Iraqi Kabab House [Pictures]

Mike G wrote:Also, Noli's at least used to be Albanian, not Bosnian.

jonjonjon wrote:As an aside, I've never known any arab people to actually eat a meal consisting strictly of hummus, baba ganoush, and soup... I've always felt taken advantage of when getting a "vegetarian platter" like that.

jonjonjon wrote:That looks utterly unremarkable. If just "decent" hummus, baba ganoush, and pita, and "bad" falafel... why bother?

As an aside, I've never known any arab people to actually eat a meal consisting strictly of hummus, baba ganoush, and soup... I've always felt taken advantage of when getting a "vegetarian platter" like that.

Snark wrote:Why do people get so bent out of shape when somoeone criticizes things? If it deserves it then so what? Thats whats good about a culinary site if one can praise and criticize if it is relatively justified.

Snark wrote:Also, no offense, but there may be a reason that all the parking spaces in front of the storefront are empty. But I'm just saying.

eatchicago wrote:I'm not sure who got "bent out of shape", but rather someone responded to the question of "why bother?" with a perfectly reasonable answer.

This is sufficiently out of the spirit of things here that it deserves comment.

Why bother? Cause it's a new restaurant that serves a cuisine that a lot of people here like

Also, no offense, but there may be a reason that all the parking spaces in front of the storefront are empty. But I'm just saying.

That makes as much sense as saying a Chinese restaurant isn't authentic because it doesn't play Chinese music.

Snark wrote:

This is sufficiently out of the spirit of things here that it deserves comment.

Why bother? Cause it's a new restaurant that serves a cuisine that a lot of people here like

So, if it is a new restaurant you can't criticize it? What? It happens all the time. And it is usually a harbinger of things to come. What is your argument? Mine is simply that the food looks like shit. Tell me how it doesn't?

Reading is fundamental. My comment had nothing to do with whether Gary, who actually ate there, or JonJonJon or you, who haven't eaten there, had opinions to voice about the food served at Iraqi Kabob House. I found the dismissal of Gary's report by JonJonJon out of place here. Reports on new places generally are and definitely should be welcome here.

Frankly, even if I had seen your parking post before I posted, I would not have addressed it.

Your second, querulous post seems completely irrelevant to me.

Antonius

I found the dismissal of Gary's report by JonJonJon out of place here. Reports on new places generally are and definitely should be welcome here.

Aaron Deacon wrote:I took the "Why bother?" to mean why bother going here when you could go to one of 3 LTH Great Neighborhood Restaurants just down the street, not why bother posting.

jonjonjon wrote: Iraqi food, as I understand it, has its own regional specialties which could provide a nice mix to the scene.

jonjonjon wrote:However, Gary's meal didn't look like it had any of those regional dishes. It just looked like a generic "middle eastern" place.

VI long ago wrote:Little Shedrak's (plus Al Khaymeih again, now green plums)
But for the lack of Dalmatian wine and seven colors of mole, I can imagine no place more truly RSTish than Little Shedrak's. It is not on Lawrence, but two store fronts off Lawrence, on Sawyer. You walk in past of a crowd of men with nary a plate of food in front of them. The expected al Jerza blares. Little Shedrak's is also a card room. One table played mah jong (surprisingly?). Another played backgammon. Later several tables played some type of bridge/hearts type of trump game. Someone suggested we move toward the empty tables in the back. We sat down on a table with green baize, but our host soon removed the card surface. She left the little side table where players would keep their cigarettes, perhaps a sandwich or a glass of tea. It was perfect place for my cell phone and Ms. VI's water bottle.

About a year ago, the elusive one was on an Iraqi/Assyrian kick, regaling us with tales of stuffed heads and other treats. Zim finally prodded the name of one of his places out of him, George's Kebab, but soon the movement readjusted. New cuisine's, new streets, cemitas and such. When I mentioned Little Shedrak's a few days ago, RST piped in that he had mentioned that place a long time ago. As we all know, chowhound is not exactly search friendly. I tried the control f browser page search and a chowhound search engine search, but found no reference. Finally, I did things the really hard way, I waded through a bunch of posts. I did find mention of Little Shedrak, but it provided no information, nor did RST reveal which of the various Assyrian places he thought the best.

