Had a lovely dinner with my friend Mora the other night. It wasn't what we thought we were going to be eating...Egyptian food...but ended up being a longtime favourite... Mediterranean food. My family has always enjoyed a Greek meal. From the time we were very young I can remember going to this fancy restaurant in Germany with my bratty sisters in tow and ordering from our own menus. I'm sure they were the kiddie ones but I felt so grown up and although I couldn't read the language, we all happily ate whatever my parents ordered for us. As we tucked into these foreign and exciting kebabs with their delicately grilled vegetables and melt in your mouth chicken, I felt like an adult. Years later they informed us it was lamb. I'm pretty sure we would have been against eating it thinking back on all the cartoons with those fluffy meadow bouncing sheep. My mother wasn't your typical meal preparer either. We had lots of hamburgers and hot dogs, pizza and lasagna ( which is a foreign food still in my husbands family) but we also had deer, caribou and who knows what other woodland creatures but also moussaka. I recall being mildly disgusted by this dish as I had a tendency as a child to not have any of my food touch another type on my plate. Sauces were served on the side if eaten at all. My father still claims I ate ketchup and I refute that to this day. I also washed my meat portion as Mom was overly fond of the spices i.e pepper ( see previous blogs) and liked my noodles plain. Mom persevered in her quest to make us eat different types of cooking, always homemade and I like to think it has made me the chef i am today. Although lying to your kids and calling game meats eastern and western beef is cruel once they realize they've eaten Bambi and his cousins. But onto our meal. Mezza looks to be a newer addition to downtown Quinpool Street in Halifax and slightly more upscale than some places I've eaten along this road. From the outside patio with its pretty tables and tent like covering to the stunning interior I think we both felt we were in for some good food. Inlay wooden ceiling was the first thing that caught my attention, then my gaze dropped to the gorgeous patterned stone floor and then the glowing red lamps placed throughout the restaurant on walls and suspended from ceilings. The soft music playing wasn't of the plate smashing variety often heard in these types of restaurants and although half full and children in attendance the noise level was quite low. We asked quickly to be seated in a two person booth lining the wall as they looked comfy and far away from the kids table. Busty though we were, we managed to squeeze in an settle comfortably after pushing aside various glassware, candle and extraneous menus. Lots of vegetarian options in the small but complete menu of classics and we made a choice to share the mezzet platter. It consisted of Hommus, Baba Ghanouj, Warek Enab, Kebbe, Vegetable Kebbe, Phylo Cheese Rolls, Taboulé and Fatouch Salata. We also received a basket of warm pita and proceeded to divvy up our loot. Hummus or to phonetically correct, hooo muss, was nice but I have had better that was made with peanut oil rather than the standard olive oil or even sesame oil. We weren't blown away by the Baba either and really if you told me it was hommus I would have said sure. Warek Enab a.k.a stuffed grape vine leaves we great as was my vegetable Kebbe, potato, chickpeas, spinach, onion and lemon although to look at my a dark lumpish hunk on the plate. The phylo was by far the best and we decided it there should have been more and it should have been fanned out across the platter, like 12 of them. The Salata, a tomato, onion and green pepper salad with these crunchy thinly sliced fried bread pieces atop in a dilly vinaigrette was delicious and the Taboule, meh, I couldn't have cared less about but tasted as it should though Mora pointed out she would have added couscous and I a little bit of cilantro. But all told the meal was great because we shared. Not just our food but stories and reminiscences of other good times and food and friends. Doesn't that sometimes make the meal more memorable than what you ate? I had a great time and wish more of my dinners could be just like that one. Thanks Mora.
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