Iraqi Food and Restaurants – Page 2

Dubai Restaurant – (It’s in El Cajon, next to Sultan Baklava)

December 27, 2009 Cathy Desserts, Iraqi Food and Restaurants, Mediterranean Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Dubai closed. In the same location, it is now a restaurant named Sultan and is part of Sultan Baklava

mmm-yoso!!! is this. What you are reading. A blog about food. Today, Cathy is writing.

The other day, The Mister and I were in El Cajon, at Sprouts market, and a sign kitty corner from that location caught our eye. We had to check it out.

We had already had lunch, so went into Sultan Baklava and bought a few things (Turkish pistachios as well as some fresh made dessert treats)

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Everything here is sold by the pound, and *really* good. The sweets are made with a sugar-water mix, not honey…they are Turkish. You can taste the nuts and other fillings. Really, really good.

We got a menu from Dubai and went back last night.

Six tables, four set for six each and two set for four each. Small, cozy, clean. The owners are Chaldean.

We ordered Baba Ghanouj (Large, $4.95)
A nice serving of fresh made, creamy baked eggplant, pureed with tahini, garlic and olive oil. Really good. Really fresh. Served with fresh flatbread.

We also ordered the Dubai salad (large, $5.95). Fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, olives and lettuce with a light olive oil and vinegar dressing (vinegar and olive oil are also on the table) and lemon wedges can be added for more flavor. The plate was double the size of the Baba Ghanouj plate.
The Mister ordered a lamb shank ($13). Don't be put off by the photo. It was not burned or tough. It was marinated lightly and was moist and tender- flaking off in a good way from the bone- and you could taste the lamb flavor (at many other places, there is so much marinade that the meat has no flavor). There was a choice of Biryani or Basmati rice- The Mister chose Biryani: the cumin and cardamom flavors were wonderfully pleasant. The rice had roasted potatoes, peas and raisins in it. The plate also comes with a stew and picked turnips, onions, parsley and tomatoes.
I ordered the chicken schawarma sandwich ($3.95). The chicken was moist and flavorful and the sandwich was filled with cucumber, yogurt sauce and onion, parsley and lettuce. It was wrapped in fresh flatbread.

All meals come with hot tea. Served this way. Strong tea (4 bags in that pot)…beautiful teacups.

Dubai also has a buffet on Wednesday and Saturday, with most hot sides available and kebabs made to order for $8 per person.

Sultan Baklava 131 Jamacha Road El Cajon 92019 Open 10 a.m.-9 p.m. daily (619)440-1901 website

Dubai Restaurant 133 Jamacha Road El Cajon 92019

Ali Baba Restaurant – El Cajon

December 7, 2009 mmm-yoso Iraqi Food and Restaurants, Mediterranean Restaurants

A couple of weeks before our visit to Village Grill, the Missus and I took a drive down Main Street in El Cajon, just to take a look around. Not quite sure where to stop, we saw a packed parking lot…..and decided this was where we'd be stopping. It turned out to be the very colorful Ali Baba Restaurant, which Cathy had done a post on earlier.

As Cathy noted, the interior is quite "Arabian Night-ish"…… in a somewhat kitcshy kind of way.

We made two visits over the next couple of weeks, and what follows is a summary of the dishes we tried.

Overall, of all the items we had at Ali Baba, our second favorite was the Baba Ganouj (small – $5):

The Baba Ganouj had a wonderful smokey eggplant flavor, that went so very well with our favorite item at Ali Baba….. which would be the flat bread called "Khubz". On our visits we were served two hot large dinner plate sized bread to start.

The Jajeek (small – $5), the Iraqi version of the refreshing yogurt and cucumber dish that many folks know as Tzatiziki, was good.

The Jajeek was very creamy, but was a bit short on salt. I also thought a bit more lemon juice and garlic would bring up the flavors a bit for me. Of course, I'd eat anything with that bread.

Of all the Entrees we tried, I'd say the Shawarma (Gus – $10.95) was the best.

The beef was nice and chewy, but was much drier than the version at Village Grill. It was also a bit short on salt, I ended up adjusting the flavor with a good amount of sumac. The rice was also quite bland. It was quite a bit of food, as the Missus and I shared this, and we still had leftovers…. of course we had two pieces of bread…..

I did enjoy the "Turshi", the variety of pickles and other "mezze". The pickled turnips were good and sour.

On one visit, the Missus ordered the Kousi, braised lamb shank and rice ($13):

The dish came with a stew of choice, and the Missus went with Her usual, the Okra Stew they call Bamia. Man this was quite a hefty meal. This version of Okra Stew was fairly mild and didn't have any meat in it. The lamb shank was cooked to perfection, but was a bit underflavored for our tastes. I love the version of the Okra Stew at Village Grill which is full of whole cloves of stewed garlic.

I think the item we enjoyed the least at Ali Baba is the Lamb Tekka ($13):

The first thing I'll note is how difficult it is to take photos of food on reflective metallic plates…… The chunks of marinated and grilled lamb was badly in need to of salt. It was also tough and dry, not my favorite combination in the world.

