GYRO GRILL OFFERS FINE DINING FARE AT A TAKE-OUT RESTAURANT

Gyro, a Greek staple, is prepared with pork, chicken or a combination of lamb and beef.  Slices of the seasoned raw meat are placed upon a thick skewer which is on a vertical rotisserie.   In the case of lamb and beef, the meat is layered in an alternative manner to get the best flavor of the combination.  Most times a slab of fat is placed on the top in order to give moisture as it cooks.  The process involves making sure that there are no gaps in this cone shaped Greek staple.  Louis J. Amorim, owner of Gyro Grill, said, “We get our meat, which is a mixture of beef and lamb, put it in a dough mixer with our seasonings, and mix it until it’s fully blended. We then make softball size balls of meat, flatten it and put it on the stick and repeat the process until we feel it is the right size.”

 

Slices of the cooked meat are then plated with the outside pieces being most well done and the gyro continuing to revolve and cook.  Gyro is usually served in a sandwich of pita bread, onions, and tomatoes.  Tzatziki sauce made of yogurt, cucumbers, garlic and herbs is the accompaniment.   Some places use sour cream instead of yogurt. 

Beef and Lamb

 Chicken Gyro

It is not often that a fine dining restaurant will go through the “from scratch” process and less often that a “take-out” eatery will spend the time and effort, especially with a large bill of fare.  I have recently found one such restaurant in Rego Park, Gyro Grill, located at 63-02 Woodhaven Blvd.  You can eat there at one of about 4 tables with food served in their container to go.   This is not your average food and would best be served at your own dining room table and plated out.  

Who are the chefs?  “My mother- in-law, Kaity Markou, and my father- in-law, Petros Markou, said Amorim. “They were born in Greece and came to the U.S. in 2000.”  When it comes down to recipes, the best way he could explain it is by trial and error. “A perfect example is when I went to my mother- in-law’s apartment one day. As I was walking in the hallway, all you could smell was this tasty sweet aroma of chocolate. I walk in the apartment, which leads you into the dining room and all I could see were trays and trays of red velvet cupcakes.

Food Network was playing in the background.  Kaity was aggravated because she has been playing with this recipe for red velvet cake, but each tray just didn't meet her standards. She was about to throw out all these poor delicious red velvet cupcakes in the garbage and I almost had a heart attack.”

On the basis of this story, she and Petros, who had already been in the restaurant business,  just kept meddling with recipes from others until it became their own version of a perfect meal or cake or grilled octopus or lamb chops. Like Amorim said “Trial and error that they tweaked a great deal.”

Getting back to the food, Souvlaki is small chunks of seasoned meat, either chicken, lamb or pork, that is placed on a wooden skewer and grilled.  Many people tend to have it with French fries but having it with lemon potatoes can just add to the flavor.  Bifteki is seasoned ground beef rolled and grilled.  Sort of like a hamburger with seasoning.   Gyro and souvlaki can be purchased as a sandwich or platter. 

 Chicken Souvlaki

Bifteki

For instance, I opted for a platter of gyro which came with a few choices, one of which was grilled vegetables consisting of mushrooms, yellow and green squash, and sweet peppers.  A second item (salad) came with it of which I opted for a small Greek salad.  I usually don’t put the price but for about $17 of which you get all this tasty food…what can I say?

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Moussaka and Pastichio are my tests.  Moussaka is kind of like having a ground beef and eggplant parmesan but with a lot more work that goes into it.   Sliced potatoes line the bottom of the baking dish.  I have heard that this is done to allow the fat to drain onto it but not necessarily eating it afterward.  However, if you either use a relatively lean ground beef or saute and drain prior to adding to the entrée, the potatoes absorb a good amount of the flavor.  

Gyro Grill uses both eggplant and green squash. The vegetables are sauted, placed on top of the potatoes and then a layer of the meat sauce (not a “meat flavored”) is placed on this.  A béchamel sauce is layered on the top and then the whole thing is baked.   Bechamel is a white sauce consisting of flour, butter, milk, to which depending upon the use, parmesan cheese may be added.  In this case, it is. 

