lamb Archives - Queen of the Food Age

Taziki’s Mediterranean Café

December 7, 2012

Yesterday for lunch I decided to try Taziki’s, the (relatively) new mediterranean restaurant that opened up on King Street where Ye Ole Fashioned Ice Cream and Sandwich Cafe used to be. I was craving hummus and falafel, and now that Patat Spot is closed, I had to try someplace new. I’d heard relatively good things about Taziki’s, and it had pretty good reviews on Urbanspoon, so I had high hopes going in. The space is unassuming, not a whole lot going on in terms of decor. The layout of the restaurant is a bit cramped. While waiting in line to place my order at the counter, I was sandwiched in between two tables of people having lunch. It was uncomfortable and I was so close to them, I might as well have just grabbed a chair and sat down to join in on their conversations.

Hello new friends, wonderful to meet you!

After about 8 minutes of waiting in line, I finally made it to the counter. I ordered a Mezedes Platter (Hummus and Taziki dips served with Dolmades and pita) and a grilled lamb gyro (Taziki sauce, tomatoes, lettuce, and grilled onions) with tomato cucumber salad on the side. Not a hugely comprehensive order, but somehow it still took them 25 minutes before my to-go order was ready. Granted, they were pretty steadily busy, but I was there after the lunch crowd, and only maybe 5 people placed orders after me. The lady who handed me my food was very apologetic for the wait, which was nice.

Pretty accurate.

When I finally got back to work to eat, I was ravenous and slightly annoyed, but still excited for lunch. I love mediterranean food. However, I was very disappointed. The hummus was almost watery and a little too citrus-y, the taziki dip was a really weird consistency, the dolmades, although quite large, were dried out and quite tasteless. And, to top off my disappointment, they served it all with pita chips and not the warm, soft slices of pita bread I was hoping for.

PITA BREAD > PITA CHIPS

The lamb gyro was also subpar. It was good, but by no means would I say that it was better than any other restaurant’s lamb gyro. Maybe I’m just spoiled by all the really outstanding mediterranean food I’ve had, but the lamb itself was nothing special. It tasted processed, and it was very dried out. The pita bread that it was wrapped in was yummy, which made me sad that I got shafted with the pita chips in the appetizer platter. The tomato-cucumber salad was good, though, so at least the meal wasn’t a total loss.

More like “grilled disappointment gyro”

All in all, I was pretty disappointed with the whole experience. I’ll never go back. If you’re in the mood for really good mediterranean food, I suggest you try Ali Baba Mediterranean Cafe in Mt. Pleasant, because it is outstanding. Some of the best shawarma and falafel I’ve ever had.

I really have no idea how they got that many votes.

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Restaurant Reviews

Passage To India, Salem, MA

September 20, 2012

While touring Salem like the super tourists we are, we got peckish from all the walking and witchcrafting and decided to stop at an indian restaurant we saw for dinner. It was very yummy. I really liked that they featured some items that I’ve never seen on any other indian restaurant menu. When we first sat down, they gave us that bread that’s like paper that you get at every indian restaurant and the hot onion chutney, which I usually love. This one, however, was pretty much the spiciest thing I’ve ever eaten, and it took three glasses of water, and a Sam Adams Boston Lager to put out the fire in my mouth. And even then, my tastebuds were all sensitive and angry.

Like being stung in the tongue by a thousand evil bees from hell.

We started with the Passage Mixed Appetizers plate, which is pretty standard for indian restaurants. This featured vegetable pakora, vegetable samosa, aloo tikki, cheese pakora (my favorite), chicken pakora, meat samosa, chicken kabob, and fish pakora. Although, somehow they ended up replacing the meat samosa with another vegetable samosa, which was kind of a let down. But other than that it was quite yummy. We also got cheese naan which, when done right, is my favorite indian bread. This one wasn’t really that great, which was also disappointing. The best one is india palace in Greenville. I really liked that they did combination plates for people like me who can’t decide what they want. Plus, their combo plate featured basically the three dishes I usually have trouble deciding between: Chicken tikka masala, paneer saag, and lamb curry. It came with rice and poori bread, which is the bread equivalent of a balloon. I loved it, it was so yummy.

