Week Two- Ali Baba

This week was my choice for mystery ethnic dinner.  Last week at the Lithuanian American Club, Brendan presented the table with a book titled Cleveland Ethnic Eats by Laura Taxel.  Brendan explained that the book should be used as a reference, to give us inspiration for our choices.  After two weeks of Eastern European comfort food, I decided that our palates needed a change of pace.  Skimming Taxel's reviews, I eventually decided on Lebanese fare and picked Ali Baba on West 117th Street. What really drew me to Ali Baba was the acronym BYOB, four letters that I thought would make for an extra special mystery ethnic dinner.

This week Alexis, Brendan, Joe and myself were in attendance.  I convinced Brendan to drive which meant I got to navigate from the backseat.  Joe who was sitting next to me stole a peek of the destination on the GPS and from the neighborhood deduced the ethnicity of our meal. After a few minutes of egging him on, he spoiled the surprise for everyone by exclaiming that he might be able to get some language practice that night (everyone knows Joe studies Arabic).  At least it was kept a mystery for the beginning of the car ride.

We had a little trouble finding the restaurant as it is in an unassuming storefront and had old lace curtains drawn.  We walked in unsure that we would be able to drink our case of Great Lakes Conway's Irish Ale, but we received the okay from the teenage waitress.  The restaurant was small, had only eight tables with three other customers in the dining room.  After pouring over the inexpensive menu we ordered our various lamb and beef dishes with hummus and salad to start.  Then we waited, and waited.  We quickly realized that the kitchen staff consisted of only one woman, who seemed to be preparing everything on the spot.  After about twenty minutes the hummus came out. The hummus was served with pita bread stored in a Ziploc bag, Joe took the Ziploc home with him.  The hummus and pita was delicious and we devoured it on the spot.  After another twenty minutes or so the salad came out.  It was a basic iceberg lettuce salad, but tossed with a delicious dressing and pita chips.  This too was devoured in its entirety.  Then we waited, and waited some more for our mains.  Alexis joked that our meals were probably being slaughtered in back, this was probably true.  Finally our meals came staggering out several minutes apart.  I had the shish kabob served with a side of garlic mayo, it was delicious.  I had the treat of tasting everyone dishes and they all had a unique and yummy flavor.

From start to finish the meal lasted well over two hours, a bit long for our appetites. As Brendan said, "If we didn't have beer that would have been really awful."  Thank goodness for Great Lakes.

Can't wait for what's in store for the next mystery ethnic dinner!