Mixing flavors at Istanbul Grill
When I was three or four, my mom once asked me what relationship was the most important in life. I said friendship. She wasn’t happy. She wanted to hear that the mother-and-child love was the most important, to which I explained that mother and child should treat each other like friends, with respect and trust and so on, thereby making the relationship a friendship. For all these years, my mom has been my best friend, but I’ve had other amazing friendships too. Some last, some don’t. Some fade, some strengthen. Some are built over the world wide web, some are formed through sleepless nights struggling over assignments. You know what the best thing about non-family friends is? You get to choose them. You get to hang out with people who are different from you, but mix so well with you, like salt and lemon. Or how about this, like yogurt and meat?
Iskender kebab - lamb and beef on fried pide bread with yogurt
What are you smoking, Mai, yogurt and meat? Yep. Yogurt and thin slices of döner (beef and lamb), blanketing a bed of dice butter-roasted pide bread (the Turkish name of pita bread). It is carnivore festival. If you ever feel like you are ready to chow down a cow in two minutes, Middle Eastern restaurants are the place to roll. They beat Texas BBQ houses by miles in the blunder of sheer meat. BBQ houses at least try to give you a salad (with dressing, but still), a few starchy objects like toasts and buns, a side or two of cole slaw, green bean, corn, or whatever skimmishly healthy. The Persians smirk at such disguise. If you want meat, you get meat, either in a giant ball or in a giant mount. The doner overwhelms any trace of pide bread there might have been. Then the refreshingly sour yogurt overwhelms the doner, turning the fibrous meaty texture into a shivering juicy touch. The combination is like a racist joke among friends, you know it isn’t right, but you laugh anyway because it’s wickedly funny.
Meze-tabagi (mixed appetizer)
Anyhow, to temper the protein surplus, our group order a veggie appetizer plate to share. The meze tabagi (mixed meze) has seven constituents, clockwise from the lemon wedge: Tabuli (a mix of diced green onion, tomatoes and herbs), Ezme (minced tomatoes, red pepper, walnuts and herbs), dolma (spiced rice wrapped in grape leaves), Patlican Salata (smashed eggplant salad with onion and bell pepper), Pirasa (leeks, carrots, rice and onion), Taze Fasulye (green beans), and Humus (mashed chickpeas and sesame paste). All seven mixes except the humus are seasoned with olive oil and lemon juice. All are amazingly tasty on pide bread, especially the eggplant.
All we have up to this point is, literally, a sour meal. Lemon juice in the appetizer, yogurt in the entree. Then we order baklava for dessert. You know how a cookie tastes after you suck on a lemon wedge, right? Extra sweet. Like eating a brick of brown sugar. So my friend damps the sucrose flood by some bitter black coffee. A strong, nice mix.
Baklava and coffee
Address: Istanbul Grill (in the Village area around Rice University)
5613 Morningside Drive
Houston, TX 77005
(713) 526-2800
(Double parking is allowed/necessary, so don’t be surprised when a waiter asks to move your car to let another customer drive out of the lot.)
Other Persian restaurants I’ve visited:
1. Cafe Renaissance downtown Palo Alto
2. Alborz restaurant on Center Street, Berkeley
3. Azerbaijan Cuisine on Fulton Street, Berkeley
Can I just say what a relief to find someone who actually knows what theyre talking about on the internet. You definitely know how to bring an issue to light and make it important. More people need to read this and understand this side of the story. I cant believe youre not more popular because you definitely have the gift.
1Hello, you used to write fantastic, but the last several posts have been kinda boringK I miss your tremendous writings. Past few posts are just a little out of track! come on!
2I envy your work, appreciate it for all the great content.
3Thanks for your marvelous posting! I seriously enjoyed reading it, you are a great author.I will be sure to bookmark your blog and will eventually come back sometime soon. I want to encourage continue your great job, have a nice day!
4I see something truly interesting about your weblog so I saved to bookmarks.
5What i do not realize is if truth be told how you’re now not actually a lot more well-appreciated than you might be now. You are very intelligent. You already know thus significantly in terms of this subject, produced me personally believe it from a lot of various angles. Its like women and men aren’t interested unless it’s one thing to do with Lady gaga! Your own stuffs excellent. At all times take care of it up!
6I’ve been browsing online more than 3 hours nowadays, yet I never discovered any interesting article like yours. It is lovely value sufficient for me. Personally, if all site owners and bloggers made excellent content as you did, the net might be much more helpful than ever before. “When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.” by Herbert Clark Hoover.
7Hello my family member! I wish to say that this article is amazing, great written and include almost all significant infos. I would like to see more posts like this .
8I’m not sure where you’re getting your information, but great topic. I needs to spend some time learning more or understanding more. Thanks for wonderful information I was looking for this information for my mission.
9My brother recommended I would possibly like this blog. He was once totally right. This post actually made my day. You can not consider just how so much time I had spent for this info! Thank you!
10You made some respectable factors there. I seemed on the internet for the difficulty and located most individuals will go along with with your website.
11I wanted to type a brief note in order to thank you for some of the fantastic steps you are writing on this website. My extended internet investigation has now been honored with reputable facts and strategies to share with my great friends. I ‘d believe that many of us visitors are very much lucky to be in a remarkable community with so many wonderful people with beneficial solutions. I feel very much grateful to have discovered your web page and look forward to so many more awesome moments reading here. Thanks once more for a lot of things.
