Local Lebanese

Just steps from my building is a delicious and affordable Lebanese restaurant. I've been numerous times since I moved to Bay Ridge, and I always get the same thing: beef shawarma sandwich. It's spicy, tangy, yet slightly-sweet meat packed into a flatbread with lettuce, tomato, a zingy sauce, and various as-yet unidentified veggies (which happen to be almost as delicious as the meat!) I also figured today was a good time to ask the man behind the counter (who's always just lovely to me) what those 'pickled veggies' are. Imagine my surprise when he said "Turnips." My jaw actually dropped, because I have said flat-out, for the record, in public and in private, that I hate turnips. Don't like them, don't want them, don't want to try to like them. Blech.

And yet, in this sandwich, I LOVE them! The turnips are the bright pink strips. I am assuming they're colored with beet juice or something? Another question for another time. And in my curiousity, I tried one of the turnips on its own, but found it had a bitter tinge to it (another reason why I hate turnips). Yet when you eat it WITH the sandwich, that bitterness disappears. Genius.

Karam is also known for their rosewater lemonade, which I can't quite decide if I like. I am not a fan of rose 'flavor.' Rose flowers? Love 'em. Rose-flavored foods? liquids? They always have a soapy taste to me. I haven't really tried any of their pastries yet, either. I'm always focused on the sammich. I've never been able to finish one of these monsters, and today was no exception. Notice my boy cat, Oliver, taking a tentative sniff and offering to 'help' me with my sandwich. I declined his generous offer. Then his sister, the inimitable Mitzi May, decided to sit guard to my left, just in case I changed my mind. I did not.

Thanks for the offers, kids, but I wasn't about to share this sandwich with anyone. Yet despite being super-hungry (I ate breakfast at 8am and it was now 330pm), I could only finish half of it. Defeated sigh.

This sandwich was 5 bucks even for years, but I noticed on this visit it's gone up to 6. That's still an even 6 bucks for a sandwich you could easily split with another person. I'm definitely filing this under Cheap Eats, and if you're ever in my hood, I'll be glad to meet you there. Maybe we can split a shawarma. ;),P>

Karam
8519 4th Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11209
(718) 745-5227