Htipiti (This is a spread with feta & roasted red peppers.)

We recently attended a media reception to preview the second floor private event space, the Solen Room at Agora. Executive Chef Ghassan Jarrouj prepared some classic Turkish dishes (hors d’ oeuvres or mezes). The dishes included:

• Garides Tava (Shrimp with dill, lemon juice, sliced garlic, and Raki)

• Chef’s Borek (Phyllo roll filled with goat cheese, oregano, and maraş)

• Kibbeh (Ground beef & lamb, bulgur, almonds, and pine nuts in a yogurt sauce)

• Lahmacun (Turkish flat bread topped with ground beef & lamb, tomatoes, and parsley)

• Triangle Borek (Pita dough stuffed with spinach and feta cheese)
  

  Lahmacun (I'm used to this being an actual flat bread.)

• Crab Cigar (Crispy phyllo roll filled with crab meat, scallions, and mint with an Asian dipping sauce)

• Htipiti (Roasted red pepper and feta spread with thyme and olive oil)

• Hummus (Chickpea puree with tahini, lemon juice & garlic on house-made pita bread)

My favorite dishes in the lineup were the Chef’s Borek (although I don’t know what maraş is and Wikipedia isn’t helpful), Crab Cigar (although the sauce had soy sauce and ginger so  seemed Asian, not Turkish), Hummus, and Htipiti (which had a very mild feta cheese which went well with the roasted red peppers).  All 4 of those dishes were exceptional, and I would go back for them.

In my humble opinion, the shrimp dish would have benefited from being marinated in the sauce they served in the same spoon. The spinach borek wasn’t crispy and was a bit oily; it probably just needed more time in the oven since it was a very light color.

-JAY

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