Janet’s Kitchen

Posted on March 20, 2012 by | 1 comment

janet's kitchen middle eastern food

Cuisine: Middle Eastern

3120 Olentangy River Road
Open Monday-Saturday 11am-9pm, Sunday 12-8pm

Click here to map it!

Janet’s Kitchen is tucked into the side of the International Plaza Market, and is run by Janet and her business partner Hishim (who previously cooked at the Happy Greek before starting this venture last year). The duo hail from Syria and Egypt, and offer a variety of Middle Eastern dishes ranging from standards such as shwarma and gyro to roast chicken and lamb shank. Falafel are freshly made to order and were among the best we’ve tried in town.

Syrian food in Columbus ohio

We were particularly taken by the kefta kebab which was notably juicy and flavorful. It can be ordered with rice and vegetables or as a pita sandwich.

Janet's kitchen

As both the lamb shank and chicken are extremely tender, Janet tutted at us when we asked for a knife, finally handing us one even though she swore that we would not need it. She was right. Lamb, chicken and other daily specials (fish fillet or meatballs are two examples we have seen) come with a mountain of rice and sauteed vegetables. It makes for a hearty meal as well as a good value. The rice was exceptionally good and unique – we were very curious as to how it was made but Janet wasn’t giving away any secrets. We’re guessing butter had something to do with it.

middle eastern food ohio

There are also a variety of salads and cold dishes pictured below: tabbouleh, salad shirazi (cucumber and tomato), red cabbage salad and roasted eggplant. Most notable was the garlicky, tart, roasted eggplant.

janet's kitchen columbus

Janet’s Kitchen has two or three tables set up to dine in but is primarily set up for take out.

The market has a butcher’s counter at the back of the store and a bulk dried goods section as well as a decent range of Middle Eastern packaged goods.

1 Comment

Posted in Middle Eastern

Tagged , , , ,

Tropical Spice

Posted on February 13, 2012 by | 1 comment

sierra leone food columbus, west african restaurants ohio

CLOSED
Cuisine: West African and American

6140 Cleveland Avenue (Atrium Center)
614.948.2874/ 614.984.8281

Open Tuesday-Sunday for lunch and dinner

Click here to map it!

Adding to the increasing diversity of West African restaurants in Columbus is this Sierra Leonean inspired spot, serving an intriguing mix of West African and American dishes.

west african food columbus

Tropical Spice is owned by Isatu “Florence” Gbaya and her mother, Zainab.  Their primary business is catering, though dining walk-ins are welcome for lunch and dinner.

While we mostly sampled the West African specialties, we did try the wings – which were nicely crispy and surprisingly well cooked.

Of the West African dishes, we were particularly taken by the lamb dibi, which comes with a mountain of either rice, couscous or salad. It is pictured below with the jollof rice which was flavorful but perhaps a bit greasier here than at some of the other West African restaurants.

tropical spice restaurant columbus

The pepper chicken (pictured below) was also very tasty and well prepared.  Just beware of the heat! It looks innocent enough on the menu, but the pepper in question is habanero, not black pepper as one might expect. Also made from habanero is the excellent house hot sauce, a seductive mix of onion, bell pepper and habanero that has a considerable after-burn.

west african cuisine ohio

We also enjoyed the much milder spinach stew with contains chunks of chicken and was fragrant with ginger.

A couple of items on the menu that might need translation are attieke, fufu, and egusi. Both the attieke and fufu are made from cassava (a starchy, tuberous root) but fufu has a heavy dough-like texture and attieke has more of a couscous like texture. Egusi sauce is made with ground up melon seeds and has a distinctive and sometimes polarizing flavor.

1 Comment

Posted in African, West African

Tagged , , ,

Freshstreet Yakitori

Posted on December 28, 2011 by | 9 comments

Cuisine: Japanese

482 S. Front St.
Columbus, OH 43215
614.531.0023

Open  Thursday through Saturday, 6:30pm – Midnight

Click here to map it!

There exists, in the Brewery District, a bar with no signage. The owners seem to do little in the way of self-promotion, and the lights are dimmed to the point that you might not even think they’re open. They occupy the old Gibby’s building on Front St., and call themselves ‘Double Happiness’.

Once inside, you’ll not mistake them for Gibby’s, or for that matter, any other Brewery District watering hole past or present. Huge red lamps hang from the ceiling, and a strong East Asian vibe permeates. DJs spin on some nights, live music occurs on others. Asian beers and sake-based drinks are the bar’s specialties. The place aims for and hits ‘cool’ dead center.

