What with us being so classy and all, hubby, kid and I would never think of showing up for dinner with our friends in Lincoln sans a hostess gift. We traditionally bring dessert, with Praline in Belmont being our favorite discovery for that. This time around, we decided to go the savory route. Truth be told, we had an ulterior motive. You see, our friends had 'threatened' to order pizza instead. Why 'threatened?' Well, you see, there is apparently only one local pizza spot in their delivery radius, and the one time we tried it, I found myself wishing we'd made it a DiGiornio night instead. Yes, that bad. But I digress:
Eetch: No, am not exclaiming 'cause I saw something scary. Prepackaged and located in the refrigerated deli section, this was new for me, and is seemingly a lot like Tabbouleh in that it's made with bulgur and veggies, but rather than chopped fresh tomatoes, it featured some sort of cooked tomato puree and was much less parsley-forward. Tasty, but not something I'd come rushing back to eat again.
Spinach & Cheese Turnovers: These reminded me a little of calzones. Indeed. I expected the cheese in the filling to be feta, but it was more of a melty cheese I couldn't identify. And the dough was kind of pizza-like. I'd definitely get these again.
Vegetarian Stuffed Grape Leaves: These were an impulse buy that we grabbed because they were located near the cash register. We got these to accommodate our friend's vegetarian daughter. Deep in my heart, though, I wanted the Sarma, aka Armenian-style Meat-filled Grape Leaves that I believe I spotted in the store's freezer section. Love Sarma and never see it anywhere. Sigh. As for the veggie version, it was solid and the grape leaves were easy to bite into, which isn't always the case.
Meat Lamejun with Garlic: For the uninitiated, these are like a thin, pliable flat bread, traditionally topped with a small amount of ground lamb, tomato puree, and seasonings that you then layer with goodies like slivered raw onion, tomato slices, and parsley sprigs, and roll up like a burrito. They bake these daily here, with a variety of toppings, including one that's vegetarian. We bought a dozen, for just under $20, I believe. Worth every penny, though I wish we'd thought to ask how to warm several of these at once.
When we mentioned that we were first-time customers while checking out, we were gifted with some sort of lentil puree. A lovely, hospitable gesture that we greatly appreciated. Alas though, it was so bland, it wound up being my least favorite thing by far. How's that for irony? Still, all in all, this is a pretty special little shop that makes me wish I lived a whole lot closer. read more