Kibbee Nayee

Maybe he should have asked Guy Fieri to help design the menu? Pass.

No love for Zeneli?

Daughter's weeding approaches, and she is scouring the area for catering options. She and my future son-in-law have zeroed in on tacos and related treats as the wedding reception fare, which I applaud. So it was off to Manassas to try a tasting menu of options at Cactus Grill. And it was, in a word or two, muy delicioso. Out came the platters for tasting. First was the dips -- queso, guacamole, and salsa, with house-made chips. The queso was different than most of the velveeta-forward quesos you might be used to, with a white tint and a decidedly Mexican flavor. The guacamole was chunky and obviously freshly made, on a bed of shredded lettuce that actually enhanced it with a extra crunch. The brownish salsa was delectable. Next came the platter of soft tacos, with birria, chicken, carne asada, al pastor -- credit to Lebanese immigrants for that one -- and I added lengua (tongue) and tripa (tripe). All were delicious, and I will return for the tongue and tripe tacos with the missus. They were spectacular. The carne asada and birria were also and will be on offer at the wedding. Three house-made sauces accompanied the platter, and added nice notes of heat and flavor to the tacos. Next came the fajitas, but we were almost too stuffed to enjoy them. Yes, they're more Texan than Mexican, but the wedding guests will have varying tastes and we are trying to accommodate the mean. And yes, there were even some desserts to sample with the churros being decadent and the xangas being obscene. The latter was pretty much a fried cheese cake, and it was ridiculous. The ownership is from Oaxaca, and the genuine side of the menu is authentic and quite good. We didn't try the vast array of dishes like mole negro or menudo, but what we tried led us to believe that the Mexican part of the menu would be worthy of its lineage. Yes, there is also a portion of the menu catering to the local Tex-Mex tastes, like fajitas and chimichangas and the like, but when you come here, focus on the Oaxacan fare and you'll be uplifted.

It's very sad what Assad and the Russians have done to Aleppo over the past decade. My grandparents are from the Homs area, which has been similarly devastated. Nice write-up.

A group of us finally made it to Zenola on a Saturday evening. And in a word, it was excellent. It's tucked away in the former Le Canard space in a strip mall next to Big Buns Burgers and Norm's Beer and Wine. The interior has been nicely appointed and the back wall has an eye-catching window (or portal) to allow some of the kitchen activities to be observed. Cutting to the chase -- The "kibbe nayyeh" is an absolute hit, the best I've had off a menu in the DC area. My death row final meal request will be from here -- perfectly red lamb meat laced with spices and burghul, presented as a burger-patty-sized disk on a plate with two or three dots of garlic paste ("toum") and gherkins. With the fresh pita bread that is frequently plopped on the table -- nice touch, by the way, with the little warm clay disks at the bottom of each cloth bag that the bread comes out with, so as to keep them warm -- and near bottomless arak to sip, I downed at least two and a half orders on my own. The kibbe nayyeh scores a solid A, with the only thing keeping it from an A+ being the smallish portion size, so plan on multiple orders of this delicacy. (However, for me, any portion of kibbe hayyeh is too small, so take that into consideration.) Zenola offers unique takes on all of its dishes, stylized by a chef with serious Lebanese chops combined with serious culinary chops. Tiny-sized kibbe footballs, a fraction of the size you might get at another Lebanese restaurant, must be difficult to make. They are delicious here, served with a drizzle of pomegranate syrup. The stuffed squash, one to an order, is delicious enough that we ordered six of them. The char-grilled octopus was delicious, served with chick peas. The hummus with lamb and pine nuts, elsewhere referred to as "hummus special" but here simply called "hummus topped with lamb and pine nuts" was perfect. The version of baba ghanouj here is reimagined as Allepo Batresh, and is quite good. The sujuk, spinach pie, and roasted cauliflower all continue to demonstrate a kitchen that knows a thing or two about how to cook Lebanese food in a slightly less traditional way. This is restaurant food, nicely uplifted. This is not your typical mom-and-pop Lebanese restaurant, although it is in a way, but the dishes at the more traditional Lebanese restaurants are reaching for the hearts and stomachs of those who grew up with these dishes and want to be reconnected with memories and traditions. Here, the kitchen is reaching for something elevated, and by my initial observations, they are succeeding nicely. I could go on, but you get the idea. Uplifted and creative cuisine from this part of the world is available here. Enjoy.

