J u ly / A u g u s t 2 0 1 7 8 5 hungry eye taurant in the Hyatt Place Portland on Fore Street, chef Matt Ginn comes at the trend from a different angle. He believes New England and the Eastern Mediterranean have a lot in common. “In the summertime, outside of lemon and olives, we can get pretty much all our Mediterranean-type produce and seafood, lamb, and other local meats right here,” he says. “Beautiful little eggplant varieties, to- matoes, cucumbers, even kousa squash–a real Mediterranean summer squash.” Before coming to Evo, “I staged at Oleana in Cambridge”–one of chef and cookbook author Ana Sortun’s re- nowned Middle Eastern-influenced res- taurants—“to see how New England does Eastern Mediterranean.” Evo’s menu glitters with Eastern riffs– spanakopita and grape leaves, a falafel wrap, an Israeli egg dish called shakshuka, and sides like tabbouleh and Israeli salad. An order of chickpea fries arrives as a stack of what look like thick French fries but are actually silken logs made of tender chick- pea semolina garnished with harissa yogurt and dabs of red pepper puree. T he open kitchen is small, but Ginn’s team makes efficient use of it. Hagai Bernstein, the young Israeli sous- chef, clears the stainless work table every morning and bakes all the breads for the day. Bernstein delivers a side dish contain- ing a dab of labneh (yogurt cheese) indent- ed with a well of za’atar-seasoned olive oil. This is flanked by one of his puffed pita rounds and a chopped salad of tomato, cu- cumber, and red onion seasoned with su- mac. At Tiqa, the pan-Mediterranean- themed restaurant on Commercial Street in the Marriott Hotel, Deen Haleem, co-own- er with his wife, Carol Mitchell, sees Mid- dle Eastern food today as mainstream. Its popularity grows “as more and more peo- ple are getting exposed to it. And it leans on vegetarian and vegan dishes,” though there are nevertheless plenty of meat options. “Hummus has been in the supermarket for years. You can find plenty of young people who have no idea it’s ethnic food,” he says. Tiqa’s menu includes Lebanese fried cauliflower with herbed labneh, Syrian hummus, Turkish kefta (meatballs), a Le- meaghan maurice Evo’s menu glitters with Eastern riffs– spanakopita and grape leaves, sides like tabbouleh and Israeli salad.” AmeeraBreadservestraditionalbreadsalongwith“hummus,babaganoush,tabbouleh, sambusas,kebabs,shawarma,spinachpies,anddesserts”fromtwolocationsinPortland.