| rev:text
| - I was initially leery of this rise of new Turkish restaurants in the "Land of Cleve." I was thinking, "OK...this will be just like all of the Middle Eastern places..." Thankfully, Alaturka has a flavor all its own...and it's great!
We started with the hummus and stuffed grape leaves. I'm always wary of hummus, when there's too much lemon squeezed into it, my tongue does funny things...like swell up. So, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that theirs had more of a savor, nutty flavor. No one flavor overpowers the others. It's a well-balanced taste. They also offer the olive oil on the side, so you don't have a lake of it swimming on top of the hummus. And the bread...is addictive. Like a really thick pita, served piping hot, with enough heft and nooks & crannies to mop up every last bit of hummus. The grape leaves were excellent. Very similar to Greek ones, but with pine nuts and a hint of some mystery spice. I think it was nutmeg, but I couldn't swear by it. My oldest friend in the world is Greek...his mother is from Greece and every holiday, hand-makes 100's of "dolmades" each time. Hers are the best I've ever eaten...Alaturka's grape leaves are tied with hers. (I can't say better, because she will know I wrote that, then I'll get hit with a 70's-era Dr. Scholl wooden clog next time I see her.)
For our main course, I had the Lamb Adana from the "Yogurt Dishes" menu. It's thin slices of very good, lamb/beef "gyro-style" meat, perfectly seasoned, laid out on a bed of toasted croutons made from the aforementioned addictive bread, with a yogurt/tomato sauce on top of the croutons. It was excellent. The meat was tender, moist but not greasy, and the sauce was flavorful without overpowering the dish. The portion was just the right size...not too much, not too small. A great dish!
After dinner, I passed on the very tasty sounding desserts for a cup of traditional Turkish coffee and a glass of "raki," a traditional Turkish liquor, similar to ouzo. They offer the coffee 3 ways; sweet, semi-sweet and unsweetened. I opted for the latter. It was thick, but velvety smooth and bitter-sweet taste. Perfect. The raki, (pronounced "rah-key") was as expected, strong anise flavor...like black jellybeans, followed up with a punch in the face. They offer up a traditional presentation; bowl of ice cubes and glass of water on the side, (add the ice, and a little bit of water, and the raki turns milky white), but I prefer mine straight.
Our waiter was very attentive, and honestly enthusiastic about the quality of the food. He offered honest recommendations from the kitchen, "That choice is good, but this one is great!" kind of stuff. He was very knowledgeable about the ingredients of each dish. The table behind us was a group of those, "I'm allergic to this, he's allergic to that" kind of people. One-by-one, he rattled off the ingredients of each dish, addressing the "concerns" of each of the diners.
Alaturka is an excellent addition to the neighborhood! Go there, tell your friends!
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)