I hear they're thinking of expanding the Acela Club fat Union Station rom it's current underwhelming configuration to something approaching at least half of New York's Penn Station layout.

It's been a while, pandemic and all, so a long overdue visit back to The Monocle was in order today. By the way, has anyone else noticed the near-total demise of Union Station just a few blocks away? Food options are limited in this neck of the woods. The Monocle was more or less its former self today. Two of us met for lunch. Companion had the tenderloin steak salad, and I had the grilled octopus with spicy sausage. I'll note that the sausage dominated the scant tentacle of octopus, even though the octopus was the headliner. Both dishes were well executed and nicely composed. Thumbs up. We were on the early side of lunch, so a very modest crowd was trickling in. Everything looked as normal as it might look at this stage of the post-pandemic, and with the Senate in recess until Labor Day, things looked as they should. I'll have to come back for a happy hour in September to do some staffer-watching.

A friend invited me to a meal at Mia's, and so we dined....First, it's part of a restaurant group that includes the Majestic farther up King St., Vola's at the waterfront, Ada's on the River, and Theismann's. That's an eclectic assortment, to say the least. I've had hit-or-miss experiences at all of them. The only other Mia's is in Orlando, so yes, it's a chain. Or is it? Second, this is the location of doom for restaurants, but they've been holding up well. The Thursday night crowd offered a good number of covers, and the sidewalk seating on a nice August evening that wasn't too hot added the passers-by foot traffic to the ambiance. Third, the menu advertises "authentic" and "from scratch" with "homestyle traditional Italian recipes sourced from owner Dave Nicholas' Sicilian grandmother." My dinner companion hails from Sicilian roots, so let's dive in. I started with a Negroni, which is $7 at Happy Hour. Not bad. Together we shared appetizers of Arancini and sausage-stuffed long peppers. The former were quite nice, served in a black aioli of unknown provenance, and the latter were spicy enough to be Sicilian-ish. The peppers reminded me of Middle Eastern dolmas, but spicier. Both dishes were good enough to be ordered again. My main course was Bucatini Cacio e Pepe, and his was the Rigatoni Bolognese. Both were quite good and well executed. While not quite the quality of, say, Sfoglina, for comparison sake, they were still very good. Some questions....Why was no bread offered with the pasta dishes? Where is the char-grilled octopus, or some seafood-forward dishes, even sardines, that should be on any Mediterranean menu, especially one with Sicilian chops? Why stress Sicilian heritage when dishes like "Nonna's Sunday Gravy" and "Chicken Parmigiana" and a $17 meatball are as Sicilian as north Jersey? Regardless, this is a pretty good attempt at giving Old Town a shot in the Italian arm.

There has to be a story here. Maybe some intrigue?

Five of us stopped in for a sushi meal on Friday evening. We sampled the sushi for 2, the sashimi for 2, and another sushi and sashimi platter. There was just enough between these three selections to feed all five if us, and we threw in two bottles of wine as well. First observation -- The crowd on a Friday evening was a bit sparse. To me, that means that turnover of protein is not what you want in a sushi restaurant. Second observation -- There was a distinct language barrier at the point of taking orders. For example, one bottle of wine was remembered, while the other was forgotten. There were frequent interactions between the waiter, the sushi bar chefs, and the table patrons to clarify orders. Third observation -- When a place isn't at full capacity, and the table of five orders three major sharable platters, but the kitchen only sends out three miso soups and three salads...? Fourth observation -- Slices of sushi and sashimi proteins were Korean-sized. Some were hard to get into the mouth with one bite. This isn't a complaint, just an observation. Fifth observation -- There were some hits, like some genuine caviar on a few slabs of white fish (maybe albacore?) and nicely scored and rolled large squid. The slices of tuna and the salmon were perfect. For suburban Korean-owned sushi and sashimi, it wasn't bad, and it wasn't great, but I'm not sure what that means in today's post-pandemic restaurant market. All in with tax and tip was almost $250, so an expectation for a slightly better overall experience is not out of line.

