Spotlight: Carousel

I wanted to finally spotlight some food on this blog! My intentions are to not only show my usual faves, (because I could eat Jamaican beef patties and sushi everyday!) but to also let you guys know when I try new dishes! Well this is a post on something new. Just a short backstory on how I ended up getting a taste of some Middle Eastern cuisine at Carousel. In my last post there was a picture of a sculpture called Salomé made by artist Emil Kazaz. Amber was so intrigued with with the sculptures. She started chatting with the curator of the Emil Kazaz gallery who just happened to be the wife of Emil. This beautiful lady is Monet Kazaz.

At the LA Art Show, Monet had given us the rundown of some sculptures. The meaning behind each sculpture could have very well been some magnificent Disney story. Wicked witches, princesses, the whole works! While she was explaining we became so enamored by this love story and Amber wanted to hear more! I’ll let her explain all the beautifully mushy details on Amber Social LA.
Amber wanted to write the love of Emil and Monet on her blog. Information was exchanged so that we could all meet up at a later time. That is how I ended up getting my first taste of Middle Eastern cuisine. After a long night out in Hollywood it was time to get dressed and head out. Not before getting some much needed Starbucks because babaaaaaay I needed a pick me up after only 4 hours and 45 minutes of sleep.

We met Monet at Carousel, in the city of Glendale. It’s about 30 minutes outside of Los Angeles. Amber and myself settled for a table out of the actual restaurant. It was an unusually hot, beautiful February day in LA. We took full advantage of the weather.

Monet arrived and we did a bit of chatting. Eventually we ordered. Read: I let Monet do the honors because I had NO idea and she ordered some samplers for us to try a bit of everything.
We started with appetizers which included falafel, fatayer (cheese boreg, which was absolutely DELICIOUS!), mutabbal (moutabel, YUMMY) (baba gannuj) hammos, tabbuleh which we ate with pita. For our entrees I had a delicious Fattoush Salad (greek salad) with chicken. Amber had lula kebab (beef kafta) with rice and pita bread. Monet ate lentil soup, a personal fave of hers thanks to her grandmother. For dessert we sampled Basma, Baklava and Halaweh B’jheben. We accompanied the dessert with some really strong Armenian coffee.

Monet instructed that we to take a bite of our dessert and take a small sip of our coffee to lessen the bite. It made a small difference so I continued to do so with the baklava.

We sat there for hours. We took in all the stories and endless knowledge that Monet had to offer. That day I got a lesson in Life, Love, Culture, as well as Middle Eastern cuisine! It was an awesome day. I thank Monet from the bottom of my heart for extending her hospitality.