Balkanika

There's a funny bit in this week's New Yorker about Alexander the Great. So capable was he as a conquerer that at one point Alexander offered to give subdued countries their freedom just so he could conquer them again, or so the joke goes. We thought about Alexander at a recent lunch at Balkanika, because this restaurant in Hell's Kitchen offers the food of Macedonia and many of the other places Alexander crossed, conquered, and captured.

Our four dips, below, included spreads made from beets, turmeric, eggplant, and fava (counterclockwise). All fine! The curry balls were as dry as they were unfortunately named. To finish, we bought two rose lokum (Turkish delight), a jelly mess that left our fingers powdery and our mouths reminiscining about past lokum.

But the reason we'll be back to Balkanika is peeking out from the top photo. These meats actually smelled and tasted of the spices that had been used to cure them, all three redolent of salt and fennel and paprika and black salt. When he couldn't sleep, perhaps Alexander soothed himself by listing places he'd been victorious: Persia, Thrace, Thessaly. The New Yorker doesn't say. But the next time we're wide awake in the wee hours, we're going to whisper kobasica, basturma, soujouk.