Turkish Delight on a Moonlit Night

I'm out of town for a long weekend, and far from my own kitchen, where I have full control over my meals. My options for vegan meals here are already limited, and since I'm in NJ, most of my options will involve a plate of pasta with tomato sauce or olive oil and garlic. So, I probably won't have too many chances to get outside of my food comfort zone, although I have already noted the grapefruit and tomato juices in the refrigerator. I guess I will drink them in an absolute pinch!

I ate dinner at Kaya's Kitchen, which is surely one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants on Earth. I went in with the full intention of ordering something I didn't like for my dinner.... but I just couldn't turn down the Pierogies! I'm not a strong enough woman to be able to refuse pasta dumplings filled with mashed potatoes!!! :-) After flirting with the idea do doing something so lame as just ordering a cup of herbal tea, I found my solution. For the table, I ordered the Turkish Delight. It consisted of some of my best friends (falafel, olives, pita and my BFF, hummus), along with my enemy, tabbouleh. And as a big bonus, it even contained my Forgotten Foe, Baba Ghanoush!

This was my third tabbouleh attempt, and I guess the third tabbouleh's the charm! I liked it! This version was not soggy at all, and was admittedly light on parsley, which helped matters greatly. I still want to try it at a real Middle Eastern restaurant, but I was very happy that I enjoyed it so much tonight!

I had completely overlooked the fact that I have issues with baba Ghanoush! I never liked the stuff. I have learned to like eggplant just fine. I even make a roasted eggplant dip at home, and I do love that. Tonight, while I ate the baba Ghanoush side by side with hummus, the problem was clear. You all know of my feelings on hummus. It is easily one of my top 5 favorite foods, and I have no control around it. So, next to the deliciousness of hummus, the baba Ghanoush is just so bland and boring! It didn't taste bad.... but made me feel like What's The Point Of Eating This? Especially When You Could Be Eating Hummus? So, I want to give it a chance at a Middle Eastern place as well. Soon, I will get serious and have an authentically made baba Ghanoush and tabbouleh, and we'll just see how I feel about them then!