Baba Ghannouj

Made from mashed eggplant and spices, baba ghannouj is a light, cool puree best served with soft, warm bread for dipping. We sampled the dish from four local eateries. Here's how they fared: Egyptian Pizza 542 E. Belvedere Ave., Baltimore -- 410-323-7060 Hours --11 a.m.-11 p.m. daily Restaurant's estimate --10 minutes Ready in --6 minutes This order of baba ghannouj, $5.78, had an unappealing brownish tint. Though it tasted fresh, the dip just wasn't that exciting. Some warm, doughy bread came on the side.

I want to make baba ghannouj. Can I roast the eggplants in the microwave? Roasting an eggplant whole is the easiest way to turn its flesh into a soft, succulent puree - the base for baba ghannouj and other eggplant salads. But it cannot be accomplished in a microwave oven. Unlike the ambient heat generated by conventional ovens, so-called microwaves penetrate only about 1 1/2 inches into foods. If you microwaved a ball of rice that was 3 inches in diameter - about the size of a baseball - the center would get hot because the center is only 1 1/2 inches from the surface.

I want to make baba ghannouj. Can I roast the eggplants in the microwave? Roasting an eggplant whole is the easiest way to turn its flesh into a soft, succulent puree - the base for baba ghannouj and other eggplant salads. But it cannot be accomplished in a microwave oven. Unlike the ambient heat generated by conventional ovens, so-called microwaves penetrate only about 1 1/2 inches into foods. If you microwaved a ball of rice that was 3 inches in diameter - about the size of a baseball - the center would get hot because the center is only 1 1/2 inches from the surface.

Made from mashed eggplant and spices, baba ghannouj is a light, cool puree best served with soft, warm bread for dipping. We sampled the dish from four local eateries. Here's how they fared: Egyptian Pizza 542 E. Belvedere Ave., Baltimore -- 410-323-7060 Hours --11 a.m.-11 p.m. daily Restaurant's estimate --10 minutes Ready in --6 minutes This order of baba ghannouj, $5.78, had an unappealing brownish tint. Though it tasted fresh, the dip just wasn't that exciting. Some warm, doughy bread came on the side.

Sarah's Cafe is now the Egyptian Cafe, but the menu hasn't changed. It still says "Sarah's Cafe on the cover, and that naturally causes some confusion among patrons. It also says "under new management." Having never been to Sarah's, we can't say if that's an improvement or not, but the management does seem very new to the restaurant business - even to a simple pizza parlor-type establishment such as this one. Despite the restaurant's centerpiece, a big, brick-covered pizza oven, selections other than pizza load the menu.

EGYPTIAN CAFE524 E. Belvedere Ave., in the Belvedere Market. Hours: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sundays to Thursdays, 11 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays. Call 323-7060.Subtitled, for some reason, the Al Pacino Cafe, this establishment has received justifiable notice for its pizza. Made in wood-burning ovens, it has brought the California-style designer pizza to town, and the results are admirable.So a pizza made from a pita bread crust topped with shrimp, cilantro, tomato yogurt curry and yellow squash, served with a side of mango chutney, might not taste like the standard oregano and pepperoni number you're used to. But it's still good.

Without the "Open" sign to tell you otherwise, it would be easy to assume the Mediterranean Palace on York Road across from Belvedere Square is closed. At dusk one recent night, little light emanated from the nondescript carryout, and it appeared as if one more city establishment had gone out of business. Inside, two customers were having a quiet dinner in a small dining room indifferently decorated with a lonesome tambourine, plastic flowers, a large mirror and faux ivy trailing along a faux trellis.

I guess if I were going to open a Middle Eastern restaurant, it wouldn't occur to me to do it in the basement coffee shop of the Marylander Apartments. It's a place where residents count on being able to get an inexpensive meal when they don't feel like going out. And it had better be turkey and gravey with two vegetables, not baba ghannouj and beef shawirma.So the Middle East Cafe discovered. When it first opened and served exclusively ethnic dishes, our waiter told us, it lost a lot of its regulars.

AMER'S is one of those unexpected treats that sometimes can be found when you're willing to venture into one of the ubiquitous little shopping centers in these parts. Tucked in the back of Belair Beltway Plaza in Fullerton, the 3-month-old Mediterranean restaurant exudes warmth through its melon-colored walls, soft lighting and cheerfully attentive servers. And to fire up the ambience even more, a belly dancer gyrates through the dining room every other Friday. The food isn't bad, either, particularly the Egyptian dishes that owner Mohamed Amer makes from scratch.

Mediterranean Palace makes a world-class falafel, a falafel that's worth a long drove to the corner of York Road and Northern Parkway.I suspect that Maan Kanfsh knows he has a winner on his hands, and that's why he keeps handing out complimentary servings of his delicious fried chickpea patties. They're soft inside, crisp and nutty with sesame seeds outside. One bite of these unusual, doughnut-shaped morsels will start the Baltimore-area falafel-lover on a regular pilgrimage to this simple luncheonette.

