Chawarma at Algiers, Algeria

Ilyn and I recently had an opportunity to travel abroad. We visited two countries, Algeria and France. Being food nuts we were excited at the opportunity to try authentic dishes from both countries.

In Algeria we stayed at the Hotel Safir, which is known as an "International" hotel, As such, they normally serve international cuisine. We were in Algeria for a comics festival and our meals there were "set" meals. Meaning, what they give you, that's what you eat. For the most part, they served attempts at international cuisine. Steaks, pasta, all all that kind of stuff. And honestly, they weren't really that good.

Ilyn and I decided that if we ever want to taste authentic Algerian food, we have to go out of the hotel and eat where the locals eat.

So during our last day in Algiers we went for a walk and found this place that had this familiar vertical meat spit. Here in the Philippines that meant "shawarma".

I thought, hey, I have to see what shawarma in Algeria tastes like! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch the name of the restaurant, but I did see a big sign inside the store that said "CHAWARMA", so I guess that's what they call that there.

Algerian people speak French and a local native language, none of which I know. So it was pretty difficult to communicate. But all I did was point to the spit, and the dude (pictured above) immediately knew we wanted to eat. We proceeded to sit at one of the tables. The dude approached us and asked us what we wanted and we said well, "Chawama".... and he was making all these kinds of gesticulations with his hand and saying stuff we don't understand. Apparently, he's asking us something specific about what we wanted. He was drawing circles in the air and my best solution is to just say yes to everything.

He then asked us to move and transfer to another table. I didn't understand at first why. Then we moved to another table. And then he asked us to move again. I was scratching my head at this point because he was pointing us towards the wall. He wanted us to go to the wall? What?

And then I saw that next to the wall was a very small stairway going downstairs. They wanted us to go downstairs? But why? I hesitated for a moment, and then I went ahead downstairs... and then I understood. The downstairs area was airconditioned. Ah OK.

We were all alone downstairs in this basement dining area for a while before the dude brought us our food. And it was on a plate. Apparently, they serve chawarma two ways. On a bread or on a plate. That was what he was tying to ask us earlier. When he drew circles in the air, he was drawing a plate. So when I said yes, he understood that to mean we wanted our chawarma on a plate.

That was just fine. We loved all the little side dishes that came with it! There were beets, olives, carrots, cucumber, pickles, chopped cabbage, fries, and well, mayonnaise. They don't use that creamy and spicy garlic sauce that we use over here.

And man, the meat was just incredibly nice and flavorful. Ilyn and I both loved it. And the side dishes complimented the meat perfectly. It was one of the best meals I've had in Algeria. We took our time eating it because it was quite a lot! I was already full halfway through. Computing it to our money here in the Philippines, one set of the plated Chawarma  and Fanta drink amounted to something like P250 pesos, but it's definitely worth it! Specially since it came with a complimentary plate or bread.

More food adventures in Algeria and France coming soon!

Ground Lamb Shish Kebab at Middle Eats is TERRIFIC!

I can no longer count how many times Ilyn and I have visited Middle Eats here in San Pablo City. It truly is my current favorite restaurant in town. Check out my first review of Middle Eats here!

Tonight we decided to come back again and we treated ourselves to their "Mixed Shish Kebab", which consists of 6 skewers of different kinds of kebab which includes beef, ground lamb, chicken and sea food.

No, your eyes aren't fooling you. There are only 4 skewers in that photo above, but that's just because I was a very bad food blogger and we ate the two kebabs before we remembered to take a picture! I guess that's only to demonstrate how we couldn't wait to dig in.

Although all the kebabs were good, I thought the ground lamb kebab was just spectacular. It was marinated with a variety of exotic spices and was grilled just right. It was very tasty, quite spicy (but not too much!). Dipped in their home made tzatziki sauce just drove it over the edge!

Guys, I highly recommend this place. If you're ever in San Pablo City and are looking for something different, check this place out.

