Finding great Middle Eastern Food

When you're looking for great Middle Eastern food in restaurants, think regionally and open yourself to many possibilities.

I’ve gotten a couple of questions from readers regarding where they could find Armenian food…or Lebanese food or Syrian food in their town or city. The short answer is that it can be a challenge – although every year, it seems like that challenge gets a bit easier. No matter where you live, here’s the first thing to do: Don’t think in terms of a specific ethnicity when you’re browsing the phone book – or your favorite search engine. Think "Middle Eastern Food," think "Mediterranean Food"…You can even find Middle Eastern kinds of dishes in a restaurant specializing in Balkan cuisine, or Afghani food …or even Georgian (The former Soviet Republic, not the southern-fried state in the U.S.).

The bottom line is that the ancient cuisine of the Middle East is not all that dissimilar from country to country (except, of course for some significant religious food taboos that I talk about in other blogs and articles). For example, I once enjoyed incredible kebabs in a "hole in the wall" Bulgarian grill in Washington D.C. (Bulgaria was once part of the Ottoman Empire). I’ve also had amazing pilaf in a Georgian café and Greek restaurants, generally, have excellent food that is common throughout the Middle East, as well.

The moral of the story? Get out there – and experiment! Don’t assume that because you can’t find " Armenian" or "Syrian" or whatever in the advertising that you can’t sample great Middle Eastern- inspired dishes inside. An "alternative moral" is to maybe try to create some of these great dishes from the recipes in suite101!