From this post, you might get the idea that we won't be going back to Ali Baba anytime soon, but that would not be accurate. We will probably stick to maybe the Baba Ganouj, a salad, or maybe the Potato Chop or perhaps a sandwich. And of course that bread…….. Which of course would be part of the reason we'll be back. But there's another reason. The service is not the fastest, and the men working there are on the indifferent side, but there's one woman who works there who is wonderful. She has a very warm, kind, and welcoming personality; every child get's a warm smile and a pat on the head. She always seemed pleasantly surprised that we finished all of our bread, and asked if we wanted more on both of our visits. We were even asked if we wanted more bread with our doggie bags. And even though we wanted to say "yes", we really didn't want to impose. And we especially didn't want to seem like gluttons. On our second visit, as we were grabbing our leftovers, the Missus asked if they made their bread fresh since it was always hot when it reached the table. The woman smiled warmly and beckoned us to "come and follow me, I'll show you". And we got a quick tour of the kitchen! We were led to the back of the kitchen where the fresh bread was made.

We watched as another woman, who smiled at us strangers in her baking area like it happened all the time, cut and rolled out the dough, which was then placed in a oven that looked much like a tandoor.

A few moments later a hot flatbread was brought out of the oven. Our guide, that wonderful lady, then grabbed the bread and popped it into a white paper sack and handed it to me and said, "ok, now this one is for you to take home" as she walked us to the back door. As we left she said "see you soon", and I think she will….see us soon…… And we'll do a post of course.

You can't put a price on that……

In a nutshell, it is probably the most accessible Iraqi Restaurant in the area. The prices are reasonable and the portions are very generous. The lunch crowds are, well, crowds. It is perhaps better to go for an early or late lunch. Limited parking in the small parking lot, but there's ample street parking.

Ali Baba Restaurant
421 East Main Street
El Cajon, CA 92020

Village Grill – El Cajon

November 22, 2009 mmm-yoso Iraqi Food and Restaurants, Mediterranean Restaurants

**** Village Grill has closed

Over the years Cathy has mentioned that El Cajon, and Main Street El Cajon has become an enclave for Iraqi's in the US. A few months back, I was meeting two of my favorite FOYs, Candice and Howie in El Cajon for lunch. I arrived a bit early and decided to drive down El Cajon Boulevard, which turned into Main Street, and I was astounded by the amount of Middle Eastern Markets, restaurants, and snack shops. Coincidentally, I would receive an email later that evening from FOY KennethB, who also mentioned Main Street. So over the last couple of weeks, the Missus and I have been driving East to El Cajon to kinda just look around and eat a bit.

On one of our drives we noticed a small shop doing some pretty good business, and I added it to my "list". It was called "Village Grill".

On this day, we decided just to take a drive down to El Cajon and make our decision when we arrived. Little did we know that today was also the day when the annual Mother Goose Parade was held. We decided to park, and head out on foot, and just stop by somewhere……

I've got to say that walking down Main Street past places called Babylon Market, while passing marching bands, and clowns, and cowboys, and walking into Village Grill, the scent of meat grilling on the vertical spits permeating the air was somewhat surreal. The interior of Village Grill is spartan, with just a few simple tables and chairs. We looked over the one page menu, ordered and sat down at our table watching the parade go by.

One thing about these restaurants….. I don't think you'll ever leave hungry, and you'll soon see why.

First to arrive was the Baba Ghanouj (small – $3.99).

Along with one of my new favorite things in the world, the wonderful flatbread I was told is called "Khubz". The Missus thought the Baba Ghanouj had too much tahini in it. I thought it lacked that wonderful, smokey eggplant flavor. The bread was fine, but served barely warm, and wasn't quite as good as the version at Ali Baba (a post is forthcoming) up the street.

A large plate of "Turshi", various "mezze" also arrived.

I expected the usual pickled turnips, but here it was replaced with a pickled turnip and cabbage flavored with tumeric and other spices, giving it a bracing sour-curry flavor. I really enjoyed it, the Missus did not.

Knowing what I had ordered, the Missus went with one of the "Rice & Stews"; the Okra based "Bamia", this one had beef as the meat.

The stew came with a large plate of rice. We both thought the broth was excellent, rich and tangy, with large chunks of flavorful beef, that looked tough, but was fairly tender. The okra was plentiful, and this would be quite a filling meal. I really loved the whole cloves of tender garlic in the soup, sweet and pungent, it was wonderful.

Of course, this is when my order started arriving. I had ordered the "Village Grill", the mixed meat plate. At $12.99, it was one of the more expensive items on the menu. Things started with a good sized salad.

The Missus loved the salad, which She called "refreshing"….good amounts of citrus and olive oil made this very tasty.

And then my huge plate of meat arrived. This was enough for two people at the least.

The Missus's favorite was the Shawarma Beef, also called "Gus".

This was very moist, with a nice beef flavor, that the Missus said was almost "beef jerky-ish".

Most beef kabobs in these type of restaurants tend toward the tough side, and are sometimes a bit short on flavor. This one was moist with good flavor, and if a bit on the chewy side, I wouldn't call it tough, not by a longshot. It was my favorite meat item.

Of course, that's not to snub the Tekka Beef, which was very moist.

It was also quite tender, and had a decent beef flavor. The rice on the bottom really benefited from the meat drippings.

The only item that I didn't care much for was the Hummus, which again had too much tahini, and not enough lemon, nor any other flavor to carry the day.

This was quite a meal, we left with tons of leftovers, and a full belly. The young lady who works the front of house was very sweet and nice. The prices are very reasonable, and the ingredients, except for the rice are of good quality. We'll be back without a doubt. And because I know folks like RONW love menus, here's a photo of the simple menu at Village Grill:

Ooops, wrong side! (Click to enlarge)