grape leaves Archives - Queen of the Food Age

Ali Baba Mediterranean Cuisine – CLOSED

January 18, 2013

I love Mediterranean food. I could eat it every day of the week. My favorite Mediterranean restaurant in Charleston (and probably all of South Carolina) is Ali Baba Mediterranean restaurant in Mount Pleasant. It’s awesome, and really reasonably priced. I thought I really liked Pomegranate in Greenville, but Pomegranate can’t even hold a candle to Ali Baba (and Taziki’s shouldn’t even be considered “Mediterranean food.”)

That’s like calling Taco Bell “authentic mexican cuisine.” The only difference being that Taco Bell is delicious, and Taziki’s is not.

We always order the Ali Baba dinner for two, which is an appetizer sampler platter, a meat sampler tray, tons of rice, unlimited delicious pita bread, and a dessert sampler for $39.99. Really there’s enough food for 3/4 people, because we always have enough leftover for dinner the next night. Which is really good, because I’m super lazy and it’s gosh darn delicious.

I am the person equivalent of a cat.

The interior of the restaurant is nothing fancy. White walls, some mediterranean-inspired artwork hanging, hookas lining the bar area (I’m assuming you can smoke hookah there, but I’ve never done it), some clutter around the bar area… It feels like you’re eating at someone’s home, rather than in a restaurant, which I personally like. And now to the food. The appetizer plate consists of hummus, baba ganoush, falafel, tabouli, and Jerusalem salad (cucumber, tomatoes, onion, green peppers in tahini). The hummus is awesome, and the falafel is the best I’ve ever eaten. I don’t really love baba ganoush, but I actually like it at Ali Baba. As for the tabouli, I just am not a fan of it on its own, but I think it’s okay on stuff. To each his own, I suppose.

Also, the falafel is amazing. Seriously amazing.

Barely got a picture before it was all gone.

The meat plate is my favorite thing. It’s what I imagine they serve in heaven. Shawirma, kibby, kofta, grape leaves, and even more falafel served over a huge mountain of curried rice. It’s seriously good. I always ask for a side of tahini, and then build little stuffed pita sandwiches out of everything on the tray. It’s the best. The shawirma is amazing, it’s unlike anything I’ve had elsewhere.

This would be part of my last meal request.

We also order the stuffed zucchini plate, which is zucchini stuffed with rice and beef in a tomato sauce. It’s so yummy, and I love having that tomato sauce to dip other stuff into (especially the grape leaves). It’s my mother’s favorite thing to order. I think it’s really interesting as it’s unlike anything else I’ve had before (and I mean that in a good way!)

That sauce is amazing. I have no idea what it is, but it’s delicious.

The desserts are good, but they’re not my favorite. There’s the baklava (which I like best of the two), which is filo dough stuffed with pistachios, cinnamon, and honey sauce, and the Burma, which is noodle strings filled with pistachios and honey sauce. They’re yummy, I’m just not a huge fan of pistachios.

Forgot to take a picture, so I stitched 2 of them together from Google Images.

I definitely recommend Ali Baba if you enjoy Mediterranean food. If you’re not hungry enough for the dinner for two, you have to at least order the shawirma and falafel. Those are the best things.

Probably my #3 favorite restaurant in Charleston.

Ali Baba Mediterranean Cuisine
920 Houston Northcutt Boulevard #2
Mount Pleasant, SC 29464
(843) 388-0683

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Restaurant Reviews

[CLOSED] Imane Moroccan Restaurant, Duluth, GA

January 8, 2012

UPDATE: This restaurant is now closed. Sad day 🙁

On what was to be our final day in Atlanta, we finally found a Moroccan restaurant that was open for lunch, even though we had to drive a bit out of our way to get there (and google maps was about 2 miles off from where the restaurant actually was). Tina’s been going on and on about Moroccan food forever. She likes to hold it over my head whenever I ask where she wants to eat (because she knows there aren’t any Moroccan restaurants in Charleston, thereby forcing me to pick a restaurant, which drives me insane). Tina was happier than a clam to be there.

This is what it looks like to be happier than a bivalve in a Moroccan restaurant.

