NYC: Pasha Turkish Cuisine

With our wedding officiant, June, outside the restaurant.

One evening in New York we dined at Pasha, a warm, inviting Turkish restaurant on the upper West side. On the way there we saw Ben Stiller filming a movie near Central Park. The crew was shushing everyone, which we found hilarious - telling people walking down the street in NYC to be quiet!
Luckily we found the restaurant with no problem, and after a LONG walking day - we calculated about 9 miles total, we really enjoyed taking a load off and having dinner with June, a family friend who will officiate at our wedding in April. The food was very enjoyable, especially the dips and olives and Calvin's lamb dish - very tasty.

Grilled eggplant dip, hummus and salad.

Chicken breast stuffed with rice, pistachios and currants.

Pan seared trout.

Lamb slices with tomato sauce.

Ice cream, baklava and milk pudding rounded out the meal.

Ziba's Restaurant and Wine Bar in Grant Park

Olive and nut plate - the olives were outstanding.

Back in October I met up with my book club at Ziba's Restaurant and Wine Bar. I'd heard about Ziba's for some time but this group meeting made for the perfect opportunity to check it out. The funniest part was that another book club was meeting there on the same night!

The menu.



The inviting patio.



Yucca Frites.



Crispy Artichoke.

Our group enjoyed sharing several small plates and entrees. After finding out about my food blog the owner graciously sent over some freebies from the kitchen. I really enjoyed the clams with sausage and the quail. The atmosphere was perfect for our group meeting - not too loud and very inviting. As we were leaving, they were gearing up for some dance lessons.

Stuffed dates - I love this presentation!



Persian Meatballs.



Citrus braised baby octopus with clams.



Crabcake entree.



Clams and Merguez Sausage - a surprise highlight of the meal.



Grilled quail (back) and grilled calamari with artichokes (front). The quail was very tasty and the calamari definitely had a unique preparation.

Overall I was a bit disappointed with the food. For example, the meatballs were dry and there was something off about the octopus, which I was so excited about when I ordered it. I think it would work better with sliced octopus rather than small baby octopus, which dried out easily. I would give Ziba's another try sometime, though, as I don't like to judge a place based solely on one visit. There were also several dishes I liked a lot, as indicated above.

Kabob Grill - Charlotte

Kabob Grill's wonderful "Hommos dip".

Kabob Grill is one of my Charlotte mainstays. I enjoy the freshness and quality of the ingredients as well as the causal, laid-back atmosphere. The hummus (hommos) is really excellent here. My other favorite dish is the lamb kabob wrap - really tasty. Over Thanksgiving I returned here with Calvin, my dad and a family friend - a great lunch choice!

Daily special - ground lamb with potatoes and rice in a tomato sauce.



Stuffed grape leaves.



Lamb and falafel wraps.

Family Dinner on the Porch

Yours truly was in charge of "munchies" - from left center: goat gouda, homemade hummus (frozen and defrosted from a couple of weeks ago), marinated mushrooms, fresh mozzerella and olives from Whole Foods olive bar, seeded faltbread and in the center, sesame honey cashews from the Morningside Farmer's Market.



Joanne & Craigs fabulous rosemary lemon grilled chicken.



Yummy grilled veggies.



Chickpea couscous salad with a hint of cinnamon.



The full plate. For dessert we had strawberry shortcake (below).

Zaya in Inman Park

Zaya, located on Highland Avenue in Inman Park.

Last Wednesday my friend and I checked out Zaya Mediterranean Cuisine. Everything that I tasted was good, especially the simple field greens salad with gargonzola, walnuts and raisins. I would like to come back and try some of the grilled meats another time. We were served pita bread with an interesting dip that I think contained crushed pomegranate seeds. This place has a small patio, which is a nice feature, especially as we venture into the warmer months!

Field greens salad with a delicious pepper jelly vinaigrette.

Vegetarian platter with eggplant mousaka, stuffed grape leaves, spanikopita and yogurt salad.

Entertainment Lebanese Style!

Friday night I went to Nicola's with about 12 people from the Buford Highway Meetup Group. We dined family style and enjoyed the entertainment provided by belly dancers and Nicola, the owner who can himself dance to the music. At one point I think our whole group was dancing! The food was tasty and we had several entree dishes that are not pictured here. It did seem, however, that they did not provide the amount of food that we paid for and when we asked if we could have a few of the dishes refilled, two of the staff said "No." That's not good business sense, but I think everyone still had a good time just enjoying the scene.

Pita bread, Greek salad, Hummus

Tabouleh and Fried Artichokes

Baba Ganooj and Stuffed Grape Leaves

Nicola serving a beer - watch the video for the full effect!

Here's Nicola in action...

Dancing Lebanese Men!

Mediterranean Delight Platter

Falafel

Yesterday I had a group meeting at Nicola's, an entertaining Lebanese restaurant where, if you're lucky, you might see the owner balance a bottle of wine on his head while doing a bit of a fully clothed belly dance. The food was pretty good - I enjoyed the hummus and the eggplant with rice. I thought the falafel was overspiced, though. Our waiter insisted we try the Turkish coffee, which went quite well with the baklava. On weekends they have belly dancing and apparently the whole place gets up to dance. This I'll have to see, but I may need a drink, or two...

Zaytinya in DC

Hummus, Baba Ganooj and Fattoosh

I had some lovely mezze with my cousins and my mom in DC. We were able to get the restaurant week menu so we tried lots for a low price.

Falafel, Calamari and Sauteed Shrimp

Lamb kabob, chicken kabob and salmon

Dessert!