Pastichio resembles more like lasagna where ground beef tops the pasta and béchamel sauce is layered on the top and baked.  There are seasonings added to both the Moussaka and Pastichio that give the Greek flavor.   I was totally impressed with both, especially having prepared these items from scratch (I do cook). 

Greek salad here consists of:  stuffed grape leaves, whole olives, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, feta cheese, red peppers, sliced red onions and romaine lettuce.  I noticed that they do not use the cheaper lettuce. 

Lemon Potatoes are not just boiled potatoes sprinkled with lemon.  The potatoes are cooked in a soup base and fresh squeezed lemon is added.  In fact, most likely you will get a wedge of lemon with just about everything you order.

My biggest surprise was the grilled octopus that was not “chewy” but soft and savory.  I don’t know how they do it! 

Avgolemo is a Greek Lemon Chicken Soup. Chunks of chicken, orzo and carrots are added to the soup. Then the lemon juice is squeezed into it. Not overwhelmed with lemon. I’m hoping that they compete in this year’s Chicken Soup Cookoff. 

Spanakopita is a spinach pie made with spinach, eggs and feta cheese using phyllo dough.  What a great breakfast or brunch idea for me and Popeye.  

  

For those of you that are more “vegetarians,” Gyro Grill offers falafel, basically made from ground chickpeas and spices such as garlic, parsley, scallions and lemon, then rolled into a ball and deep fried.  They are usually served with pita bread and tahini dressing or tzatziki.  For about $13 you can get this as a platter which (as all platters) comes with a choice of 1 side dish (lemon potatoes; rice; mixed vegetables; grilled vegetables +2.00; sweet potato +2.00) and choice of 1 side salad (garden; caesar; greek). 

Tahini dressing is basically a paste made from ground sesame seeds.  Hummus is a combination of both tahini and chick peas.  Both tend to have garlic in it.   I did not find either to be overridden with garlic.  I used some leftover tahini sauce to cook a batch of chicken wings.  

Baklavah is a standard Greek and Mediterranean dessert.  Ground walnuts are used in their recipe for this sweet dessert made in phyllo dough.  The use of a combination of a sugar syrup and honey make it just sweet enough for the palate.   

There is no dancing at Gyro Grill or plates to break!   You are welcome to take out the food, bring it home and celebrate however you want to.  Opa!

SAMARKAND TRAVELS A SILK ROAD TO REGO PARK

Traveling outside the United States can be quite expensive with the high cost of transportation and lodging alone.  One thing that Queens can afford you is being able to spend a few hours taking in a country’s atmosphere and authentic cuisine.  That is the one thing that immigrants have certainly brought here.  As the years have gone, countries have split into smaller ones.  Thus the cuisines are even a bit infused.

Taste of Samarkand sits on the border of Middle Village and Rego Park with a cuisine from Samarkand, a city from the Asian bordered country of Uzbekistan.  Samarkand sits along the ancient Silk Road, where travelers and merchants traded their culinary goods from China to the Mediterranean Sea, thus we get some of the imported spices.    

David Abramov, a Bukharan Jew from Tajikistan, met up with Rasul Hoshimov, an Uzbek Muslim from Samarkand during a construction project.  It was just a few years ago that they decided to open Taste of Samarkand and keep a kitchen kosher.  They hired chefs Cholpon Turganbaeva and Mahmud Shokirov and redecorated with imported objects. 

Music fills the air via tv screens and many evenings of a singer/guitarist.   The female waitstaff are dressed in what appears to be a traditional and very colorful long tunic and long pants.  

BYOB is almost expected in this sometime “party” atmosphere.  There was a table of men nearby eating, drinking and in much discussion.  Dim sum came to mind as that Chinese tradition stemmed from businessmen getting together and eating appetizers.  In this case it was like a Russian banquet as the appetizers, soups, entrees, etc. just kept on coming out from the kitchen while shots of vodka was the main beverage.  That is not to say that pots of green tea did not get placed on their table. 

General Manager Lina Binkauskaite was most helpful in assisting me with the menu.  A pitcher of punch suited my thirst   It is prepared daily from various fruits.  

Now, to the food.  Uzbek is noted for their grain farming, thus the use of noodles and bread products.  Squash, eggplant and tomatoes are significant and black cumin seeds, imported from Uzbekistan, are a dominant spice as it has a much stronger and sweeter flavor than the white ilk.  

