Middle Eastern Eating

To accompany my fascination with food, I follow a lot of chefs on social media, and constantly keep my ears to the ground for local and national food news. That being said, I also drink a lot and occasionally forget details or entire places and recipes I want to try, and that will occasionally end with me trying a place I had forgotten about. It becomes a weird, fun game of pseudo-dé ja vu. And I really win when it turns out that what I've tried is a pet project of acquaintances of mine!!!

Story time. I had never tried Shawarma before. Hell, I had only ever heard about it because of the Avengers movie. I have woefully little experience with middle eastern cuisine- my family, being career military, is not necessarily as open minded about that particular region. My first encounter with anything resembling that style of food was through a chef I used to work with in a Spanish restaurant and they let him do more Moorish-style cuisine. I learned about sumac and harissa, and was interested, but I didn't know where to find more stuff like it.

Now, a few nights ago I was jonesing for some tacos. I was also feeling incredibly lazy, and didn't want to go too too far for them. But as 8pm drew closer, and tacos steadfastly refused to appear, I hauled myself off the couch and ventured out into the Atlanta evening. I headed to Krog Street Market, knowing of a "Mex-Tex" restaurant there called Superica, but I wanted to check out the various other stalls to see if there were more enticing options to be had.

When I got there, half of the market was already closed for the evening. Lucky for me, the few stalls that weren't already closed were the more food-focused! No tacos, though. I was about to give up and just nab a sandwich from Fred's Meat and Bread (my second fave sandwich place), when Yalla caught my eye. Both Fred's and Yalla are projects of Chef Todd Ginsberg and his partners. I've accidentally been following Chef Ginsberg's career with my stomach ever since I first encountered him at Bocado. He's always headed kitchens with really solid menus, but I have to admit- Yalla is my favorite so far.

I ordered a Chicken Shawarma Pita, and was given a monstrous pocket half the size of my head. And it was LOADED. Chicken, spices, hummus, pickles- so many delicious things the pita literally couldn't hold the weight. As I chowed down, hummus and sauces tore through the bread and dribbled on to my hands. Usually, with something that large, I don't finish my meal. I pack it up, politely infer I'm saving it for later, and wind up throwing it out blocks away from the establishment. With the Shawarma, though... I couldn't get enough. I used a fork to shovel everything that had fallen out into my face. I licked my fingers and hands clean. And when the last bite was gone, I knew I could never go back to basic, boring pita sandwiches again, and tacos found themselves totally demoted in my pantheon of favorite foods. I have no idea how authentic Ginsberg's Shawarma is to "real" Shawarma. Frankly, I don't care either. I am now firmly in the "happy pita" camp.