Liking Lebanese Cuisine

I had my first experience with Middle Eastern food - Lebanese to be exact - this past Thursday with some of my lovely colleagues from work. The privately-owned Lebanese Taverna operates both full-scale restaurants and quick service cafes. Founded by the Abi-Najm family, who escaped from war-torn Lebanon in the 1970s, the place mixes fast service with genuine Middle-Eastern cuisine and an impressive understanding of the gluten free diet. According to the January 2013 issue of the magazine "Gluten Free Living": 

The Lebanese Taverna is a Gluten-Free Resources Education and Awareness (GREAT) Kitchen certified by the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness. It is committed to food preparation free from cross-contamination and has chefs well-versed in how to properly handle food for those with special dietary needs. The restaurant's goal is to "have guests leave with full stomachs, satisfied appetites and the peace of mind that each plate was prepared safely."

I ordered mouzat (a lamb dish with tomato sauce), a side of redskin potatoes, and an appetizer of baba ghannouge with gluten free rice crackers. I learned two things during my dinner at the Lebanese Taverna Cafe in Annapolis. Lesson one: I found that I don't like lamb, partly because the meat has an odd flavor and partly because I nearly broke down in hysterics when I realized I was eating a baby animal. Lesson two: The cafe's flavorful tomato sauce was soooo delicious that I found I couldn't stop eating the dish anyway!

Mouzat: Braised lamb in tomato sauce.

My ultimate favorite was the baba ghannouge. I had previously tried this dip at a totally American chain restaurant and liked it, so I figured it would be even better at a Middle Eastern joint. Boy, was it! A mixture of eggplant, tahini, yogurt, and fresh lemon and garlic, it is absolutely scrumptious. 

Clockwise from left: Gluten free rice crackers, baba ghannouge, mouzat (the lamb dish), redskin potatoes.

By the way, whatever the cafe used to season the redskin potatoes - fabulous. I'll have to find out what it is! It had a little kick to it, just spicy enough.

Now that I know that I enjoy Lebanese food, I'll have to try this recipe that I found in "Gluten Free Living," the same issue quoted above. It is for Yogurt & Cucumber Salad:

Ingredients

• 1 clove garlic, crushed

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 tablespoon dried mint flakes, crushed

• 1 cup cucumber, diced into 1/4-inch pieces

• 2 cups yogurt

Directions: 

Crush garlic and salt in mortar and pestle. Add dried mint to garlic mixture. Mix cucumbers, yogurt and garlic mixture. Do not over mix, which can water down the yogurt by releasing the water in the cucumbers.

Honestly, this sounds a bit strange, but mixing yogurt, eggplant, and citrus together sounds gross too and that's what is in baba ghannouge. Worth a try.

I don't have a mortar and pestle, but I recall seeing some cool ones at Randy and Steve's, the stylish new General Store in downtown Ellicott City. Shopping trip!

Thanksgiving Decor - Golden!

This year, I decorated the Thanksgiving table around an heirloom: the stunning gold-plated flatware that my father inherited this year from my great-grandmother Doris Stillman Frazier, rest in peace. She survived the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, World War II, and the deaths of her son and husband, the latter who was a veteran of the Pacific Theater. She gave my father some of his fondest memories of holidays, with her always welcoming, loving, and stable home. To honor her, I wanted to design a Thanksgiving table that highlighted these prized heirlooms.

To make the flatware's hue stand out, I chose a dark brown table cloth from Target and black napkins from Bed Bath and Beyond. I added gold chargers from Michaels under my mother's beautiful Johnson Brothers "Friendly Village" dinnerware. My favorite glasses, amber Helianthus goblets from Anthropologie, continued the gold theme.

Right before dinner, I lit taper, pillar, and floating candles on the sideboard and on the dining room table, which bathed the room in an amber glow.

So much fun - and so affordable to do, considering that most of the items were things I already owned. The beautiful goblet-style votive holders were my one splurge, and they came from Country Crafters in historic Ellicott City.

My mother made delicious pumpkin and acorn squash soup totally from scratch - and yep, that means baking the squash and scooping it all out, kudos to her! She also spoiled us with chicken breasts with traditional stuffing and, for dessert, pumpkin creme brulee. All of which, coincidentally, went perfectly with the golden hue of our Thanksgiving.

My family and I would like to incorporate this heirloom flatware in our holiday celebrations from now on, and since I am loving the idea of a Victorian / Dickensian Christmas, Grandma's gold flatware would be a gorgeous touch. Nothing like decor to transport you to whatever country or era you want. Or, in this case, to keep the spirit of someone we love near us.

Retropolitan Coming to West Annapolis!

Yay! And I will say it again, yay!

For that fabulous purveyor of antiques and vintage, Retropolitan, is picking up stakes and moving from Ellicott City to West Annapolis. Annapolitans should count their lucky stars, since the store immerses shoppers in the glitzy, charming world of the Roaring '20s and onward. A fun shopping experience not to be missed.

Ellicott City will never be the same without this classy shop, but now, West Annapolis will never be the same either.

On my last visit to Retropolitan, while it still kept shop near the B&O Railroad tracks in old town Ellicott City, I discovered a pair of white and blue Italian leather slingbacks with very lady-like pointed toes and kitten heels. 

They had hardly been worn, and in fact, I believe a time-traveling cobbler must have made them just for me, since they fit that perfectly. Retropolitan's tag identified them as hailing from sometime in the 70s, from a line called "Jewel Box." 

The Charm of Downtown Ellicott City

Some of the most fascinating places I have visited are the small, historic downtown areas, where chain restaurants are nearly non-existent and the town has its own distinct ambiance. The mists in the morning at Carmel, California, the wildness and solitude of Whidbey Island, Washington State--small as they are, each place is distinct and unforgettable.

Ellicott Mills Railroad Station

One of my most memorable downtown visits was in fact 3,000 miles away from the aforementioned charmers.