Lemony Zest :: Kim Lewandowski

Posts Tagged ‘TNT dinner’

(This one’s for you, Eric )

My friend Barbara and I had dinner at Azar’s tonight, our favorite Middle Eastern restaurant with the attached market. Need some fabulous feta? Terrific tabouli? The best baklava? This is the place to find them.

I had a kefte wrap – a hotdog-shaped piece of hamburger mixed with spices, cooked, and wrapped in a pita with pickles, hummus, tomato, and Azar’s famous Mama Lina Sauce. I also ordered an appetizer of stuffed grape leaves, to bring home to Dan for his dinner, along with half of my sandwich (they’re huge!). Barbara had seafood kebab, beautifully grilled and served with saffron rice. Great meal. We skipped the baklava, since I, at least, overindulged a bit during our vacation to Michigan last week.

Eating there reminds me of my trip to Turkey in 2001, with my mom, aunt, uncle, and two couples who are friends of theirs. Our tour guide in Istanbul said that, because the Ottoman Empire covered practically all of the Middle East and parts of Europe and Africa, for hundreds of years, most modern-day countries in those areas claim lots of the same recipes, such as hummus and tabouli, as their own. In fact, the recipes came from the Sultan’s kitchen and were spread by the Ottoman army throughout its territory. For example, stuffed grape leaves in southern Europe became stuffed cabbage.

On Tuesday, Barbara and I went to dinner at A.W. Shucks, a local seafood restaurant we had not been to before. We think it’s a great value – good food at good prices with good service. It seemed to be very popular, too. They don’t have a Web site, though. But here’s what we had:

• Barbara: fish ‘n chips. The fish was tilapia; looked good and the fries were great You get two sides – the other one she ordered (as did I) was the tomato-feta salad. What a great idea! It was a hit with both of us.
• Kim: fried shrimp, with mashed potatoes and tomato-feta salad. The shrimp were a bit overdone, and I would have preferred a traditional cocktail sauce. It came with a slightly spicy, thin sauce that was okay, but I guess I’m a bit of a traditionalist about some things

Last Tuesday, my dinner group went to Bangkok Garden, our favorite local Thai restaurant. I love the back room, with its beautiful wood-carved walls and life-size Buddha statues, as well as the elephant statues. But this time, we sat in the front room, which was bright and sunny from the large windows.

I love Thai food, but I always have difficulty determining what to order when I want to try something new. The menus don’t say anything about the seasonings included in any sauces, they just list the meat and vegetable ingredients, and the staff, most of whom are Thai immigrants, usually don’t communicate in English very well. Last week, though, our server, one who had served us before, spoke better English, so I thought it would work out better. She had advised me to ask for a teaspoon of spice, so the dish would be a little spicy but not overpowering. That evening, it didn’t work out, unfortunately. It was too hot for me to eat, so I took it home for Dan.

Luckily, Barbara had ordered Pad Thai, because her usual curried seafood special was not on the menu that night, so she shared it with me. It was quite good – so good, I printed out a recipe for Pad Thai from the Food Network. I’m going to try it tonight. We’ll see how it goes

I’ve been remiss in posting about my weekly dinners with friends. Last week, we went to the No Frill Grill. During the entire month of April, they’re having a special where, for every appetizer and dessert ordered, they will donate $1 to the Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters.

So I went with four friends and we ordered five appetizers and two desserts. It was great, we all got plenty to eat, and did some good for the children’s hospital. The No Frill Grill is always a good value, but especially so this month. Dig in!

Last Wednesday, my dinner group went to the new 21st Street Fish House & Oyster Bar at 123 21st Street in Norfolk. It’s in the space that used to house Cafe Rosso before it burned, and Fellini’s prior to that.

The food was quite good, and the prices were very reasonable for a seafood place – mid to upper teens for a fish dinner, higher for a few specialties. There were 7 or 8 catch-of-the-day options; you could choose one of those and then decide how you wanted it cooked – pan-seared, baked, grilled, blackened or broiled – and select a sauce to be served with it. The dinners are served with a choice of two sides. There were also some specials. Here’s what we chose:

• I had the grouper, pan-seared with lemon beurre blanc sauce. It was excellent, although the fish wasn’t browned as I would have expected from pan-searing.
• Barbara had the special – monk fish topped with lump crab meat and Hollandaise sauce. She enjoyed it very much.
• And Keith also had grouper, but his was grilled and he chose the peach (I think) chutney as a topping. He thoroughly enjoyed his as well.

The only thing I found odd was that the mashed potatoes I selected as a side were served with a red wine-mushroom sauce, which I thought was a bit heavy for a seafood accompaniment. It was good, just not a good companion for fish.

I would definitely recommend the 21st Street Fish House, though. Give it a try

Last Wednesday, Barbara and I had dinner at Fahrenheit, a new restaurant at 437 Granby Street in downtown Norfolk. It was quite good – I had a salad with grilled portobello and a honey-balsamic drizzle and penne with tomato sauce. Barbara had chicken marsala, which was served on mashed potatoes rather than the usual noodles. She enjoyed it.

Oddly, we were the only people in the restaurant. It’s only been open for a few months, so maybe it needs to find a following. The server told us that the chef used to be the chef at Velvet 25. So check it out – it was very good.