The Dining Guide still lists Sea Pearl #2 in Merrifield, which brings up two issues.... #1 Sea Pearl is closed. Has been for a while. #2 Wow, is the Dining Guide in need of a Merrifield refresh or what?

For what little it's worth, National Oyster Day is August 5th. Putting this under Rappahannock Oysters for no particular reason, but it's one of our better oyster purveyors. Although, we have others....

Having enjoyed Rappahannock in Richmond a few weeks ago, and with a minor family celebration to be staged, we decided to try the Rappahannock on the Wharf on Maine Ave. At the least for comparison purposes, and at the most for oysters. Seven of us tucked into a table overlooking the river and the foot traffic. There were a few Cardinals jersey-clad people at the bar, enjoying a pre-game snack before the Nationals-Cardinals game later in the day. And the day was as beautiful as it gets at the end of July in DC. I started with an oyster shooter, and followed it with another oyster shooter. I remember how wonderful these were at the long gone New Orleans Emporium in Adams Morgan a few decades ago, when the oyster was in the glass, with pepper vodka and thick hot sauce on top. The version at Rappahannock had the oyster on its half shell cradled on top of the glass, with Bloody Mary in the glass and a dusting of spice powder on the lip of the glass. Very nice. The table also shared 4 or 5 orders of the char-broiled octopus on a bed of succotash, and it could have easily been the main event. It was about as good as it gets for octopus in our area. We also tried the ceviche, which was just OK, a bit overly rich with a white sauce that may have been mayonnaise-based. But then there were the oysters, about 8 dozen equally divided between Old Salt and Rappahannock. What a perfect summer-y meal, and these babies were plump and juicy and briny -- and perfectly shucked. I don't recall experiencing a random shard or shell fragment in any slurp. Fresh-grated horseradish was a nice bonus. The accompanying muscadet was a perfect match, although a few of our party attacked the draft beer list. A fine meal was enjoyed by all. Oh yeah, comparison to the Richmond outpost -- the Wharf had better scenery, Richmond was a nicer restaurant on the interior, and the food was no different.

I wish I knew the entire story of this restaurant. I used to go to its original location in the Eden Center, and then I followed it to its current location where all that existed was Four Sisters, a muddy parking lot, and a movie theater that has since been demolished to make way for the Mosaic District. I watched as one of the sisters moved up the street to try her hand at the higher end Sea Pearl, which is now shuttered. Through all of this arc, Four Sisters remains one of the more reliable and interesting of the Vietnamese options in our area, where Vietnamese options are plentiful. I ordered the rice noodles with cha gio and grilled pork, and my better half enjoyed the crispy shrimp with vegetables. Both dishes were as always -- very good and plentiful. We also ordered carryout dinner, with shaking beef among the highlights. Also very good. We will continue to frequent this place as long as it remains in existence. We know enough about Vietnamese cuisines and regions to be dangerously oblivious. But I do know enough about flavors and textures to tell the difference between good food and mediocre food, and this is decidedly good food.

Some do and some don't. I usually find it as a special or as a dish that can be ordered a day or two ahead. It's labor intensive to roll those leaves, but it's no less labor intensive than making the vegetarian grape leaves. It's just that the meat stuffing is only good for a day or two but the vegetarian stuffing can last for up to a week in cold storage. Then again, the meat-stuffed leaves can be frozen, so I get your point. A few places, like Ilili downtown, offer meat-stuffed grape leaves.

