love this place. I'll go back. Especially since the belly dancers won't bug you if you don't make eye contact. Now that's just respectful.
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