The only reason we know of this place is because we know Kenny Kim and Misako Ohba, owners of Fresh Street. They have struck a deal with Double Happiness, and now serve kushiyaki (and more) out of the previously dormant kitchen within. They call this new endeavor ‘Freshstreet Yakitori’.

Yakitori, literally translated from Japanese, means charcoal-grilled chicken on skewers. In the US, it’s often (mis)used to refer to anything Japanese-inspired that is charcoal-grilled on skewers, which is a range of offering that should technically fall under the umbrella term of ‘kushiyaki‘.

I mention this only to underscore one point – Freshstreet is serving far more than chicken. In addition to chicken thighs, skin, wings, and meatballs, they’re also serving pork belly, pork cheek, beef short ribs, bacon-wrapped mushrooms, beef heart & kidney, and on and on. As of our last stop in, they had perhaps 13 unique skewer options, with more to come.

I fear I may have objectivity problems – I’m thoroughly enamored with Kenny & Misako, and I’m a sucker for charcoal-grilled meats. When I walked in, it went something like this:

So it made for a good reality check when I happened to talk to a local restauranteur who is well versed in Japanese street foods, and had just been to Double Happiness. They said that Freshstreet’s kushiyaki was about as good as any they’d had anywhere.

Freshstreet also offers ramen and rice balls, and both are seriously good. The ramen’s chicken broth sets the standard in town, and the subtle spicing and crusty grilled exterior of the rice balls make for an edifying experience.

Expect the menu to change somewhat due to availability of ingredients, time of year, and the whims of the kitchen. This has long been a big part of the charm of Fresh Street, and our general advice would be to roll with it – you might not necessarily get the thing you’ve been craving from last time, but you’ll probably discover something new that you’ll end up craving next time.

Please note that Freshstreet provides vegetarian and vegan options. Skewers generally run between $2.50 and $4.00 each, and cups of ramen run $4.00 apiece.

9 Comments

Posted in Japanese

Tagged , , , ,

Chuchay’s

Posted on November 18, 2011 by | 8 comments

Cuisine: Filipino

6099 McNaughten Center
Columbus, OH 43232
614.566.1501

Click here to map it!

The first time we ate here, it was called ‘Noni’s’ (the sign out front still reads as such) and, to be frank, we felt ourselves to be unqualified in trying to evaluate a cuisine (Filipino) that none of us had had much experience with.

We had, however, been to our fair share of small ethnic start-up restaurants and have had the opportunity to observe the ways in which they typically succeed and fail early on. From that perspective, Noni’s was off to a good start. The space is bright (think acid green with electric orange trim), clean, and well sorted, and the service was solid. Perhaps even more impressively, when our large group ordered all of the most unusual sounding dishes off of their huge menu, we didn’t hear ‘we don’t have that today’ once. For a restaurant that was all of a couple of weeks old, that’s no small feat.

But still, what to think about the food?

Upon finishing our meal, we recalled that we had a resource in Carl Acampado, owner of Rogue Bakery and beneficiary of many a home-cooked Filipino meal. He agreed to accompany us on our next trip, though not without perhaps a slight hint of pessimism about the venture.

The oddness of returning to find a restaurant of a different name (now Chuchay’s) with a somewhat different (but still Filipino) menu didn’t add exactly serve to brighten the outlook.

Fortunately, most everything that followed that did. The space was unchanged, and the service was equally competent. Everything that was on the menu was available, and we suspect that access to the Filipino grocery a few doors down (also called Chuchay’s) is no small part of that.

We started by browsing the menu items with the suffix ‘-silog‘ – which simply means ‘with rice and eggs’. Anything before the suffix indicates the accompaniment – cornsilog is corned beef with rice and egg, longsilog is longaniza sausage with same, and if you want it with a hotdog you’ll order… you guessed it… hotsilog.

At Carl’s suggestion, we selected the longsilog. It was a great choice. My first taste of the longaniza reminded me of a perfect bite of pineapple-topped Los Guachos al pastor – Sweet and salty, porky and garlicky, and with just a hint of char. Unsurprisingly, eggs and rice accompany wonderfully.

Longsilog

The chicken adobo, often considered the national dish of the Philippines, was also thoroughly enjoyed. Soy, garlic, vinegar, and peppercorns gave a nice, slightly tangy flavor to the tender chicken.

Chicken Adobo

The lechon kawali (fried skin-on pork) was reasonably good, but may have suffered in comparison to the big flavors that came before. The skin was crispy and a bit tough, while the unadorned pork flesh below was notably mild in flavor. Not bad by any means, but a bit of a wallflower in this party of type-A tastes.

