Best Of MenuPages Reviews: Ethnic Screeds

We may not do reviews at MenuPages, but our legions of users are all over that. Here are two of interest.

These reviews are lyrical and impassioned arguments not just about the restaurants they’re purportedly critiquing, but the overarching cultural milieu in which they’re situated. Okay, we don’t know what means, either, but you will understand once you’ve read them.

The first one is for Baba Pita, the west loop Middle Eastern take out place that gets around five shills a week. Who knows where they get the stamina! Anyway, here’s the latest, and probably greatest, from 12/22:


Dear Mr. Baba:
There are many middle eastern restaurants in Chicago, but Baba Pita prepares the best food, for a fair price, and they deliver - OUTSTANDING!!

I have eaten some of the finest and most delicious Syrian/Lebanese food made by old timers, otherwise known as Situs’ (“Situ” is Arabic for Granny). Baba Pita is the only middle eastern restaurant that tastes like its home made by your Situ/Granny. So good for you that you’ll fall in love with a culinary master piece of Middle Eastern stock. Your tongue will be swept away on a magic carpet ride of taste, to a wonderful Arabian supper fit for the fattest of Sultans.

To begin, I recommend the fried kibbeh/kibba with a side of hummus and/or babaghanouj for an appetizer. Try dipping the football shaped kibbeh in the hummus/babaG for a more dynamic roasted flavor.

As a main course, the Kufta platter is more than expected, helping to explain why Sultan’s tended to be so fat during the old Ottoman Empire (an historical footnote to the significance of middle eastern food). The juicy and succulent taste will lure your palate to ecstatic pleasure as no other ethnic food.

We like Baba Pita delivered; it comes hot, delicious and delivered to your door, usually within about half-an-hour. I highly reccomend Baba Pita to anyone with an appetite for something of a trip to far away culinary delights, without leaving sweet home, Chicago.

The salads (tabuleh and Jerusalem, respectively) are as fresh as if the parsley and lettuce were plucked from a pleasant, back-yard garden - truly, magnificent middle eastern cooking at it’s best!!

Most Sincerely, may the jinn (similar to ghosts in Arabian folklore) weep for they have no tongue to taste Baba Pita’s culinary delights,

—yna


“yna,” btw, stands for YourNeighborhoodArtist, the purported poster. Wow, though! Watch out, though; tongueless jinni always get their revenge on fat sultans.

The second one is for a restaurant in New York (Sura: The King’s Meal; not Sura or Su-Ra, mind you), but is quite relevant to today’s theme:


This is not a traditional Korean food restaurant, nor is it claiming to be. They have minor twists to traditional dishes, all in an effort to make the dishes more healthy and use finer ingredients. This is a true Ma and Pa shop, owned, run and kitchen cooked by a very sweet family of Koreans who want to offer an alternative to what has now become the quick wham bam of MSG ridden unhealthy Korean food. K-town never used to dowse their food in MSG, but since Americans have begun frequenting Korean restaurants, and the young ultra superficial and hedonistic Korean youth has extended the dinner hour to 4am while spending their parents money and claiming to have class by paying 5 times for just about anything, K-twon restaurants have had no choice but to use MSG to preserve their food and buy more bulk. As a preservative, MSG is effective, for health, well it’s similar to Coca Cola in large quantities. If you don’t believe me, just ask the next K-town restaurant you visit. Ask them what is on the menu without MSG, but don’t stop there, tell them it’s extremely important as you are violently allergic to MSG – most of these places will literally tell you not to have anything! It’s scary.

Sura is the opposite, these people care about your dining enjoyment during your meal, and your health on the days to follow. They only use fresh ingredients and find creative ways to spice up the traditional Korean flavors. I love the food here surely feel the difference the next day. I live very close to K-Town and choose to train it down to Sura, if you only knew what happens in most Korean restaurant kitchens, you would too!


“yna,” btw, stands for YourNeighborhoodArtist, the purported poster. Wow, though! Watch out, though; tongueless jinni always get their revenge on fat sultans.

The second one is for a restaurant in New York (Sura: The King’s Meal; not Sura or Su-Ra, mind you), but is quite relevant to today’s theme:

Sura: The King’s Meal [MenuPages]
Sura: The King’s Meal [Official Site]

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Best Of MenuPages Reviews: Ethnic Screeds