To digress (let's all digress freely in our reports, no?), it is amazing how many Assyrian places exist in the approximate intersection of Lawrence and Kedzie. Besides George's and Little Shedrak's, there is King Kebab and one or two more, all serving their superior version of shwarma called gus and various long cooked soup/stews. I'm just not a completist, however, who has the ability to categorize all of the places. For now, I'll report on Little Shedrak's.

The menu includes sandwiches, every day plates and daily specials. What is available, however, does not necessarily correspond to what the menu says. Ask. We had three chowhounditas with us and they negotiated furiously over what they should eat--spoiled by no potato chop--ending up with two chicken kebab sandwiches and one gus sandwich. The Condiment Queen and I split the farrouch (baby chicken) and white beans with meat.

No offense to the Assyrian's, but you will notice that a lot of the card players carry a bit of a pouch. It will make sense when you see how much food consists of a meal at Little Shedrak's. The sandwiches are the Assyrian bread, very similar to Mexican torta bread (bolillo), the bread split to form a pocket, like a New England hot dog bun. Huge amounts of the ordered meat get stuffed on top of a simple salad. A bottle of English "HP" sauce was brought for the sandwiches. A filling meal, but nothing like the entrees.

For a few dollars more, you get a huge range of food. Each plate came with two of the squishy rolls. You get a huge plate of very good rice, very pilafed if you know what I mean, not low cal rice. The chicken came with a big bowl of soup/stew made from long simmered wide green beans and possessing a few big chunks of spine meat that would have made this a meal pretty much in itself. The white beans had similar chunks of meat and looked similar with its red broth, but actually tasted different. Also, a big plate of pickles and onions dusted with sumac and not very spicy hot peppers. The flavors were all deep and satisfying. The chicken nicely seasoned and charred. My only complaint, there must be some other kind of condiment no? Achar, what is it called, a hot type sauce/chutney. The final glass of tea was as usual, scalding, but nothing particularly special. Still, a wonderful amount of food for $27.

With the pleasant weather we strolled a bit around Albany Park after dinner. Al-Khaymeih got a huge amount of press on this board last winter about its feta and its green almonds. We nosed around their last night as well. I know Joan is always trying to get me to eat there, and I will surely return. They had these most amazing looking meat pies in view in their kitchen. At their bakery counter, which is jumbled together with the actual bakery, we were offered a sample of baklava (spelled there baklava). Both Ms. VI and I felt this was the best baklava we ever had. What makes one baklava just that much better than any other one, I do not know. But I did not take home any baklava. Rather, I had my eye on these extruded pastries, very much like churros but soaked in syrup.

Green almond season is past. Now Al Khaymeih is selling green plums. These are tiny immature plums. I was told that they are usually eaten dipped in salt. The kids loved them, who would now, and we got a big bag. Another interesting thing at Al Khaymeih, they have two big crates of bulk tea. I note this not so much for the tea, which really smelled fresh, but for the ancient looking containers which made the tea look like it came off a tramp steamer circa 1879.

One more side note. While we still have not tried Shwarma King, the place smelled terrific. The ability to have all his doors and windows open on a warm spring night was a huge advertisement for his fare.

JeffB wrote:I like the irony of someone being so moved by what they consider "utterly unremarkable" to go on record in such a provocative way. Here's to sound and fury.

JeffB wrote:... without any intent to raise the stink that ensured. My bad.

jonjonjon wrote:I read and appreciate Gary's verbose and well-thought out reviews.

JeffB wrote:Maybe the food pictured tasted better than it looked, maybe not.

G Wiv wrote:Rack of ribs from Hecky's of Chicago posted in this thread with the caption. (Warning: Image may be less delicious than it appears.)