We ordered a Mashawi platter for two. At $36 this seemed like the best value. However it didn’t arrive as a platter: it came in stages. A basket of fresh pita arrive moments after we ordered. Which we quickly nommed into nothingness as we were more than a bit peckish. But seems that basket was for part of our dinner – which part arrived some 10 mins later. Stage two was a salad and hummus – both tasty and the hummus notable for a very earthy flavour that I believe I recogised as non-cooked beans in the recipe. I’ve recently come to like uncooked beans better than the canned ones… but I don’t know if you can “hummusize” them. Still it was quite tasty.

The entree arrived: two skewers each of beef and chicken. A roasted tomato and a roasted sweet onion, each cut in half, and an ample serving of a traditional rice dish. Everything was well-seasoned and cooked to well-grilled perfection. Nate wondered if it were sort of a tandoori cooking process. I greatly enjoyed the rice: very sticky, soft, and spiced with a bouquet of flavours that reminded me mostly of Burma Star in SF. I do enjoy spiced rice… may have to whip some up here.

The meal was served with a garlic spread/dip of some sort that was most pungent. We were warned away from it by our waiter, who was at turns obsequious and condescending. He was concerned lest we find the spread to be too much garlic. Of course he couldn’t have known that I used two heads of garlic when I made my falafel and four heads the last time I made lasagna. But his warning was designed for Buffalo white folks, many of whom seem to be as afraid of strong flavour as I am of spiders and who seem to expect their blandness to be catered to by even the most “ethnic” of eateries. A very common damning review is, “Interesting”. A more direct version is, “Too spicy.” In the local dialect and cuisine, “spicy” can refer to anything except salt. Since he warned us, I assume our waiter was a B’lo Native.

Glad I am to say that many in Buffalo would find that garlic spread to be beyond “interesting” and right into “spicy”. Deadly would be my guess: it was amazing. And, as a spread/dip, it served as a unifying force. I enjoyed it on the beef and chicken and found it quite good on the rice as well.

The maitre d’ returned to clean the table and ask us how things were.

At $36 for two, the platter was ample food, just barely. If there were two people with much larger appetites, it might have been insufficient. Yet it was by far the best value on the menu and a good introduction to the chef’s skills. I would certainly suggest it for anyone else. I do also want to try the vegetarian platter for two. The next large one up – designated for four – might be good if Jay and Nate join me for a meal there. I had only two minor problems with the platter: as a prix fixe meal, including salad, starter and entree, I think it should also come with a beverage other than water. I don’t know enough about Lebanese culture to discuss what that should be. Hot mint tea? Lemonade? Currant juice? Whatever. It should come with the meal as should a dessert. Perhaps a local baklava? A little increase in cost might be expected then. SO, as it was $47 (including tax and tip) was not bad at all for a nice dinner for two.

There were hookahs being smoked by guests on the patio. I might enjoy joining friends for such in the future… although I saw no price for them. A nice hookah with a sort of on-going tapas part of the hot and cold mezza dishes would be very nice indeed.

“You know that old saying of grandma’s, that you can pay the grocer or you can pay the doctor? We’ve chosen to pay the doctor.” We’re eating 500 more calories per day than we used to; we’re about 17lbs fatter than we used to be. Two-thirds of us are overweight, one-third of us are obese. One in three people born in 2000 will get type II diabetes, which shortens the lifespan by an average of seven years, which means this generation will be the first in American history to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. Four of our top-ten killers are linked to diet. “The health care crisis is a euphemism for problems induced by the American diet.”

Certainly the USA is not the only place where food issues control health. People seem largely “round” in Canada too – although generally not planet sized! I wonder how their “socialised medicine” costs compare to their food savings? Pollan comes up with, “A vegan in a Hummer has a lighter carbon footprint than a beef eater in a Prius!” Those are strong words for anyone who shops – rather than, eg, someone who grew chickens last summer for the eggs and is now killing a few for the freezer and winter savings.

I’m intrigued by the idea that it might be possible to weave in ideas of feast and fast into this, the traditional Christian discipline around food comes to mind – as does the traditional teaching of Judaism. The (Eastern) Christian idea of being a vegan about 50% of the time can be treated as a restriction by an American who then becomes a carnivore the other 50% of the time. But for most of the world, most of their diet is closer to the vegan half of the church’s rules. It’s only in wealthy societies where the Church needs to enforce the “no meat” rules. WE see fasting as strange and feasting as 100% normal. The only difference between “Feasting on Pascha” and “My families dinner table on Monday Nights” is in size! All the same foods will get eaten: just in different quantities. What would it be like to think of “fasting” as normal whilst “Feasting” (at Pascha, Nativity, Pentecost, etc) would be seen as the odd times?

