(Grill items, including salatim and soft serve, $43-$175. I watched, mesmerized, as neat coils of brown-sugar soft serve emerged from a dispenser, to be topped with pistachios, cherry preserves, and minuscule puffed-rice pearls. But I came to see the upside: a front-row seat at the ballet that produced that eggplant a close look at a lineup of whole cauliflower on a trolley, dry-rubbed in shawarma spices and waiting their turn to be coaxed into collapse. One night, I was disappointed to realize that I had inadvertently made my hard-won reservation for the counter, where I was perched on a stool looking at the open kitchen instead of the view. Laser Wolf is one of Inquirer Food Critic Craig LaBan’s picks for Top 10 restaurants in Philadelphia in 2021. The tantalizing perfume of fried garlic and amba wafting off a grilled eggplant turned me into a cartoon character, poking my nose into the air, straining for another whiff. The chicken shishlik (Hebrew for “skewer”) can’t compete with the wings, but the gamy tang of the steak shishlik comes up from behind it’s much simpler but no less exciting than the koobideh, made with house-ground beef and lamb seasoned with sumac, turmeric, and dill and celery seeds. Velvety chunks of tuna are crusted in coriander and caraway seeds and glossed in a North African-style chili paste called harif. Luscious, shaggy short rib is braised in passion-fruit amba, an Iraqi Jewish sauce traditionally made from pickled green mango, before its edges grow crisp over smoldering charcoal. After an opener so complete, the adjective “main” doesn’t quite apply to the next course, which is not to say it’s not an event.
0 kommentar(er)