“Man cannot live by bread, alone.” Though true, you may want to taste all three.  Lepyoshka, a standard of Uzbek made from water, yeast and flour, is round and airy with a “semi-hole” in the middle. Shish kebob makes for a perfect accompaniment.  Lamb, lamb ribs, lamb chop, ground lamb, veal liver, ground chicken, chicken thighs, quail, vegetable, beef skirt steak, and wild salmon are some of the options.  I sampled a skewer of lamb ribs, beef skirt steak, and lamb chunks.  Thanks to the marinade and use of pieces of lamb fat with the chunks, it was quite savory. Beef skirt steak had a marinade and with just the cut alone, produced a very tender piece of bbq.  

A bowl-shaped matzah thin bread is made by patting and slapping dough around what is called a “kazan”, a Chinese wok looking frying pan.  It is then baked over the stove until it gets that matzah crisp texture.  I detected the flavor of cumin in this one. 

Fatir, a puffy bread, is baked with layers of a butter substitute as dairy is a no-no here.  This particular one, “made from scratch” is most outstanding. The texture is sort of a cross between phyllo dough and bread.  My perfect use for this was with two of the spreads: babaganush, that begins with smoked eggplant; and hummus made with mashed chickpeas and tahini.  This was topped with paprika and chick peas. 

Let’s get to some appetizers such as Samsa.  Layered dough wraps over finely chopped veal and lamb meat, onion and spices wrapped in the dough and cooked in the oven. Sauce on the side has a tomato base and not spicy, but has lots of garlic....I'll pass. Very inexpensive and filling, not to mention delicious!  Uzbek manti is comparable to a large broth-y steamed dumpling with the same ingredients as the Samsa.  

With many salads to choose from I opted for the Samarkand Salad 2, their winter salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, pickled cucumbers, potato chips, beef, dill, dressed with a drizzled mayonnaise. Potato chips shaped like noodles, rather than chips, provided the perfect "crunch" to the palate.

Stand up and applaud the chef who is in charge of the soups. I sampled what all Uzbekistanis beckon for; Lagman Soup.  Thick homespun stretched noodles are the highlight.  Chunks of tender, slow-cooked beef with onions, sweet peppers, carrots, in a savory beef stock.  I could taste both the cumin and dill.  The noodle idea comes from nearby Korea.  In fact there are a few Korean dishes served here.

Nakhot  Garmack, one of the main dishes is another must to try (You either keep coming back here or bring a group and share everything).  I never had or heard of eating veal tail.  They braise it for hours producing a broth worth dipping the provided crusty bread into. The second compote is chickpeas.  This dish is topped with thinly sliced red onions.   As for me, I’ll take veal tail over oxtail any day!  

Baklava was my dessert choice.  I didn’t even ask if there were options.  Excellent.  When you order a pot of tea a small tray of a sort of “trail mix” accompanies it on one side.  It was a mix of  candied pineapple, sugared chickpeas, raisins, and nuts that were coated with honey and sesame seeds. The other side had small cubes of sugar.  

Taste of Samarkand is located at 62-16 Woodhaven Blvd. Hours are: Sun-Thu: 11am - 11pm, Fri: 11am-5pm, Sat: 8pm - 12am.  718-672-2121. 

On another day I had food delivered.  This time I tried the Chebureki and their pilaf dish.  

 

WHERE HAVE ALL THE DELIS GONE?

I have had a craving for a kosher overstuffed tongue sandwich on rye bread.  The kind that you can only get at a kosher deli.  These days they are few and far between.  According to Jay Parker, owner of Ben’s Best, at 96-40 Queens Blvd., there were once up to eight kosher deli’s just in the surrounding area of Rego Park.  Now, Ben’s Best is only one of two located in all of Queens County.

Jay isn’t the first owner as it was being passed down through his grandparents who immigrated from Poland and Russia during the 1930’s.  This was the all too common story of people who would never take a hand out and sacrificing their life to better the future of their children’s.  They did not want their offspring to work in a deli but rather go to school and grow into a more lucrative business. 

