Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'Syrian'.
Found 3 results
-
Not trying to go totally off-topic, but Orthodox church festivals in general are a chance to eat some high-quality ethnic cuisine for a reasonable price, take a dip into that culture with music/dance/arts/books, and rest assured that your modest expense is going to good causes. The best ethnic Egyptian food I've had lately was at the St Abanoub Coptic Orthodox church festival in Springfield a month ago. The St Aphraim Syriac Orthodox church festival in May had some excellent Syrian food. St George Antiochan Orthodox church downtown has wonderful Syrian food too. When you go behind-the-scenes and see all the moms and grandmoms show up a few days prior, and start rolling grape leaves in the kitchen, you know you're in for the real deal. (With that, I'm sure Don will begin a new topic on Orthodox church festivals.)
-
When we moved from Arlington to Herndon, I was afraid my wife's heart would break from losing Me Jana/Lebanese Taverna market and the other local places to get a quick shot of shawarma when needed. In one of Herndon's many strip malls of ethnic delights on Elden (this one has four Indian places of various styles and regions, a halal grocery store, a Russian deli, a German place where the owner's Thai wife snuck some things on the menu) is Granada Cafe, which beyond doing excellent Lebanese staples such as shawarma/fettoush/kibbeh etc. has some Syrian and Iraqi dishes, including something which I never thought I'd see outside of Iraq, the delectable sammoun. Sammoun is a soft sandwich loaf that defies easy description. It's shaped like a baguette truncated into a crescent-roll shape, very soft with a hint of sweetness. If you've only ever had pita and lavash, sammoun is eye-opening. The Granada Sandwich (tender beef strips, pickled beets and carrots, marinated eggplant, and a touch of curry) comes stuffed in a sammoun, as does their version of shish tawook, which is like a yankee bbq sandwich because it takes a perfectly good bit of bread, meat, and sauce and then throws coleslaw in it. All the breads are fresh-baked in their brick oven and any sandwich can come on sammoun for an extra dollar, I believe. They also bake Turkish pide in this oven, though I haven't tried one. They do a fairly steady business for lunch, but I've never seen them busy for dinner outside of Ramadan. They have an impressive dessert case from the bakery side of the house - different strains of baklawa, bird's nests, knafeh, etc. So far I've only been disappointed with the meat and cheese fetayer - it's possible that they're not getting the turnover they need, so they end up a little dry; otherwise, this is a great chance for fans of Middle Eastern food to try something new.- 13 replies
-
- 3
-
-
- Herndon
- Middle Eastern
- (and 3 more)
-
I haven't seen much about this restaurant other than occassional mention in the Wed. chat, but a friend and I went there last night for dinner. In comparison to Lebanese Taverna, I must say this is much better. Note: we split 5 mezzas and they were all vegetarian as my friend doesn't eat meat. We stuck with your basics standards but thought they were well executed. Had a pomegranate hommass-your basic hommos with with pom. juice on top. (we actually ordered a 2nd one later since we liked it so much). It was well made, very smooth and creamy, not too garlicky, but the juice just added a nice sweet/tart note that is a bit unexpected (but in a good way) Had the moussaka-eggplant, onion, tomatoes, chickpeas. We both enjoyed it, but definitely had other favorites of the night. It was cold which we weren't expecting, and came as a bit of a shock since we were expecting something else. It was a good melding of flavors in more of a vegetable stew kind of dish, rather than a layered casserole that I think of when I think moussaka. Middle Eastern cheese-2 1/2" thick, maybe 6" long slice of cheese, said to be served warm, we found ours to be at best lukewarm. Probably the least liked of the bunch. One was covered in black sesame seeds, the other in zaatar. I just found it didn't have a whole lot of flavor. Spinach Fatayer-a good rendition, nothing mind-blowing, not too inventive, just a good spinach pocket. Very generous on the filling, which I have found can be stingy at some places. Last, vegetarian kibbeh-I think this was my favorite of the night. Triangle shaped filled wheat shells with walnuts, peppers, and pom. sauce, then deep fried. The outside had a wonderful crispness to it without being greasy at all. The inside was so hot I burned my mouth a bit, but is was a wonderful oozy gooiness. Not to oozy to spill everywhere, but enough to feel a wonderful texture contrast in your mouth. That's it, sorry to be so long, hope I didn't bore you! Our bill was $42 (6 mezzas and one iced tea), not including tip. The interior was very nice-the usual Middle Eastern decorations, but tastefully done. It was not crowded at all when we were there, but I could see this being a nice place to bring a date on a weekend. Very large selection of vegetarian choices-I would say over half of the menu actually.
