Balaboosta
We so love Taim, the miniscule takeout falafel joint in the West Village, that if Einat Admony started started serving raw snake intestines, we'd grab our bibs and go. Happily, she opened Balaboosta, a full-sized and snake-free restaurant in Nolita dishing up Middle Eastern and Mediterranean goodness. We stopped in recently to try a few of the shared plates. They're a little on the small side for the prices, but they sure are tasty.
The roasted cauliflower with pine nuts and currants managed to turn a vegetable into a snack food, and the falafel-wrapped albondigas (meatballs) with green tahini show that putting meat on a stick is never a bad idea.
The addictive and eminently poppable fried olives with labne and harissa oil took the prize as our favorite dish of the night. The most inventive was the pizza with carrot puree, goat cheese, cilantro, and onions. No doubt pizza purists will fulminate, but it had a sweet and gentle flavor that we quite liked. We finished with a somewhat uneventful chocolate and cardamom cake and fell into a discussion of what we'll order next time.
The roasted cauliflower with pine nuts and currants managed to turn a vegetable into a snack food, and the falafel-wrapped albondigas (meatballs) with green tahini show that putting meat on a stick is never a bad idea.
The addictive and eminently poppable fried olives with labne and harissa oil took the prize as our favorite dish of the night. The most inventive was the pizza with carrot puree, goat cheese, cilantro, and onions. No doubt pizza purists will fulminate, but it had a sweet and gentle flavor that we quite liked. We finished with a somewhat uneventful chocolate and cardamom cake and fell into a discussion of what we'll order next time.
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