Lunch of the Week and Lunch of the Weak
Made it to three places for lunch this week: Old Germany in Choctaw, Mediterranean Imports and Deli on N May and the new Mexicasa on NW 23 Street.
Had never been out to Old Germany, heard all the hype and was not expecting more than some oompah music and sauerkraut. I didn’t expect to walk into an actual Bavarian tavern run by full-blooded Germans for 30 years. But that’s what the Turek family is doing. Plenty of beer, brats and schnitzel. Fantastic pickled cabbage and potato salad. Totally worth the 30-40 minute drive.
Mediterranean Deli is an old favorite. I hadn’t been in a while. We sat on the patio where I ate my Middle Eastern combo – falafel, hummus, tabouli, pita and etc — that by the time I realized I needed to snap a photo, everything was gone.
Lunch of the Weak: I was so looking forward to loving Mexicasa. It’s the new Tex-Mex restaurant in the building previously occupied by Tom & Jerry’s, which is moving to May Ave. Mexicasa is owned by Tom & Jerry, who’ve proven they know what they’re doing.
Chips and salsa have always been the standard bearer for a Mexican restaurant for me. Mexicasa’s table sauce is a salsa fresca. The tomatoes are drained of water and roughly chopped with onion, chiles, cilantro and lime juice. I enjoy this kind, but you have to be careful with the onions. If attempting to make this kind, it’s a good idea to chop the onions separately and either thoroughly rinse and dry or press in cheesecloth or two paper towels. Otherwise, the bitterness of the onion can be invasive. Unfortunately, there was a hint of that onion bitterness in the salsa. Not a deal-break, but certainly room for improvement.
I had street tacos with borracho beans and rice. Street tacos are always problematic for a Tex-Mex restaurant. The simplicity of diced meat stir-fried with a little garlic, salt and pepper seems to easy. But it works. Especially on a hot corn tortillas with cilantro onions, squirt of lime and hot sauce. Unfortunately, that’s not what I got. The beef was shredded and not recently. It was packed very tightly, like something made well in advance. Shredded beef would have to be, and I was eating at 11 am. I had a similarly well-intentioned by poorly executed “street taco” at Mama Roja a few weeks ago. Gringos CAN make tacos, try Iguana Mexican Grill if you disbelieve.
On top of the ill-advised decision on the filling, the corn tortilla was either not heated or sat too long before service as it was cold. The borracho beans had terrific flavor but arrived cold. The rice was nondescript.
A fellow Texan and good friend to food had a worse experience over the weekend at dinner. While I was there, another customer voiced displeasure with her entree.
While my meal was dissatisfying, I have confidence in Tom and Jerry and look forward to trying it again. Because of their reputation, I have to write this one off to having only been opened a couple weeks.
Hafta try kafta
My chief food co-hort, Jesse Olivarez and I happened upon the annual Mediterranean Food Festival at St. Elijah’s Church on Saturday.
The event was a fundraiser for the church and included a car raffle, food market, dinner, lunch and dessert. Got myself involved with a chicken kafta sandwich. Typically, kafta is a ground meat dish. It’s derived from the Persian word Kufta, which means to beat or grind. But this was a nice Okie-friendly interpretation that included a full, grilled chicken breast with dressing, onions, black olives and feta. The tabouli was less reliant on bulgur than others I’ve had, instead using it as a complement to the parsley, mint, green onions and tomato. Finally, we had a baklava sundae. Yes, baklava ala mode and striped in chocolate and caramel. Yes, it was soooo good.
Dinner included cabbage rolls, kibbe, salata, pita bread, and hummus.
They also had a bake sale featuring an assortment of Lebanese entrees, breads, cookies, cakes, pies, cinnamon rolls and baklava.
As was everything. Look forward to dropping in again next year. But next time, I’m not leaving without recipes.
