Monday, October 29, 2012

West Bloomfield, MI - Mene Sushi; The size of the restaurant is an optical illusion from the outside. It looks bigger than it is and once you sit down, you're almost sharing your table with your neighbors. The tables are really close together so be prepared to enjoy the conversation next to you.

We started off with their octopus salad. It had good texture and flavor. The brininess and vinegar of the dressing adds immediately to the meat. The pop of the seaweed is a standard component to the salad, always a good staple.

We had a variety of sushi for dinner, tuna, salmon, hand rolls, eel, christmas roll, and smelt roe. All the sushi was fresh, presented well and decorative. None of it was super amazing, but all still standard.

To me its all over priced. Its probably due to location, what city its in. You can find everything at other places cheaper.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

West Bloomfield, MI - Zoe's House of Pancakes; They get a four star and a two star-er on their food. I first tried their Chorizo Skillet, in which I'm always optimistic when I see chorizo on the menu. However, the underlining question in this skillet is, is there chorizo in this dish? Where's the beef? Pork, you know what I mean. The potatoes and fried eggs are good, it just doesn't have enough of the main component. - Two stars.

A regular purchase lately has been their egg salad sandwich on challah. A usual egg salad is loaded with celery and mayonnaise, but I've found that I really enjoy their version without either of these. Without the celery it is much smoother in texture and doesn't have the sharpness of the celery flavor cutting through everything else. The necessary texture and crunch comes from the fresh iceberg lettuce. To add more flavor, they serve it with a few thinly sliced dill pickles to add to the sandwich if you wish, adding the vinegar to give it a slight sharp flavor. It helps to balance out the little bit of mayo they do use. It's served on challah bread, but this is my only criticism. I don't think the challah they use is the best in town, its more firm than it should be. It's not stale, it just doesn't have that soft, melting in your mouth, eggy flavor that challah should have.

The staff is very nice and they make an effort to remember you as you return. FYI, on Saturday and Sunday mornings, be aware, there will be a wait, but since it's connected to a small shopping mall, you can window shop while you wait.
Dearborn, MI - Masri Sweets; Two samples here on the long day of eating on our Bizarre Foods Detroit trip.

They have a delicious spread of options for viewing. Make sure you walk around to check out all the desserts.

We tried two: Knafeh and Katayef. When we were ready to order knafeh, there was only one piece left and they told us if we waited a few minutes, a fresh hot batch will be ready. If you have the opportunity to wait for fresh ones that come right off the stove, take advantage of it. When it's fresh and hot, the cheese is wonderfully stringy and the whole dish is nice and sweet from the syrup. Although, it wasn't as sweet as I thought it was going to be. I wouldn't categorize it as a dessert.  It's topped with crushed pistachios for extra flavor, texture, and appearance.

The end result, its gooey, sweet, and crunchy. A good combo.

The katayef really doesn't stack up to the knashef. It is not bad but really doesn't offer the level of flavor nor complexity of the knafeh. I guess its not fair to compare them since they are so different, but when your eating them side by side, its hard not to. It's a small stuffed pancake but really not as nicely sweet as the other.