Mijana- Authentic Lebanese Cuisine

 Too often when dining out, it is so easy to say "let's go grab a burger" or "let's get Chinese".  How many times have you heard "Let's do Lebanese"?   Well if you are going out to dinner with me, you will hear it more often.  Patti and I sat down at our table, we tried to decide what to order.  The first thing that jumped out at me was the veal tartare, but because this specialty dish needs to be ordered in advance to ensure freshness of the meat, I was unable to have it this time.  But rest assured the next time I eat at Mijana's I will order it in advance!  Since we were unfamiliar with what constituted Lebanese cuisine, we opted for their house "Dinner Special" that included a variety of their menu options.  It first started off with Fattouch which is Romaine lettuce with diced cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, radish, tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, sumac and pita chips.  This salad was very well mixed and it also came with two freshly baked loaves of pita bread.  The bread was warm to the touch and ideal as an essential component of the rest of the meal.  
Next was the appetizer sampler or Mezza.  This included:  hummus, a puree of garbonzo beans with tahini, garlic and lemon juice then topped with a drizzle of olive oil; babagannouj, fire roasted eggplant pureed with tahini, garlic and lemon juice also topped with a drizzle of olive oil;  falafels, four made from scratch chickpea croquettes with tomatos, onions and pickles; borek,  crispy handmade fillo pastry rolls filled with feta, mozzarella and herbs.  The hummus was an excellent dipping sauce for our warm pita bread but for a real zing in the mouth I preferred the babagannouj.  It had more tang from the eggplant, lemon juice and garlic together.  I was pleasantly surprised on the taste of the falafels.  I expected it to be more dry and cardboard like with an after taste of sawdust.  These falafels were crisp on the outside and warm, moist on the inside but not doughy.  There was a hint of curry to them as well.  But out of all the appetizer choices, I loved the borek the best.  

After trying one of these you will never want to go back to the breaded, fried mozzerella sticks again.  The light pastry was crisp on the outside melded with the smooth creamy cheese inside.
The added herbs gave an extra delicate flavor.  All these appetizers came with two small spears of a homemade pickle.  Although it might appear to be just a garnish, the pickle was excellent tasting as well.

Now that we were starting to feel full from all of our appetizers, the main entree came to the table.  The Dinner special included Kefta kabobs and chicken kabobs.  Kefta is seasoned ground beef and lamb minced with parsley and onions. Grilled and served juicy over rice with tsatziki (yogurt and cucumber mix).  While the chicken is charbroiled and also served over rice, with a garlic dip.  The kefta had a rich bold, meaty flavor and fall off the skewer tender.  We used our pita bread to pick it up and dip it in the tsatziki sauce.  The chicken appeared to be dried as it looked similar to tandoori chicken we have had in the past.  We were pleasantly surprised to find it was not.  This chicken was soft and so juicy that I wasn't sure if I was drooling or if the chicken juices were dripping off my chin.  This kabob was the best one.  It had an amazing accent with the garlic dip.  It was so rich, creamy and with garlic to the tenth power that it will take days for the garlic flavor to leave.  Now I am not a big fan of rice, most of the time, I usually taste it and push it to the side.  I am not often impressed with dry and bland rice.  But this rice was smooth and extremely flavorful from what seemed to be exotic spices.

 Our first dessert was baklava.  It is a fillo pastry filled with honey, nuts, cinnamon and nutmeg.  The plate was drizzled with a berry syrup and pistachio pieces.  As baklava goes, I felt it was weak and needed the berry syrup to give it more dessert flavor.  Patti on the other hand, who is not a big fan of baklava typically, enjoyed it.  She felt that the berry gave it more of a balanced sweet taste rather than the overpowering honey and spice that typical baklava has.



We saved the best for last.  The dinner special menu recommend that we try their "Baked Kanefe for Two" so we did.  It is described as a "vermicilli " looking fillo pastry that's shredded then colored orange..with a layer of cheese in between- baked..and topped with sugar syrup and pistachio pieces before serving. Oh. My. Sweet. Goodness.!  I think I discovered what they must serve in heaven.  Whether you are a cheese lover or not, this dessert will blow your mind on so many levels.  I enjoyed the shredded wheat texture from the pastry contrasting from the creamy smooth melted cheese.  The sweet syrup was singing praises on one side of your mouth while the nuts were dancing on the other side.  This is a must try!  And an item that will be calling us back to Mijana in the future.  So if you haven't tried Kanefe or babagannouj, try it now.