Bread balloons are my favorite kind of balloons

I didn’t think I was going to love the lamb, but it was actually perfect. Not fatty at all, and the curry sauce was delicious. I loved the paneer saag, although I have to say that the best saag I’ve ever eaten was at India Palace in Greenville. The chicken tikka masala was pretty delicious, but I would say that’s pretty standard. I’ve never really had tikka masala that I didn’t like. Greg got the Chicken tikka masala at the spiciest level you could get it. Karen got Chicken curry slightly less spicy than Greg’s. Both were waaay too spicy for me.

Now I’m craving Indian food. And no one I know in Charleston likes Indian food. Awesome.

Tina got a chicken dosa, which is one of those things I’ve never heard of before. It was described as a “crispy chicken crepe,” but looked more like an indian burrito. Either way it was very yummy, although I would probably never order it myself. All in all, our meal was delicious.

Indian burrito!

I love indian food. It’s probably my favorite food to eat, after sushi. And Passage to India makes really quality, delicious indian food. TRY IT!

Passage To India
157 Washington Street
Salem, MA 01950

Restaurant Reviews

Pomegranate On Main

June 14, 2012

Our visit to Pomegranate didn’t get off to a great start. When my mom called early that day to increase our reservation from 6 to 7, the hostess got all flustered, like we’d asked her something totally insane, like “Hi, I’m going to need for you to find me a chair made out of pure gold, because my badonkadonk is too high class to be sitting on anything less.” She chastised us over the phone “Ok… uhmmm….. let me see what I can do… I just…. this is really…. uh. It might be a bit of a problem. But. uhhh…… hold on [1 minute of silence] Ok. You have to call us if anything changes, because we were only planning for six of you. So let us know if you get any more or any less, because we might have to switch tables, which can be a problem… so…. just make sure you call us.” I’ve changed the number of people on a reservation a hundred times. I know for a fact that’s something restaurants deal with on a daily basis, so spare me the lecture and just add an extra chair to our table. It’s really not that big of a deal. Especially since the restaurant was half empty the entire time we were there. It’s not like people were fighting over seats. But, I digress.

God, I HATE IT when people actually make me do my job!

Everything was fine when we got there, no issues over seating or numbers, which was good. Tina and I ordered their signature pomegranate martini, which is very, very strong, and very, very sweet. It was good, but it took me the entire meal to finish. We started out with an appetizer trio sampler, because we’re indecisive and hungry so we couldn’t pick just one thing. You can customize your trio based on what appeals to you, so I picked the Mast Khiyar (mixture of freshly diced cucumbers, yogurt, raisins, walnuts and fresh herbs), Borani Spinach (blend of sauteed spinach, onion, yogurt and garlic), and Hummus. Tina was apprehensive about the cucumber thing because it had raisins in it, but it ended up being her favorite of the three. It was almost like tzatziki, and you really couldn’t even tell that there were raisins in it. I think we made good choices (especially since the other options were all eggplant based, and I don’t really do eggplant). The hummus was good, although it didn’t compare to the hummus we had at the Moroccan restaurant in Duluth, which is the best hummus I’ve ever had. The spinach thing tasted a lot like the Palak dishes you find at indian restaurants. The appetizers were served with fresh, hot pita bread, which was delicious, and a tray of mint leaves and fresh feta cheese. All the mint ended up going in our water, because we’re school children who can’t behave ourselves in public.

Ben got all excited to arrange his plate all artistically so I could take a picture of it. It really doesn’t take a lot with him.

For my entree, I ordered a Chinjeh Soltani, which was a combination plate consisting of one Koobideh kabob (blend of ground tenderloin and ground chuck, seasoned and charboiled) and one Chinjeh kabob (cuts of tenderloin, marinated in a saffron yogurt combination, charbroiled). The dishes were all served with a grilled tomato and complementing rice dish. Even though mine was just basic basmati rice, it’s probably the most flavorful rice I’ve ever eaten. You’re supposed to squish up the tomato and mix it in with the rice and then squeeze the lime all over it. So I did that. It was so good. Everything was delicious. The piece of meat that’s cut up in the picture is the Chinjeh, and the long stick is the koobideh. I can’t really say which one I liked better. They were both so, so good.