It's located on the ground floor of the Malinaw Foundation Building (Masonic Temple) at T. Azucena cor. P. Zulueta, beside Simple Treats. It's open from 11:00am to 11:00pm.

Aside from the Mixed Shish Kebab, we also tried a new item on their menu, an "Nacho Pizza" appetizer, which looked very much like a small pizza cut into 4 slices. It had ample toppings of vegetables, cheese and meat, but the crust wasn't  heavy on the stomach. Perfect appetizer!

After the meal, we had some Turkish Coffee, which tasted quite exotic to me. It was quite nice. I do know that Turkish Coffee isn't really a type of coffee, but it's a name that's given to a unique way of preparing coffee. Basically, beans are grounded much more finely than normal, then boiled several times in an "Ibrik". Be sure to order just "half" if you want them to use the Ibrik to make the coffee. Apparently, if you order "full", that amount of coffee won't fit into an Ibrik so they use a coffee press instead. It doesn't change the taste though.  I think they may add a little bit something else to it to make it more unique. Whatever it is, I like it.

Middle Eats, San Pablo City

There's a newly opened restaurant near the corner of T. Azucena and P. Zulueta, beside Simple Treats, here in San Pablo City. A Mediterranean cuisine restaurant? Here in San Pablo City? I knew I wanted to try it as soon as it opened. The name of the restaurant is pretty clever too, don't you think?

As for appetizers we tried something we had before at other Mediterranean restaurants, the "Baba Ganoush".

I thought it was nice that the flat bread came wrapped in cloth. As for the taste, well, it tasted like what I would expect Baba Ganoush to taste. I didn't see much difference compared to how others like it tasted, which is pretty good. This appetizer went for P108.

For the main dish, Ilyn ordered the "Chicken Cacciatore", which is chicken braised in tomato based sauce, olives,  mushrooms and white wine.

It's probably not apparent in the photo, but it was a lot of food on that plate. Lots of pasta and almost half of a small chicken. Ilyn is pretty picky when it comes to pasta, and she seemed to really like it. It was a little too much as she was unable to finish it and we brought home the leftovers later on. This dish went for P248.

I ordered the Grilled Chicken Souvlaki, which is actually a kebab of grilled chicken and vegetables marinated in a "Tunisian Spice Mix".

I don't know what Tunisian spice mix is, but it tasted pretty good. It's not as flavorful as I would like, but it's still very nice nevertheless. It came with this white sauce that tasted quite unique. I kind of wished that you could order that sauce as a sidedish because it went really well with the grilled chicken and the sauce just wasn't enough. Well, I never did find out if you could order it as I never asked. This dish went for P198.

As for drinks we had "Maltese Ice Tea by the Carafe", which is simply a large pitcher of really nice tasting ice tea. It was enough for two servings for the both of us. This went for P158.

These prices are probably on the higher end of what regular San Pablo residents are probably used to but for the quality of this food, plus the quantity of it per serving, plus the quality of the "little things" like napkins, utensils, furniture, cleanliness and ambiance of the surroundings and attentive and friendly servers, I think it was worth it.

Even their toilets are extremely clean and nice smelling. It's obvious this place is very well maintained.

I really like restaurants that invest in seemingly unnecessary things. But if you put them all together, you come up with the impression that this is a place that wishes to make your stay as comfortable and as pleasant as possible.  I hate it when restaurants use cheap napkins and utensils, ketchup, sauce, and napkin holders, salt and pepper shakers, cheap decor, cheap furniture, cheap furnishings. To me it seems those restaurants want to have as little overhead as possible. It's all about making money, nothing more. Isn't it a wonder those kinds of restaurants don't really last?

While I have no illusions that places like Middle Eats are also in it for the money, the fact that they invest in the little things only goes to show that they are also interested in quality of service, along with quality of food. And that's important in the success of any restaurant.

This customer is definitely very satisfied and I will definitely be coming back.

Middle Eats is open 7 days a week from 11am to 11pm.