Lechon Kawali

Which brings us to the crispy pata, described on the menu as deep-fried pig knuckles (pig knuckles, the small end of the ham, are also known as ham hocks). There was no mistaking this for anything other than pork – deeply gamey pork – and it was so intense in flavor that its potency became divisive. There was very little in the way of actual meat, mostly crispy fried skin… which was OK by me.

Crispy Pata

Finally, for dessert, we tried the halo-halo, one of the few Filipino dishes I’d actually heard of before coming here. ‘Halo’ means ‘mix’ in Tagalog, and that’d seem to refer equally well to the mix of unusual ingredients and the act of mixing this layered treat up before eating it. The specifics of the ingredients themselves seem somewhat open to interpretation, but it’s fair to say that one should expect at minimum, more-or-less, the following: shaved ice, evaporated or coconut milk, tropical fruit, sweet beans, and ice cream (often a brilliantly lavender ube ice cream, not unlike taro in flavor).

Halo Halo

And that’s exactly what you’re getting at Chuchay’s. And it’s good. And sweet beans and ube strike some as unnerving ingredients… and they shouldn’t. Simply put, if you have a sweet tooth, you want this.

So, once we had chewed the last pig knuckle and slurped the last of the halo-halo slush, we asked of Carl the question that was on everyone’s mind: “Would you bring your mother here?”

“Yes”, was his unhesitating response.

8 Comments

Posted in Filipino

Tagged

Somali Famine Fundraiser Dinners

Posted on November 16, 2011 by | 1 comment

Thanks to your support, the dinners that we organized in September to raise money for the famine in the Horn of Africa were very successful. We were able to send $2400 to the American Refugee Committee who are working on the ground in Somalia, we also introduced some new people to Somali food, connected with the Somali community and had wonderful feedback on Nadira’s delicious cooking.

fundraiser for somali famine

Sadly the famine continues to claim the lives of innocent children and we wanted to do more to support the victims of the famine. At this time of Thanksgiving when we give thanks for the food on our plates, please consider making a donation to the American Refugee Committee or attending one of our upcoming fundraiser dinners. The ARC are working very hard to improve conditions in the refugee camps and our assistance can help them to make a difference.

Here is a recent update on conditions from the ARC program director in Somalia:

“Fleeing for their life, many of the families have trekked for days before reaching Mogadishu. They left behind almost all of their household effects. They arrived in waves, populating spontaneously created internally displaced person (IDP) settlements within the city. They hardly come with containers to collect and store water, utensils to cook food, or spare clothes to replace the ones they’ve been wearing for days and weeks. Most of the temporary settlements still lack sanitary facilities. The IDPs who ended up in urban settings faced serious problems in finding proper open space to relieve themselves – in fact, women have to wait until sunset to venture out of the squalid settlements to answer nature’s call. Owing to shortage of water and the absence of latrines, many people are unable to bathe for extended periods of time.”

“After four months of sustained relief assistance by the international community, the drought and famine continues to ravage southern Somalia – and Mogadishu. Currently, there are more than 300 IDP settlements scattered all over Mogadishu. The conditions of many of these are quite squalid, crowded and with poor hygiene. The conditions are more stabilized in the major camps such as Badbaado, Rajo, and Taribunka (where ARC is working). In the latter two, many households are still without shelter, water, sanitation and food.  Many of the smaller settlements are without shelter and are not benefiting from regular food and water distributions. There is a huge gap between the resources available and the needs prevailing on the ground.”

The dinners will be held at Solay Bistro on December 7th and 14th at 7pm. Tickets are available online and are priced at $35 per person. There will be plenty of dishes for vegetarians.

The buffet style dinner will (almost certainly) include the following:

– Slow-cooked Somali rotisserie chicken
– Roasted goat
– Sabaya bread (think chapati, but better!), and injera bread (a spongy Ethiopian bread, eaten with a special spicy injera sauce)
– Beef suqaar (similar to a mild chicken curry)
– Solay’s special cardamom rice
– A selection of vegetable dishes including curried chickpeas, lentils, and cabbage
– Fata Muus (a sweet mix of sabaya, honey, butter, and bananas)
– Somali Chai

We look forward to seeing you there, and look forward to sharing some of the best of Somali food in Columbus with you while supporting a great and urgent cause.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS

To learn more about Solay Bistro, see here (alt.eats), here (Columbus Alive review), or here (Urbanspoon reviews). Believe them, it’s that good!

 

1 Comment

Posted in event, Somali

Tagged , ,