Ali Baba Turkish Cuisine

Early on in the week, I planned to go down to the Lower East Side with CT for dinner at the Souvlaki GR Truck’s new restaurant. I read the place was small and without a reservation(I don’t think they take them), I decided we could just go somewhere else in the immediate vicinity that has a plethora of dining options. By the time Friday night rolled around, CT & I were both exhausted from a long week at work and decided to stay local. This is usually the story of anyone who lives in NY, we get too comfortable staying [...]

Tuesdays with TT: Ali Baba

After getting back from the wedding in Delaware, my parents offered to drive CT & me back to the city and take us out to dinner. One of my go-to delivery places is Ali Baba for Turkish cuisine. In the almost 6 years I have lived in the neighborhood, the food has been consistently good. Usually I only order out from there and I think I have actually only eaten there once. AB and I have been suggesting to my parents for years that we go there. Unfortunately AB couldn’t make it this time. After being seated, we were giving [...]

The Country Kebab

Once more following Daniel/Downtown Lunch around… it’s been an interesting couple of weeks with the lack of bento and the excess eating out, so I’ve been able to try a lot more of these places.  Anyway, The Country Kebab – I’m constantly looking for good kofte like I had in Turkey.  Or at least something delicious, whatever!  I’m game!  Here’s the menu from outside the place.  I opted to get the lamb kebab platter.  They freshly cook it while you wait, so it does take a few minutes, but whatever.  It smelled delicious.  You get to choose your sides, too [...]

Byblos (Lebanese)

Despite eating more than my fill of kebab in Turkey & Greece, Byblos- a Lebanese restaurant – caught my eye when I saw the many positive reviews on MenuPages.  I was curious to see how good their lamb would be in comparison to Greece/Turkey, though I had a good idea it wouldn’t be as good, perhaps it would come close.  For those of us who were early/on time/not quite that late, they’d placed on the table some pickled vegetables and some flatbread.  The pita was thin and delightfully chewy, but cold and not that interesting, unfortunately.  We decided to order [...]

The Food of Greece and Turkey

Hmm, looking over my pictures, I only photographed two meals in Greece.  How odd.  I guess because it was much of the same stuff, repeatedly~ kebabs, lamb, kebabs, etc.  So here’s the teaser, only one of these meals, at Smiles Restaurant somewhat near our hotel: Lamb kebab with pita, tzatziki Grilled octopus, with our appetizer of taramasalata in the background Pork schnitzel Our first meal in Turkey was soundly disappointing, but we knowingly went into a touristy place.  Ah well. Our mezze (starter) platter - hummus-ish, horse beans, stuffed eggplant, shredded chicken salad type thing, greens, and I forget what was [...]

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