The Weekly Feed: Smooth as Silk Edition
Dish of the Week: Avgolemono soup
Where: Greek Deli
The line outside of Greek Deli is always ridiculously long. And with good reason. The food is delicious. The gyros are excellent with a lovely dilled tzatziki sauce. The daily specials like meatballs, meatloaf, and roasted pork melt in your mouth, and are large enough for two meals. All these tasty standbys make it hard to work your way to other items on the menu. So it took a while to work toward getting the avgolemono soup.
This classic Greek soup is luscious with a thick, velvety texture that seems rich with cream, but actually contains no cream. The chicken soup is instead flavored with lemon juice and egg with orzo and shreds of tender chicken. The eggs are added to cooled stock to prevent curdling, yielding a homogenized mixture instead of egg drop soup. If you do head to Greek Deli looking for it, be sure to get there early - it sells out quick.
Small Bites
Day of the Dead
If you're looking for something a little different in a seasonal menu, Oyamel is serving its Day of the Dead specials through Nov. 2. The menu is heavy on traditional tamales, each prepared with Chef Joe Raffa's personal twist. We especially liked the unusual "Tamal de alcegas," a Michoacan-style tamal with shredded pork, almonds, raisins and pickled jalapenos wrapped in chard. If you go, make sure to download a coupon from the restaurant's web site for a free "Sloe Dead Fizz" cocktail, which combines Plymouth Sloe gin, Presidente Mexican brandy, Green Chartreuse, lemon juice and egg white.
They're like thin pancakes
A new crepe restaurant will be opening soon on 14th Street in the old Garden District location. Called Crepes on the Corner, their web site says they will offer fresh crepes made to order, with soups and salads. The outdoor area will house a garden where patrons can gather the ingredients for their crepes. It's currently slated to open in December.
Fries at Ray's Hell Burger
Ray's Hell Burger is now serving French fries. There's quite a discussion going on Don Rockwell about the joint's use of frozen fries. While this seems contrary to their use of freshly ground beef for burgers, owner Michael Landrum says that given the methods available for cooking, frozen is the best way to go for delicious fries.