Grab a pita and have an locally-grown egg salad today. It’s better for you than a lot of the crap out there. Come Wednesday, have a salad. Wait until Sunday to pull out the post roast. Will that be healthier? Will it be holier?

I imagine the issue with Food is not in the eating of what and when. Does God care if you eat a cheese burger on Friday? Doubt it. Rather it seems the real issue is the how and why: spending money like 17 Divies with a joint bank-account seems to me a way to discover that rich men can not enter the kingdom of Heaven.

One major grower, Alabama-based Bonnie Plants, supplies most of the tomato plants to big-box stores, but it is unclear whether the plants were infected before or after leaving the supplier’s multiple greenhouses.

That one place, Bonnie Plants, provides plants all over the east cast, across the Appalachians into Ohio. WTF?

Full information is here: Menu for Hope and the World Food Program

And the listing of the most amazing prizes ever is here.

Tickets are granted by a ten dollar donation to the cause, helping the UN’s World Food Programme.

Go for it!

While Yorkshire Pudding is, really, just another way to get starch and fat into your system this holiday season, it is a very delicious way, indeed.

Raise your hands if you imagine the way out of this is “every greedy bastard for himself.”

How the Omnivore’s 100 Works:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional: Post a comment at Very Good Taste, linking to your results.

My Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison

2. Nettle tea

3. Huevos rancheros

4. Steak tartare

5. Crocodile

6. Black pudding

7. Cheese fondue

8. Carp

9. Borscht

10. Baba ghanoush

11. Calamari

12. Pho

13. PB&J sandwich

14. Aloo gobi

15. Hot dog from a street cart

16. Epoisses

17. Black truffle

18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes

19. Steamed pork buns

20. Pistachio ice cream

21. Heirloom tomatoes

22. Fresh wild berries

23. Foie gras

24. Rice and beans

25. Brawn or head cheese

26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper

27. Dulce de leche

28. Oysters

29. Baklava

30. Bagna cauda (This is on my list for later!)

31. Wasabi peas

32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl DUH: I lived in SF

33. Salted lassi

34. Sauerkraut

35. Root beer float

36. Cognac with a fat cigar

37. Clotted Cream Tea

38. Vodka Jelly/Jell-O

39. Gumbo

40. Oxtail

41. Curried goat

42. Whole insects

43. Phaal

44. Goat’s milk

45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more

46. Fugu

47. Chicken tikka masala

48. Eel

49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (DUh: I am from the South)

50. Sea urchin

51. Prickly pear

52. Umeboshi

53. Abalone

54. Paneer

55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal

56. Spaetzle

57. Dirty gin martini

58. Beer above 8% ABV

59. Poutine (Hello! Dating a Canadian!)

60. Carob chips

61. S’mores

62. Sweetbreads

63. kaolin

64. Currywurst is not what I expected.

65. Durian

66. Frogs’ legs

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake

68. Haggis

69. Fried plantain

70. Chitterlings or andouillette

71. Gazpacho

72. Caviar and blini

73. Louche absinthe

74. Gjetost or brunost

75. Roadkill

76. Baijiu

77. Hostess Fruit Pie

78. Snail

79. Lapsang Souchong (BLEAH!)

80. Bellini

81. Tom Yum

82. Eggs Benedict

83. Pocky

84. 3 Michelin Star Tasting Menu

85. Kobe beef

86. Hare (I’ve had rabbit. But not Hare)

87. Goulash

88. Flowers

89. Horse (I’m not sure…)

90. Criollo chocolate

91. Spam

92. Soft shell crab

93. Rose harissa

94. Catfish

95. Mole poblano

96. Bagel and lox

97. Lobster Thermidor

98. Polenta

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee (Must have, but can’t be sure)

100. Snake

65 is not so high, but I think I class as “omnivore”.

Swindle…

So: if we (Christians) are commanded to freely feed the hungry. If Jews are commanded to treat the hungry with mercy how will God judge Jacob (assuming he’s not a myth…)

Update: Here’s the recipes!