I mean, who doesn’t love a good stick o’ meat?

Sean and Ben both got the same thing, the Torsh Soltani, which was one Koobideh kabob (blend of ground tenderloin and ground chuck, seasoned and charboiled) and one Torsh kabob (cuts of tenderloin, marinated in a zesty sweet and sour Pomegranate sauce mixed with walnuts, charbroiled). Sean ordered special rice with lentils and golden raisins, which was also really freaking delicious. Ben got the same rice as me, so I’m only going to show a picture of Sean’s, because even though they ordered the same thing, I thought Sean’s meat tasted better (that’s what she said?). Christine decided to be different and order a chicken kabob. It wasn’t that interesting, and neither is she (jk jk! I love you Christinalena!). You can see it in the background of Sean’s picture.

“Special” rice for a “special” little man.

Tina and Jenn got a chicken soltani, which was one chicken kabob (marinated in a lemon saffron sauce, charbroiled) and one barg kabob (tenderloin, marinated in a traditional Persian marinade of onion and saffron, charbroiled). I liked the barg, but I still think the torsh was my favorite. Tina’s came with basmati cranberry rice which was probably my favorite of all the rices I tried. It had that great balance of savory and sweet and tart. It was awesome. The chicken was good, but I don’t think it could even hold a candle to the beef. All of the beef dishes were absolutely outstanding, but the chicken was just kind of…. chicken. I mean, it was good, it just didn’t blow me away like the beef dishes did.

Now I’m getting hungry and can’t think of anything funny to say. Boo.

Dad decided to be unique and get something completely different from everyone else. He opted for the rack of lamb (marinated in a rosemary sauce, charbroiled), and lorded over it like a troll guarding a bridge. He reluctantly shared with us after we berated him enough, and I have to say that the lamb was pretty fantastic. I’m picky when it comes to lamb, because a lot of times lamb can be fatty and tough, but this was tender and lean, and the flavor was really outstanding. His came with the same rice as Sean’s (basmati rice with lentils and golden raisins).

Pictured: Why you shouldn’t get gremlins wet.

We opted out of dessert, mostly because we were all stuffed, but also because they didn’t really sound that great. Even though it’s not the best middle eastern food I’ve ever had, it’s definitely the best middle eastern food in Greenville, so if you’re not afraid of GIANT STICKS OF MEAT, then I highly recommend you check it out.

Order the beef or the lamb with cranberry basmati rice. Also, be damn sure how many people are coming with you before you make a reservation, lest you give the hostess a brain aneurysm.

Pomegranate On Main
618 S.Main St
Greenville, SC 29201
(864) 241-3012

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Quote of the Week

Quote of the Week 4/9/12

April 9, 2012

Well, it’s official–Lent is finally over! I did a pretty good job of sticking with my Lenten promise of giving up fried foods, and today is the first day in over two months I’ll have eaten Chick-Fil-a, which is more than impressive if you live in my world.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter holiday! I was happy to spend it with my family (and Taylor!), who graciously came down to Charleston to celebrate with me, since I was too lazy to drive to Greenville (I mean, I’ve been traveling almost constantly over the past month, you can’t blame me for being sick of the car #firstworldproblems). We celebrated on Saturday instead of Sunday, since everyone has a bunch of traveling to do, and it was amazing and stupendous and other adjectives for great.

My mother made lamb, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, two apple pies, and a pecan pie and I ate too much, which no one is surprised by. We spent the evening playing board games and laughing and having a great time, which is one of the things I really love about family time during holidays.

Today’s food quote is a celebration of me finally being able to eat fried things again. I had never thought so before, but after reading this quote, I actually think Cameron Diaz and I could be friends in real life.

“French fries. I love them. Some people are chocolate and sweets people. I love French fries. That and caviar.”
–Cameron Diaz

But only if she brings the Ogre.