What's for dinner?

I think I've mentioned this before, but one of the things I miss the most about Toronto (aside from friends), is the food. The abundance of good food from all over the world.

So, of course, now I'm on the hunt for good ethnic eateries. Without a car, it was a bit difficult as these places are often spread out throughout the city. Now that I have the car, I can be more proactive about finding places.

Today I decided to try a Lebanese Restaurant I've had my eye on for awhile - Issa's Saj House. I've stopped by several times with other people intending to try it out, only to find it was closed. Today it was open.

If you're looking for it and you're in Halifax, look for the Middle Eastern Bakery on Alma & Titus.

I ordered the chicken shawarma plate for 6.99 and it included the chicken shawarma, tabouli, hummus and a lentil/rice/onion dish, served with a freshly baked pita. All very tasty. I have to admit, I was a little concerned when I walked in and the place was empty. All I could see was a man in the kitchen cutting up dough (presumably for pita?). He promptly left the restaurant and came back with a young woman who took my order.

I was a little surprised when I watched them put together the take-out plate. First, she went into the kitchen and came back with chunks of chicken shawarma in a tupperware bowl and put that in the microwave; then she went to the fridge and spooned a large helping of the lentil side onto a glass plate, which was microwaved after the chicken. Lastly, the tabouli and hummus all came from small tupperware containers from the fridge and were spooned into the styrofoam take-out dish. I think part of the charm of ordering Lebanese in Toronto was the preparation of your order - slicing off the shawarma from the roasters behind the serving counter, seeing all the vegetable and dips/purees and colourful pickles (which I never really liked anyway) lined up neatly behind the glass serving counter. There's no ceremony at Issa Saj's, but the food is good. I really like the lentil dish, and prefer it over the bland rice I usually used to get at Red & Whites in Toronto.

I'm pleased to have found a Lebanese restaurant - especially one with such low prices - though my preference would be to order take-out. There wasn't much to the atmosphere, and didn't really strike me as the best place to go to eat out.

I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that there is a Persian restaurant in the city. Believe it or not, Chinatown Restaurant has a Persian menu. Apparently the chinese restaurant was bought by an Iranian who added Iranian food to the menu. If this sounds unbelievable to you, here's the menu.