So we finally make it to this restaurant, which only happens to be open for lunch on Fridays (what luck!) and it’s actually super cute inside, impeccably decorated, with a few women in the corner smoking hookah, speaking what sounded like Arabic. It was beautiful and orante without feeling commercial (it’s a very thin line to toe). With all the food that we’d eaten in the time we were in Atlanta, this was by far the best. To start with, we got the chicken briwates, which are like filo dough stuffed with chicken, but it was almost like a pastry, topped with powdered sugar. It sounds weird, and Tina wasn’t a huge fan, but I really liked it. We also got the falafel, which was the probably one of the best falafels I’ve ever had, but the hummus. Oh my God, the hummus. If you go there and get nothing else, get the hummus. It’s seriously the best hummus I’ve ever eaten, and I sincerely doubt you’ll find it better anywhere else. We also got babaganoush, grape leaves, and something called zaalouk, which was almost like tomato sauce mixed with babaganoush. I liked the grape leaves, and the zaalouk was ok but, once again, I’m not really into egg plant. We also got mint tea, which was really good. Like super sweet and minty and tea. I can’t describe it, but it was delicious.

And this was just the appetizer course.

For entree’s, Sean once again channeled his inner Ron Swanson and ordered a plate of meat, aka the kabob assorted platter–Kafta, chicken, beef, lamb chop, and merguez, which is a lamb-based sausage. I loved every single piece of meat on that plate (that’s what she said?). The spices were amazing, everything was tender and delicious, neither over nor undercooked. I thought the food from Lawrence’s was good, but this was completely out of this world. He also got Moroccan-style potatoes, which are kind of like a curry mashed potatoes that are fried. They were ok, nothing super special, but the meats were amazing.

The aftermath of the meat tornado.

Tina got this soup kind of thing, with giant vegetables in a broth that you pour over couscous. It also came with pretty much all the meats that Sean ordered, but they were served on the side instead of in the soup, which I thought was kind of weird. It was my least favorite of all the things we got, but it was still delicious, and Tina and I really liked it.

NO COUS FOR YOU!

What I got was amazing. I was kind of unsure of how to feel about it when I ordered it, because it was lamb shank, and I’m not usually huge on lamb (fatty, chewy, etc), but I went in with an open mind–I wanted to try something characteristic of Morocco. It’s called a tagine, and I got what was called “casablanca mrozia.” It’s lamb shank braised in mrozia spices, rasins and honey, garnished with almonds and sesame seeds. It was one of the most unique flavors I’ve ever tasted. But it was amazing. Apparently they’re really good at balancing savory and sweet in the food in Morocco. I was very surprised and delighted that I enjoyed it so much. It pained mentally to have to stop eating before I finished it, but the physical pain of being so full overpowered my mental strength.

“This is the song that never eeeeeenNOMNOMNOMS!”

Basically, if you’ve never eaten Moroccan food, you should make a trip out to Imane because it’s seriously my favorite restaurant now…. sucks that I live 5 hours away from it…

Imane Moroccan Restaurant
3455 Peachtree Industrial Boulevard #840
Duluth, GA 30096
(678) 638-7990

All in all it was a great trip, even though I ate too much and exercised too little….. although I did manage to plow through 2.5 seasons of 30 Rock. So, I was productive in that sense, at least. Plus, I love Atlanta! I could totally see myself living there someday!

Hope everyone had a fun and eventful New Year!

Restaurant Reviews

Eating in Atlanta, In A Nutshell.

January 6, 2012

HAPPY 2012 ERRIBODY! I hope everyone is excited for this upcoming year! I know I am…minus that tiny little detail where “The World Might End in 359 Days”… not that I really believe it. But, you know, it would be nice if it didn’t actually happen. I feel like I’ve almost gotten the hang of this whole “adulthood” thing or whatever.

This is the side of adulthood I’ve really mastered.

For New Year’s Eve, I travelled to Atlanta to visit my friends, “The Hungry People” aka Sean and Christine where I spent a wonderful span of days hopping from one meal to another. There’s so much ethnic food here. It’s kind of like how I imagine heaven. I was really excited to eat Lebanese food Wednesday with my mom and Sean, but on the way to the restaurant, my mom’s car broke down. So not only were we stranded by the side of the road, terrified that the tow truck would never actually come, we were also hungry because our car didn’t have the decency to wait til after lunch to die. Rude, right? So I’m stuck in Atlanta for another night (or three), and I thought this would be a good time to do a roundup review of all the restaurants I’ve eaten at in Atlanta. However, I’m going to break from my usual style and only do brief summaries of each restaurant, because I ate at so many, it got kind of hard to keep track of it all.

This has been me at every meal this week.

1. Cafe Bombay Indian Bistro

We went to Cafe Bombay on Sean’s recommendation–he’d been there with Thomas for lunch a couple weeks earlier. To be honest, I really hadn’t been in the mood for Indian food that day, but that feeling changed the second I stepped in the door. I could just tell by the scent in the air as soon as I opened the door, that this food was going to be delicious, and I definitely was not disappointed. We were there for the lunch buffet, and let me tell you, this is the biggest indian buffet I’d ever seen (and I’ve been to quite a few). We all know, however, that bigger does not necessarily mean better, but Cafe Bombay definitely knows what they’re doing. They don’t sacrifice quality for quantity even in the least.

