{"id":13544,"date":"2017-07-20T19:55:51","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T23:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=13544"},"modified":"2017-07-20T20:01:38","modified_gmt":"2017-07-21T00:01:38","slug":"mid-east-feast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/mid-east-feast\/","title":{"rendered":"Mid East Feast"},"content":{"rendered":"

July\/August 2017 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

When did traditional foods <\/b>of the Middle East <\/b>become so popular<\/b> here?<\/span><\/h3>\n

By Claire Z. Cramer<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"JA17-Hungry-Eye-Mid-East-Feast\"The diverse stretch of Forest Avenue between Woodford\u2019s and Morrill\u2019s corners has long been a destination for authentic ethnic cuisines. There you\u2019ll find two dedicated markets, Ahram and Sindbad (or Sinbad or Sindibad, depending on which sign you\u2019re looking at on the storefront windows), and a bakery\/caf\u00e9\u2013all owned by enterprising Iraqi immigrants. But as Middle Eastern food soars in popularity, you can now discover delicious Levantine-themed locales in East Bayside and the Old Port.<\/span><\/p>\n

BUT FIRST, LUNCH<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Start at Ameera Bread<\/b> at 845 Forest Avenue for a quick bite. On the front window there\u2019s a sign that reads, \u201cIraqis\u2013Americans: Together we stand to protect our home\u2013America.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Inside the little cafe, large rounds of just-baked pita and samoon<\/i> loaves are stacking up in the open kitchen. A column of glistening shawarma<\/i> meat sizzles on the stove. The counter displays trays of spinach pies and pastry triangles, sambusas<\/i>, filled with beef, chicken, or veggie mixtures. The first bite into a beef triangle is a delicious burst of subtle herb and spice. The tasty little treat is just $1.99.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ameera Bread is owned by Ahmed Abbas. His nephew Ryan Abdul manages Ameera\u2019s other location in the Public Market House on Monument Square, which opened last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy uncle bought the shop on Forest Avenue in 2014,\u201d Abdul says. \u201cIt was already a bakery.\u201d Now it\u2019s quite a bit more. \u201cWe have hummus plus baba ganoush, tabbouleh,<\/i> the sambusas, kebabs, shawarma, the spinach pies, even desserts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two locations attract very different clienteles. \u201cIn the Market House, I rarely see anyone from the Middle East. But on Forest Avenue, there\u2019s a giant community,\u201d Ryan says.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cMy uncle gives discounts for refugees. Lots of Iraqis go there, and Somalis. The Somalis love our sambusas.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At the Wednesday Farmer\u2019s Market in Monument Square, we catch up with Ryan and Ahmed in front of the Market House. The sambusas have already sold out. When asked about the company\u2019s name, Ahmed says, \u201cAmeera is my daughter\u2013she is now four. It means \u2018Princess.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On the phone later, I ask Ryan, who is 20 years old and came here in 2013 from Baghdad, how he accounts for Portland\u2019s love affair with Middle Eastern food.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAmericans love ethnic foods. Iraqis see it as an advantage. We just give it to them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s it?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that hard to figure out,\u201d he says, with the cheerful confidence of youth.<\/span><\/p>\n

OLD PORT PLAYERS<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

At Evo<\/b>, the glass jewel box of a restaurant 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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,\u201d he says. \u201cBeautiful little eggplant varieties, tomatoes, cucumbers, even kousa squash\u2013a real Mediterranean summer squash.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Before coming to Evo, \u201cI staged at Oleana in Cambridge\u201d\u2013one of chef and cookbook author Ana Sortun\u2019s renowned Middle Eastern-influenced restaurants\u2014\u201cto see how New England does Eastern Mediterranean.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Evo\u2019s menu glitters with Eastern riffs\u2013spanakopita<\/i> and grape leaves, a falafel wrap, an Israeli egg dish called shakshuka,<\/i> 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 chickpea semolina garnished with harissa yogurt and dabs of red pepper puree.<\/span><\/p>\n

The open kitchen is small, but Ginn\u2019s 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 containing a dab of labneh (yogurt cheese) indented with a well of za\u2019atar-seasoned olive oil. This is flanked by one of his puffed pita rounds and a chopped salad of tomato, cucumber, and red onion seasoned with sumac. <\/span><\/p>\n