One more time for the sake of redundancy. The food we know as Levantine, or Palestinian-Lebanese-Syrian-Jordanian, is the product of hundreds of years of tradition and innovation in the kitchens (and village squares) where grandmothers and mothers refined techniques and ingredients over generations. They shared ideas and coaxed the absolute best out of modest ingredients and the glorious spices passing through to and from Europe and Asia. The food we know as Israeli is an amalgam of this tradition, adopted and combined with the open fire cooking of the Yemeni and Moroccan Sephardic Jews, and somewhat blended with the European Ashkenazi Jews and their borscht and schnitzel and cabbage dishes. Israel has existed for barely 100 years or less, and the food we call Israeli has tentacles all over the Middle East and Europe and is as traditional as anything can be since 1948.

It's about time we had a topic dedicated to Zikrayet, which means "memories" in Arabic, and might be appropriately named. After all, the Washington Post restaurant critic recently broke his apparent disposition against Lebanese restaurants by reviewing Zenola in Vienna, and by my memory that was a first for him. So why not dip into a few others? The Washington DC area is slowly becoming one of the hot dining scenes for Lebanese fare, and there are many more to sample....let's start building some memories. Zikrayet was a by-chance opportunity on a Sunday afternoon, and I can't say I did much more than give it a minor sampling. I had the kibbeh nayyeh for lunch (pictured), and I also took home a mezze sampler and an order of kibbeh balls. All of these were very good. Let's start with the venue, which is spacious. I counted about 100 seats inside and at least 50 on the front patio. The waitress told me they get a good crowd on weekends for live music. Yesterday's band was from Iraq, last week's was from Lebanon, and so forth. The fact that hookah was available tells me that the clientele skews youthful. The staff, on a sleepy Sunday afternoon, paid more attention to each other than to the single customer, but that tracks with my observations of Middle Eastern hookah lounges. I'm sure they step it up a bit during the rush. From the pictures, note that the seating is pleasantly uncrowded, and the bar is moderately stocked. I didn't see any arak, but that might have been my oversight. I noticed that al-Massaya wine is on the menu, along with a good selection of other Lebanese wines, and al-Massaya makes the best arak I've ever enjoyed. Next time, I'll make sure to seek out the arak, but that might require an Uber ride. The staff confirmed that the chef is from Beirut, and the pictured kibbeh nayyeh was about as good as kibbeh nayyeh gets. Far more lamb than burgol, nicely seasoned but not overly so, and accompanied by fresh garnishes like toum (garlic paste), mint, sweet onions, jalapeños, and bread. Slight downgrade on the bread because it wasn't hot out of the oven like other restaurants, but it was fine. A few olives and pickled turnips would have also been nice, but were not served. Having not visited them all yet, but based on reputation I'm assuming that Zenola, Albi, and maybe Ilili would join Me Jana at the top of our list of local Lebanese restaurants, but Zikrayet might not be far behind these places. I'll work my way selectively through the list and let you know.

Good one. I'll add it to my list. The point is, our area is getting to the quantity -- and hopefully the quality -- of the Lebanese/Syrian/Levantine pockets of north Jersey, Dearborn, Toronto, and New York/Brooklyn. Plenty to try, not enough time, but let's work our way through all of these places and come up with a general ranking.

I just made koosa this week, with squash from the farmer's market in Stafford. Mama Ayesha's usually has it on the menu. As comforting a dish as you can enjoy at a Middle Eastern place.

I love Amoo's in McLean and Rumi's downtown, but I consider Persian food to be different from Levantine fare, closer to Afghani food but not nearly the same. Turkish food is different too. All good, but not Levantine. The Levant -- mostly Syria and Lebanon in particular -- benefitted from being at the crossroads of 3 continents, with plenty of back-and-forth among the peoples and cooking techniques and ingredients. Throw in the French influence after WWI and you have a nice amalgam of flavors and textures. I consider Israeli food to be a modern fusion of all of the Levant with some European influences from the Ashkenazi Jews.

I often poke fun at Tom Sietsema for his disregard of Lebanese and Levantine cuisine in our area. But he just did a very nice review of Zenola in Vienna. It's on my list for a try-out in the next few weeks, but his review probably complicated the reservations list. The owner ran Cafe Paradiso for a while, and is now settled into the former Le Canard pace in Vienna. I'm dying to have a few plates of the Kibbeh Nayyeh. See --> Zenola.