12Greetings from Idaho! I’m bored to death at work so I decided to browse your website on my iphone during lunch break. I love the knowledge you present here and can’t wait to take a look when I get home. I’m amazed at how fast your blog loaded on my phone .. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyways, amazing blog!
13Hello there! Would you mind if I share your blog with my myspace group? There’s a lot of folks that I think would really enjoy your content. Please let me know. Thank you
14Hello! I just would like to give a huge thumbs up for the great info you have here on this post. I will be coming back to your blog for more soon.
15I’m curious to find out what blog platform you’re utilizing? I’m experiencing some minor security issues with my latest blog and I’d like to find something more risk-free. Do you have any recommendations?
16Very interesting info !Perfect just what I was searching for!
17Whats up very nice web site!! Guy .. Excellent .. Amazing .. I’ll bookmark your site and take the feeds also…I am happy to seek out a lot of helpful information right here in the put up, we need develop more techniques on this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .
18Thank you for another wonderful article. Where else could anybody get that type of information in such a perfect way of writing? I have a presentation next week, and I am on the look for such information.
19Hello! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading this post reminds me of my good old room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this article to him. Fairly certain he will have a good read. Many thanks for sharing!
20I just couldn’t depart your website before suggesting that I really enjoyed the standard info a person provide for your visitors? Is going to be back often to check up on new posts
21I simply couldn’t depart your site before suggesting that I really enjoyed the standard information an individual supply to your guests? Is going to be back continuously in order to inspect new posts.
22Good day! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with Search Engine Optimization? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good results. If you know of any please share. Kudos!
23Some times its a pain in the ass to read what blog owners wrote but this internet site is real user friendly! .
24I really like your writing style, great information, appreciate it for putting up :D. “Your central self is totally untouched By grief, confusion, desperation.” by Vernon Howard.
25I went over this site and I think you have a lot of good info, saved to fav (:.
26My brother recommended I might like this blog. He used to be totally right. This post truly made my day. You can not imagine simply how much time I had spent for this information! Thank you!
27you’ve got an important weblog right here! would you like to make some invite posts on my weblog?
28I really appreciate your piece of work, Great post.
29Of course, what a fantastic blog and illuminating posts, I surely will bookmark your blog.Best Regards!
30Thanks a lot for giving everyone an exceptionally memorable possiblity to read from this site. It is usually very excellent and jam-packed with a lot of fun for me and my office colleagues to search your site at the least three times weekly to read through the new guidance you will have. Not to mention, I am also actually astounded with all the fabulous inspiring ideas you serve. Certain 1 areas in this article are definitely the most impressive we have all ever had.
31Interesting blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere? A theme like yours with a few simple tweeks would really make my blog stand out. Please let me know where you got your design. Thanks
32An impressive share, I simply given this onto a colleague who was doing a little bit analysis on this. And he in fact bought me breakfast as a result of I discovered it for him.. smile. So let me reword that: Thnx for the deal with! But yeah Thnkx for spending the time to debate this, I feel strongly about it and love reading more on this topic. If possible, as you turn into expertise, would you mind updating your weblog with extra particulars? It is extremely useful for me. Big thumb up for this weblog publish!
33Menghargai usaha yang Anda curahkan ke website Anda dan informasi mendalam yang Anda tawarkan. Sangat bagus menemukan blog sesekali yang tidak berisi informasi lama yang diulang-ulang. Bacaan yang hebat! Saya sudah menyimpan situs Anda dan menambahkan feed RSS Anda ke akun Google saya.
34Hai di sana, Anda telah melakukan pekerjaan yang mengagumkan. Saya tentu akan mem-bookmark ini dan kembali untuk melihat konten lainnya. Terima kasih!
35Sesudah saya pertama kali berkomentar saya mencentang kotak -Beri tahu saya ketika komentar baru ditambahkan- dan sekarang tiap kali sebuah komentar ditambahkan saya menerima empat email dengan komentar yang sama. Apakah ada metode Anda dapat mengeluarkan saya dari layanan itu? Terima kasih!
36Its like you learn my mind! You seem to know so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I believe that you could do with some p.c. to pressure the message home a little bit, but other than that, that is great blog. An excellent read. I’ll definitely be back.
37I just couldn’t go away your site prior to suggesting that I actually loved the standard information a person provide to your guests? Is going to be again steadily to check up on new posts
38Saya terkesan dengan situs ini, sungguh saya adalah penggemar.
39I think this website has some rattling good information for everyone :D. “I like work it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.” by Jerome K. Jerome.
40Saved as a favorite, I really like your blog!
41You are my inhalation, I own few blogs and occasionally run out from to brand.
42Very interesting info !Perfect just what I was searching for! “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful, one hundred percent.” by Dr. Seuss.
43Its superb as your other articles : D, thankyou for putting up.
44Some truly nice stuff on this website , I love it.
45This actually answered my drawback, thank you!
46Hey very nice web site!! Man .. Excellent .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your web site and take the feeds also…I am happy to find numerous useful info here in the post, we need work out more techniques in this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .
47I also conceive thus, perfectly pent post! .
48Hello just wanted to give you a quick heads up and let you know a few of the pictures aren’t loading properly. I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different browsers and both show the same results.
49It is actually a nice and useful piece of info. I am happy that you shared this useful information with us. Please stay us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.
50