I’m a couple of days behind with my restaurant reports. I was supposed to post my first Ireland restaurant report and another Italy report over the weekend and did neither. And so instead of the promised Twin Cities report, here is my first report from Ireland. It’s a good thing I don’t write this blog for a living and also that nobody really gives a shit when I post anything. Anyway, our travels this summer took us from Italy to Ireland. I’m far from done with my meal reports from Italy but figured I’d mix some Irish content in to switch things up a bit. And what could be more Irish than a Persian/Kurdish restaurant? No better way to begin the Irish reports, I say. It’s also an appropriate way to begin the Irish reports because Passion 4 Food was the location of both the first and last meal we ate out on our six-week Irish sojourn. Which is not to say we ate those meals at the same restaurant. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Middle Eastern Cuisine
Pandemic Takeout 48: Gyros Grill (Bloomington, MN)
We have been aware of the existence of Gyros Grill (on Old Shakopee Road in Bloomington) ever since we started shopping for Korean staples at Hana Market a couple of storefronts over. But for some reason we had never gotten around to checking them out. We finally fixed that this past weekend. We took a family walk around Lake Nokomis and then stopped at the little strip that houses them. While the missus went into Hana Market to pick up a few items I picked up the order I’d placed at Gyros Grill the evening before. I found a space much larger and brighter than the exterior might indicate and some very nice people behind the counter. The large order was ready and waiting and after the agony of smelling it in the car while waiting for the missus to get done at Hana Market and then on the 30 minute drive home I was starving by the time our pod-mates arrived for lunch. I am very glad to say that the food did not disappoint at all. Continue reading
Damas (Montreal)
In my recent review of the South Indian restaurant, Thanjai I noted that Montreal is home to a large number of restaurants from non-Francophone immigrant communities. I may have given the impression that these restaurants are all relatively obscure. This is not true. Indeed, my review today is of a Syrian restaurant that is one of the city’s most popular: Damas. It has been open for about 10 years now (I think), moving into its new, expanded digs about five years ago. On my first and second trips to Montreal in 2015 and 2016 no one told me I had to eat there. But this time it was probably the place most people told me to go to. I was planning dinner with old graduate school friends who live in Montreal, and they who once had the (now closed) Hotel Herman as their favourite restaurant in the city now said Damas is now in that spot. And so that is where we ended up for dinner on a Wednesday night. Continue reading