Kuhdo to Mogadishu

Had a close to miserable lunch w/Pigmon @ Franks and Dawgs on Clybourn around Armitage so felt a "Khudo" was in order. A second lunch needed to push the overpriced, snapless "5 star Dawgs and fixings" we'd just endured into the back of our minds. The mere conceit of a clueless owners marketing plan that has him assigning 5 stars to a lame hot dog stand is comical. Ducasse has nothing to worry about.

I'd walked by Mogadishu Somali Restaurant on Orleans last month and was drawn like Buggs Bunny to a fresh baked pie, into the humble cabbie stand. The smells wafting had to be put on hold for my virgin trip to Big and Little's next door, which I quite enjoyed.

Our Khudo lunch comprised of large steam table samplings of rice, roasted chix and fish, curried chix w/gravy, cabbage-spinach saute (maybe steamed), goat, injera, salad @ $8 per. The people working and eating there were as sweet and accommodating as can be, the food flavorful and filling.

For what it's worth, Pigmon told me he agrees w/this assessment but is too lazy to post as much, so I'll "ditto" for him.


Mogadishu
931 N Orleans

Thanks for bringing this place to my attention Jazzfood! It's only a couple blocks farther from my office than my usual cheap lunch cabbie joint, Baba Palace, so I decided to check it out today. I don't eat out a lot--and when I do it tends to be inexpensive places that deliver a lot of value for what I'm paying. (And I get my lunches to go so I can get back to my desk to keep slaving for THE MAN)

Anyway, Somalian food is apparently pretty similar to Ethiopian food. For $8 I got a styrofoam container filled with pretty much whatever I wanted from their steam tables. What I got was

* a rice dish with fragrant spices (cardamom? among others) and goat meat
* chicken with potatoes in a yellow curry-like sauce
* a vegetable dish with okra, red beans and chickpeas
* a vegetable dish with spinach and cabbage
* a chicken leg/thigh quarter coated in a spicy red sauce that brought to mind Ethiopian doro wat.
* a piece of injera bread (though they offered to put a couple pieces in there, I only wanted 1 for today)
* when I asked if they had any condiments they liked to use, he brought out a bottle containing a thin sour green hot sauce that is pretty tasty. I applied some to the rice and put some more on the side.

I kept wanting to put "and it's delicious!" in parentheses after every line I just typed so in the interest of efficiency I saved it and I'm saying a collective "IT'S DELICIOUS" for basically everything in my lunch.

Though I'd be tempted to go back and pay $8 just for the styrofoam container filled with the spinach dish and injera bread because it was unbelievably good.

Yes I bet some of this food would have been better (the chicken piece definitely though it was still very good) if it had been cooked fresh but much of it was the type of food that does well in a steam table type setting. And $8 is a great deal for the variety of interesting dishes I was able to try. I imagine this place will become part of my regular rotation now.

Glad you enjoyed it. If you haven't been next door to Big and Little, that's worthy of rotation as well. Check the thread on it.