At Tiqa<\/b>, the pan-Mediterranean-themed restaurant on Commercial Street in the Marriott Hotel, Deen Haleem, co-owner with his wife, Carol Mitchell, sees Middle Eastern food today as mainstream. Its popularity grows \u201cas more and more people are getting exposed to it. And it leans on vegetarian and vegan dishes,\u201d though there are nevertheless plenty of meat options. \u201cHummus has been in the supermarket for years. You can find plenty of young people who have no idea it\u2019s ethnic food,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tiqa\u2019s menu includes Lebanese fried cauliflower with herbed labneh, Syrian hummus, Turkish kefta<\/i> (meatballs), a Levantine mezze platter, and a pan-Mediterranean kabob platter. \u201cThe most common street food kabobs in Iraq are called Tiqa,\u201d Haleem says. Each dish on Tiqa\u2019s menu is tagged with its country or region of origin.<\/span><\/p>\n

Haleem is Palestinian; his family immigrated to Chicago when he was eight. He ended up in Portland \u201cwhen I met Carol,\u201d he says. \u201cShe\u2019s Lebanese, from Lewiston\u2013there\u2019s a huge Lebanese community there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Tiqa\u2019s location on the Old Port and in a hotel means patrons come from far and wide. \u201cWe get customers from all over Africa and the Middle East\u2013Moroccans, Turks. And lots of Lebanese! We\u2019ve been really blessed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

EAST BAYSIDE<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s just really excellent and healthy food,\u201d says Jenna Friedman, who owns Baharat <\/b>restaurant with Clayton Norris on Anderson Street in East Bayside. Friedman and Norris\u2019s food truck, C.N. Shawarma, was an Eastern Promenade fixture in summers past, from which they sold juicy, spicy chicken shawarma in gyro wraps.<\/span><\/p>\n

Neither Norris nor Friedman grew up with the cuisine. \u201cWe learned to love this food from living in bigger cities like New York, where it\u2019s everywhere,\u201d says Friedman. Baharat\u2019s menu offers the \u201cShawarmageddon,\u201d described as \u201ca favorite from the food truck, a plus-sized sandwich with chicken, falafel, house fries, and all the sauce.\u201d \u201cWe get all our spices from Gryffon Ridge [the organic spice merchants in Dresden] and from the Sindibad Market.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A mezze plate of falafel balls fragrant with mint and cilantro is served with tzatziki dip and spicy, bright roasted-red-pepper sauce. It\u2019s just the thing with a local craft draft at cocktail hour with Baharat\u2019s \u201cgarage door\u201d panels rolled up to let in the summer breeze. <\/span><\/p>\n

TAKEOUT OASIS<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Tara Rancourt and Scott Ryan brought extensive restaurant experience in Boston, New York, and D.C. to Portland in 2015. A serendipitous meeting with Paul Farrell, who owns Union Bagel on Cumberland Avenue, resulted in Falafel Underground @ Union Bagel Co. <\/b>debuting in the spring of 2016. It operates as a takeout falafel and small-plates shop four evenings a week, opening at 4 p.m. after the bagel shop closes. Look for the sidewalk sign that reads \u201cKeep Calm And Falafel On.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The food is vegetarian, organic, homemade, and local where possible. \u201cThis cuisine leans naturally to vegetarian and vegan cuisine,\u201d says Ryan. The menu is based around falafel sandwiches on their homemade pita bread. The sides include stuffed grape leaves, shaved and dressed cabbage, shredded carrot salad, and Israeli pickles. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur falafels are the traditional Israeli shape,\u201d says Ryan as he places a small puck-shaped disk on a plate with dabs of three sauces. \u201cYou find different shapes throughout the Middle East. This is zhug<\/i>.\u201d He points to the sauce made bright green with cilantro, parsley, and jalape\u00f1o. The taste is irresistibly hot and spicy. There\u2019s also a mild, Israeli-style tahini sauce and a bright-yellow Iraqi-style sauce made of fresh mango pickled by Ryan and seasoned with turmeric and fenugreek. The hot, fruity taste is a revelation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like the owners of Baharat, Rancourt and Ryan didn\u2019t grow up with these foods. \u201cWe get folks from all parts of the city, folks from other countries.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Right now is the perfect time to try Levantine cuisine without leaving city limits. You can feast on the delicious dishes and celebrate the cultural traditions that it represents, content in the knowledge that adventure deepens with great taste. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July\/August 2017
\nWhen did traditional foods of the Middle East become so popular here?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[131],"class_list":["post-13544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-julyaugust-2017"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13544"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13559,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13544\/revisions\/13559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}