At that time the grandparents worked and lived atop a canned goods store.  Jewish immigrants, particularly the Ashkenazi, yearned for their own “comfort food” of the meats, soups and what were considered inexpensive “delicacies”.   Jay told me that back in the 1930s and once the slicing machine was invented, there were 1500 kosher delis in New York City  and that now there are only about a dozen.  

Jay’s father, Benjamin, was the first to own this boutique delicatessen in 1945. Jay took over in 1984 after his father died, trading Wall Street for pastrami and quite happy and proud that he did.  “You just can’t get this stuff anywhere else”.  

Of the space, half is taken up by the counter and kitchen.  There is no party room.  Jay says he likes it this way as keeping up the quality and taste is easier to serve and satisfy a smaller amount of diners at a time. 

Finished with the history. Let’s get to the food.  I really wanted to sample everything on the menu.  I settled on what I felt were the important ones starting with Jewish penicillin. In other words, Chicken Soup with a huge Knaidel (matzo ball), thin noodles, a couple of carrot slices and pieces of chicken.  It’s all about the broth using whole chickens, chicken bones and soup greens.  I found that there was just enough salt to taste the savored flavor.  Hey, you can always add salt, but you can’t take it out.

Chopped liver, for those that have never had it, is made from chicken livers.  Schmaltz (chicken fat), hard boiled eggs and onions are added.  All is ground up to what would be considered a chunkier pate.  I recall years ago when my mother made this and she had to use a chopper rather than a food processor.  The chicken fat was taken directly from a fresh kosher chicken.  When fried up, there were small pieces of the crisp fat, called greeven.  Great on rye bread.  Chopped liver at Ben’s Best is served with slices of red onions, red peppers, black olives and some lettuce.  Oy, what a great sandwich it made, not to mention the good taste.  Jay has the bread specially made with caraway seeds that are totally ground. No more having someone point at your teeth.

Stuffed cabbage is another favorite of mine.  Cabbage leaves are basically stuffed with ground beef and cooked rice, along with a few other ingredients, then simmered in tomato soup.  I found both the taste and consistency a bit different from ones I’ve had before, even making it myself.  Ah! The beef was ground a bit more than usual and tomato SOUP is better than tomato SAUCE.   The cabbage roll is served with peas and carrots atop.

Since I have mentioned cabbage, I’ll mention the cole slaw and pickles that are served with meals.  Thank goodness, there wasn’t vinegar in the cole slaw.  Pickles are coming from a barrel and not a jar. One sour, one half sour.  Perfect! 

Potato pancakes (latkes) may be typical of Chanukah.  You don’t have to wait for the holiday.  Made from grated potato (less the water), onion, matzo meal, flour, eggs and oil, they are thick.  Jay has them served with apple sauce that is freshly made on the premises.   Option at home is to serve with sour cream.  There isn’t any dairy served here. 

Kasha Varnishkes are actually a Sephardic recipe that combines these buckwheat groats with farfalle bow-tie pasta.  There are no meat products in this version.  If the waitperson asks if you want beef gravy served on the side, ask “Which side?”

A delicious knish is a standard.  What make a difference is the knishwich, a sandwich of meat served inside a knish.  It’s like having your meat and potatoes in a better form.  All of the meats are made on the premises.  Ben’s Best is well known for the pastrami.  I had sampled the pastrami, corned beef, brisket of beef and turkey.  I could see what the pastrami rave was all about. 

No, I did not forget the tongue.  It is quite difficult to buy at a meat market or supermarket as I have heard from many that the Chinese discovered what they find as a “delicacy”.   That’s right, they are shipped off to China and will pay highly for it.  It’s not unusual to find the price of cooked tongue here at about $40 per pound.  Jay’s overstuffed sandwich has about a half pound of meat.  In other words, eat it sparingly!  Nurse it!  Savor it!  Love every bite of it!  My craving has been satisfied for a while. Oy, a mechayeh! 

Stressed is desserts spelled backwards.  Jay said that they make their own baklava.  Perfect timing as the baklava was just coming out of the oven.  Twist my arm.  OMG it was awesome!  Aside from eating it hot, I notice that the walnuts were chopped fine.  As much as I like baklava, I don’t particularly want to chomp on nuts.