Aladdin's Cafe started out as a pizza and sub shop, then became a pizza, sub and Lebanese food place, and now serves only Lebanese food. Any restaurant is to be commended for focusing on what it does best. As owner Nader Abushkhei noted, many Locust Point restaurants serve pizza, but Lebanese food is still unusual, even in this rapidly gentrifying area. However, it would be nice if the menu reflected its new focus. The carryout and sit-down menus still list all the subs and pizzas that are no longer being served, as well as deli standards such as fries, chicken wings and onion rings.

If you aren't going to make it to Athens for the Olympics, try the next best thing: Invite over some friends and cook up some authentic Greek food as you watch Michael Phelps or fellow Baltimorean hoopster Carmelo Anthony go for gold. We asked several experts in the cuisine to give us some suggestions on the best way to throw an authentic Greek bash. Here's what they suggested. To start with, grill like the Greeks. For Stelios and Pauline Spiliadis, real Greek food goes way back. As owners of the Black Olive, the Fells Point restaurant that offers some of Baltimore's most sophisticated Greek fare, they create food that reflects this history.

I'm going to break some new ground today with a hearty recommendation of a carry-out restaurant located in, of all places, a mall. Mazagrill, in the old Annapolis Mall -- which is now know as Westfield Shoppingtown -- was both a surprise and a delight. The small eatery is sandwiched between a Japanese place and a McDonald's in the sprawling mall's food court. Its menu offers a familiar sample of Mediterranean-style skewers and pita dishes, as well as a handful of appetizers. The cook prepared the grilled entrees over an open flame at one end of the kitchen, and the staff had our large order ready promptly.

For the first time the other day, I was sorry -- if just for a moment -- that I don't smoke. It happened when I walked into the Aladdin Cafe on the western fringe of Locust Point. For $7, you can purchase one of more than two dozen varieties of flavored tobacco and light up using a fancy Lebanese water pipe known as a sheisha -- all while sitting on the deck and watching the boats come and go in the Inner Harbor. Me? I was just there for the shish kebabs. The quirky Aladdin -- like so many carryouts in this city -- supplements its menu with American-style pizza and subs.

Without the "Open" sign to tell you otherwise, it would be easy to assume the Mediterranean Palace on York Road across from Belvedere Square is closed. At dusk one recent night, little light emanated from the nondescript carryout, and it appeared as if one more city establishment had gone out of business. Inside, two customers were having a quiet dinner in a small dining room indifferently decorated with a lonesome tambourine, plastic flowers, a large mirror and faux ivy trailing along a faux trellis.

The restaurant near the southwestern corner of Newberry Street and Sulgrave Avenue in Mount Washington has had a number of incarnations over the last six years, first as Dessert Cafe, then as Desert Cafe. Now, in its second cycle as the latter, it's finally hit a great stride. Blake Wollman and his sister, Whitney, bought the restaurant one year ago from their cousin-in-law. They kept the existing menu of eastern Mediterranean fare and got rid of the low chairs that were difficult for anyone over the age of 5 to maneuver.

When Kirk Gorman bought the Desert Cafe seven months ago, he decided to keep the Middle Eastern menu in place, even though his background is more along the lines of beurre blanc than baba ghannouj. The 29-year-old Baltimore native trained in classic French cuisine at Peter Kump's Cooking School in New York.Everything looks the same as before at this well-worn, wood-frame rowhouse in Mount Washington: the green and wine toss pillows on the wall-hugging cushioned bench inside, the jumbo metal stars hanging overhead, and outside, the mismatched tables on the old-fashioned porch.

For the first time the other day, I was sorry -- if just for a moment -- that I don't smoke. It happened when I walked into the Aladdin Cafe on the western fringe of Locust Point. For $7, you can purchase one of more than two dozen varieties of flavored tobacco and light up using a fancy Lebanese water pipe known as a sheisha -- all while sitting on the deck and watching the boats come and go in the Inner Harbor. Me? I was just there for the shish kebabs. The quirky Aladdin -- like so many carryouts in this city -- supplements its menu with American-style pizza and subs.

AMER'S is one of those unexpected treats that sometimes can be found when you're willing to venture into one of the ubiquitous little shopping centers in these parts. Tucked in the back of Belair Beltway Plaza in Fullerton, the 3-month-old Mediterranean restaurant exudes warmth through its melon-colored walls, soft lighting and cheerfully attentive servers. And to fire up the ambience even more, a belly dancer gyrates through the dining room every other Friday. The food isn't bad, either, particularly the Egyptian dishes that owner Mohamed Amer makes from scratch.

Sarah's Cafe is now the Egyptian Cafe, but the menu hasn't changed. It still says "Sarah's Cafe on the cover, and that naturally causes some confusion among patrons. It also says "under new management." Having never been to Sarah's, we can't say if that's an improvement or not, but the management does seem very new to the restaurant business - even to a simple pizza parlor-type establishment such as this one. Despite the restaurant's centerpiece, a big, brick-covered pizza oven, selections other than pizza load the menu.