Are you all going as crazy as I am? Now with kids in school, I am having to add hourly short order cook to the list of other daily demands. Not to mention making sure to attend all of the virtual school meetings and check in to see the kids are turning in all of their assignments properly. Some things I am having to let go of, like the pencils, notes, empty snack plates, and energy bar wrappers strewn all over my son’s desk area at home. Basically he knows every Friday he has to clean it all up, and the deeper the mess gets the more he will have to postpone his gaming session with the boys.
However, the cooking is here to stay, there is no way to get around the fact that these growing kids are constantly hungry. Even as a cookbook author and cooking personality on YouTube, I get cooking fatigue, so I have made it a point to support local restaurants any way I can on the weekends. Sampling the food of other chefs always inspires me to take my recipes into new directions, and I have a new discovery I have to share with you, would you get a load of this dish?
This gorgeous creation above is by Chef Samir of Beit Rima, which is a new trifecta of restaurants featuring Arab comfort food. In this dish Samir spread the lebneh cheese on the plate, then topped it with farm fresh figs, toasted pine nuts and sesame seeds, with a generous swirl of olive oil and carob syrup. This dish was sweet, savory, and sparkly to the palette, and the execution was surprisingly simple. Samir and I share the same mantra: when you start with spectacular ingredients, you don’t have to do much to create a winning dish! To see some of his other beautiful dishes, click on my new video below:
As this lockdown persists for much longer than we ever dreamed of, restaurants like this can make for a great staycation, or respite from the daily monotony. Supporting these businesses is vital to their survival, in New York City alone over 4000 restaurants had to close. So if you are craving a new experience, make a stop at Beit Rima, or any other restaurant you have been meaning to try before it’s too late!
For info on Beit Rima, go to http://beitrimasf.com/