Trip 1 of 8 through the buffet.

Their paneer tikka masala with their homemade cheese cubes was AMAZING. Usually I don’t care for paneer because it’s usually bland and tasteless, and reminds me too much of tofu, but if I ever go back there, I will order just the paneer tikka masala. Also, they made this chicken that they marinated in cream cheese. That was really good too. Basically everything they made was delicious, and I highly recommend you visit them if you ever have the chance. But, don’t be surprised if you leave never wanting to eat ever again.

#1 indeed!

Cafe Bombay
2615 Briarcliff Road
Northeast Atlanta, GA 30329-3112
(404) 320-0229

2. Sushi Kiku

So Sean went and woke up (ish) Raina on New Years Day to ask her about a sushi buffet place she’d talked about. She snored out the words “sushi kiku” and Sean decided that’s where we were going to eat for lunch. So Thomas, Sean, Christine, and I ventured out to Buckhead to shove some sushi into our faces. They made about two rolls of each type of sushi at a time, so they really weren’t out long enough to get gross or weird, and I’m pretty sure they changed them out at regular intervals. Every time I went up to the bar, there were different rolls out to try. I was quite impressed.

A very pleasant surprise!

I think they probably had a 9 or 10 rolls total to choose from, and you better believe I tried some of each, and then second helpings of the rolls I liked best. But be warned, their spicy mayo is super spicy. They also had a bunch of non-sushi items for those who aren’t really the lovers of the sushi–steak, salads, fried rice, chicken, pot stickers, cheesy scalloped potatoes (I guess for those people who don’t like japanese food either…I guess no one can say they’re not diverse!), and some dessert items that I couldn’t really look at without feeling nauseous because I’d eaten so much, but Sean assured me they were delicious. I found out that the apartment above Sushi Kiku was for rent, and I seriously considered moving in, dreaming of eating at Sushi Kiku every day…

Because sushi + cats = happiness.

You should definitely try Sushi Kiku if you’re into sushi and like variety. It wasn’t necessarily the best sushi I’d ever had, but it was pretty good, and it was cheap for a sushi buffet, like $12.99 per person for lunch. Which is great, because I definitely ate my money’s worth of sushi. Even though it wasn’t my favorite sushi ever, the quality was still very high, and it was good, and the value was great, so I would definitely recommend it if you’re into sushi.

Sushi-palooza

Sushi Kiku
2770 Lenox Road Northeast
Atlanta, GA 30324-6006
(404) 467-4544

3. Fat Matt’s Rib Shack

Wednesday was kind of a crazy day. Our original plan was to get some lebanese food with my mom when she came to pick me up, but then the car broke down on 85, which kind of threw a wrench in that plan. We’d had a crazy morning filled with running up an exit ramp against my mother’s wishes, waiting half an hour for Thomas to come rescue us, waiting for the AAA people to figure out what they were doing with the car (which they never ended up doing), etc., before we were free(ish) to FINALLY find something to eat. Only we were so far away from our original destination we were left to answer that age old question “What shall we eat?”

WHY, GOD, HAVE YOU CURSED ME WITH SO MANY CHOICES?!

After driving around for about half an hour trying to figure out what we wanted, Sean finally had the brilliant idea to try out Fat Matt’s, a place he’d wanted to try for a while. We all liked barbecue, and we were half starving to death, so we decided that was where we would eat. The restaurant itself is an unassuming little diner-type building, and the few menu items were written on a board near the ordering counter.

I’ll have….one of everything on the menu.

I ordered the chopped pork sandwich, minus the bun, with a side of macaroni and cheese and collards. Tina got a combo plate of chicken and ribs, with rum baked beans. Sean got ribs with macaroni, and Thomas got the combo plate, but I don’t remember what sides he got. The combo plates came with toast, and the chicken was delicious, as were the ribs. My pork was delicious, and the barbecue sauce was the perfect blend of spicy, tangy, and sweet. The collards were really good, but super spicy, and the macaroni was delicious.

This is some good stuff.

The food was delicious, the atmosphere was comfortable and homey, and the bathrooms were nice and clean. Also, it looks like they have a stage set up for concerts, which I think would be very cool. Check it out!

Fat Matt’s Rib Shack
1811 Piedmont Avenue NE
Atlanta, GA 30324
(404) 607-1622