Why not revive this thread, as new ones appear here and there? This is the category of restaurants that Tom Sietsema loves to ignore. My current list of faves in northern Virginia include Me Jana in Arlington, the standard-bearer for Middle Eastern Uber drivers and me. But my sentimental favorite remains Mediterranean Gourmet Market, which might be nearing its final days as George and Lilian contemplate retirement. Mediterranean Gourmet Market is my go-to for catering at my home. Not far away is Mediterranean Bakery which is where I go for Syrian bread (some call it pita bread) fresh out fo the oven, as well as the best selection of olives and olive oils in our area. However, I'm hearing that Mediterranean Bakery is under new ownership, but I have not yet detected a drop off. I'll admit to not going to many restaurants since the beginning of the pandemic, but now that's starting to change. I'll have to check out the Lebanese Taverna situation, having heard of a slide in quality, but my favorites of the Abi Najm empire always included the Westover flagship and the shinier Tysons Galleria outpost. Stay tuned on that front. Also, a friend brought to my attention Zenola in Vienna, which is now at the top of my list to visit soon. Whenever Kibbee Nayyeh is on the menu, I'm very attentive. Downtown, which I visit infrequently nowadays, has a number of must-visit places on my list. Albi picked up a Michelin star this year, which is a first for a Middle Eastern restaurant in our area. Ilili at the Wharf is the Washington DC outpost of a restaurant started in New York, and also features Kibbeh Nayyeh on the menu. Maydan is on my list for the colder weather months, which is about when a reservation is available. The open hearth cooking beckons. Many are left unmentioned for now, because this is an aggressive list or mostly newcomers -- I lost 30 lbs so far this year, and anything more than an occasional feast would drag me in the wrong direction. We have an abundance, for sure, in our region. No, we're not New York, North Jersey, Dearborn, or Toronto, but we're up there.

Trust me, it's on my list. I get downtown infrequently these days, usually by Uber to a business meeting. Your patience will be rewarded.

Departing Richmond after a weekend getaway with Mrs Nayee, we opted for a hearty southern breakfast, with emphasis on heart and southern. We certainly found both at The Fancy Biscuit. Both indoor and outdoor seating is offered, and the outside deck looked nice and was drawing a crowd, but we opted for the indoor seating. After a hearty pour of excellent Blanchard's Coffee, we tucked into the menu. My order was the Gravy Flight -- a small cup each of red eye gravy, sausage gravy, and tasso ham gravy, with two large biscuits -- and a side of tasso ham and cheese grits. My better half ordered the Black Dog shrimp and grits, which was smothered in the tasso ham gravy. All of the flavors, textures, and heaviness screamed southern food, and it was probably two days worth of calories for normal human beings. No lunch will be necessary on this day.

The missus and I enjoyed a strolling progressive meal through Richmond yesterday, culminating in the destruction of 3 dozen oysters at Rappahannock. Along with a bottle of muscadet, these oysters were an excellent finale for a fun walk in a beautiful part of downtown Richmond. First, the restaurant itself is quite nice. Touches such as a massive horse barn door repurposed as the divider between the restaurant and the bar next door, or the individual unisex bathrooms with wooden decor, indicate a restaurant that was well planned and executed. The oysters were extremely good. We enjoyed 18 Rappahannocks and 18 Olde Salts and they were briny and meaty. My standard two drops of lemon juice and 2-3 drops of Tabasco on each -- and they brought an unopened bottle of Tabasco to the table -- absolutely married up well with the Olde Salts. The Rappahannocks could have easily been enjoyed a cappella. And, best of all, they were perfectly shucked, with not a stray shard or fragment of shell anywhere. Had we not stopped at two prior places for snacks and drinks, we could have easily devoured another 3 dozen. We highly recommend this place for oyster lovers, but I'm not sufficiently familiar with the 6 or so other restaurants in the Rappahannock empire to declare it superior or on a par with the others.