SO...after begining the week with such decadence (the home cooked skirt steak dinner and the elegant fine dining dinner and the exuberant slow food dinner, which I hope to get back to soon here but I think we both know that the chances are kinda slim, given my history), and then having a middle of the week where I ate grits and couscous with whatever I could find in the fridge on top for dinner(and really awesome cold lentil loaf sandwiches on white bread with ketchup, mayo and cheddar cheese for lunch!), I ended the week with a serious gorge-fest at Ali Baba. I was supposed to be picking up some freecycled onesies at Shadyside Hospital for my soon to spawn friend, but alas, the person from whom I was supposed to pick them up did not answer her cell phone, so I stood outside the hospital for 15 minutes and then gave up. (she did call to apologize later, and offered to drop the onesies off for me if I would like. That is freecyle class, kids, and more than I can say for the three people who have so far blown off the pick up appointments they set for my stuff) Anyhoo, I still had this dinner date scheduled with Jennie, so I proceeded as arranged and got myself a coffee at kiva han while I waited for her to get off of work. While there, I let myself fall into a reverie about the delicious middle eastern treats that would await me. I was just this side of making the Homer Simpson tongue lollying out of the mouth sound when I spotted Jen crossing the street, looking very fetching in her Edward Gorey black overcoat. I ran out the door to meet her, not wanting to waste precious moments when we could be on our way to the restaurant. Seriously, I was ready to feast. So we get there and are seated and water is brought, and we decide that water is enough. I had a hard time deciding how to make it work so that I got everything I wanted, but in the end I just ended up ordering a bunch of small plates to share. We got hummus, tabouli, sleek, mujaddarra, a cheese pie each, and jennie got some bazilla for herself which I did not touch because I'm not a big lamb fan. And a big basket of pita bread (I am not a huge fan of their very big flat and sort of dry pita which is almost more tortilla like....but hey, it scoops. That's the important thing) Before the food came out I got to open my birthday presents...another bottle of VAMPIRE Merlot! (how does she do it?) and this and this, proving that she is taking my resolutions seriously! and also an embroidered kitchen towel which reads "Slow Rise....Take It Easy" with a little oven in the middle. It's beyond cute. I'll have to take a picture. We chatted a little and then the food came and we pretty much stopped the chatting and fell upon the plates with frenzy. Oh, so good. The tabouli was my favorite, so fresh and parsleyful and lemony, and the hummus was also close to perfection...very garlicky with a deep tahini flavor that doesn't bite at you like it sometimes does. The cheese pie---also amazing....it's like a big toasty bun with a bit of cottage cheese and onions inside. Not the sort of crispy filo turnover thing you might expect. I like theirs better. The sleek I have to say was not transcendent...I like mine better, honestly, but it's the kind of food that I am just grateful to be able to eat in a restaurant(especially for $3.95) The Mujaddara again was not super awesome--way more lentils than onions. I prefer a more 50/50 composition. But that is not a diss really...the little lentils were very brown and tender but not mushy, and the bits of fried onion that were evident were crispy and caramelly and delish. I tried REALLY hard to finish it off, but I reached maximum saturation. And as I was already sort of laden down with things, I didn't want to try to carry home a take out. So I let it go. I had to get a little arabic coffee even though there was barely room left in my tummy for it, but man....so good. And then the bill....$26. For ALL OF IT. I sat and stared in shock for a few minutes and then began repeating a mantra of WHY DON"T I COME HERE ALL THE TIME?!?!? Seriously. Why. I feel like I've definitely fallen into the burger and beer rut. Next time I am looking for meeting and eating options I am definitely going to recommend ali baba. And you know, I don't think my order will ever change. I might want to add on the feta plate sometime, or the baba ganouj, but really---it's a damn near perfect meal. And even though I ate myself practically into a food coma, I still felt so HEALTHY when I was done. Good times.
Speaking of good times, we headed down to the Pub last night to see the Human Brains and Darkbuster. It was SUPER packed. So packed, in fact, that it wasn't so much good times and we ended up leaving before Darkbuster even played. But the Brains put on a STELLAR show----I know every show is their best ever and you probably get sick of hearing that from me, but they really kicked it up a notch last night, I think. Maybe to impress the folks from Boston, maybe to impress the huge crowd of rockabilly dudes gathered around the TV to watch the end of the Penguins game...whatever it was, I'll take it. So so good.
The opening band was the Video Nasties from Greensburg who really were not very good and seemed to have some sort of skinhead affiliation, which really I can do without. It made me feel very uncomfortable to watch a bunch of skinheads singing along to "Beat on the Brat." Ick.
But, I talked to Logan for a while and he volunteered to bring his amp for the new wave cabaret, so at least my amp worries are solved.
Today we are heading out to the thrift store again to hunt down some more tee shirts and new wave prizes and hopefully a fedora. Cross your fingers.