Cuisines: Mediterranean / Middle Eastern
For some bizarre reason, every time I now think of this joint’s name, my brain goes “skadoosh!” An exclamation that apparently had its genesis in the movie Nacho Libre when Jack Black was ad-libbing some dialogue. And then became one of the catch-phrases of his panda from Kung Fu Panda? I don’t know where I picked it up, but it remained in the recesses of my brain until we decided to order from Manouche one evening. A restaurant I honestly never would have known existed until picking up dinner one night at The Pit next door. Even from the outside it looked warm, inviting and modern in a comfortable way. And, frankly, Ms. Hipster likes to know about any new Lebanese joints that I happen to run across. Because, as had been stated many times on this site, part of Ms. Hipster’s family is Lebanese and she has a great historical attachment to that cuisine.
Let’s start with the fact that no restaurant will ever live up to Ms. Hipster’s grandmother’s Lebanese food. As a person who grew up with absolutely no homemade ethnic food other than the once-yearly watery matzo ball soup with boiled chicken that my grandmother in Florida made when we visited, I have no such affection or special memories. Because who doesn’t love hot soup in 95-degree, 100-percent humidity? But, being a lucky beneficiary of her grandmother’s cooking in her latter days, I can appreciate what it’s like to get that authentic stuff. Now, her food was mostly meat and spinach pies, her version of kibbeh, hummus, homemade leben and grape leaves. It was all great, but somewhat rustic. She wasn’t sitting there roasting shawarma on a spit or even really doing much in the way of skewers or grilled meats. I don’t feel like that was her Lebanese food.
Luckily, Manouche has all of these things she made. But they also have the meats. And salads. And appetizers. Because it’s a restaurant and not a lone Lebanese grandma in her kitchen. Like most Middle Eastern restaurants, my first test is their chicken shawarma. It’s one of those “perfect” foods. Something I could eat every day with some hummus and some sort of white and/or hot sauce and be super-happy. So, if they can nail that, I figure their other stuff can hold up to scrutiny. I’d hoped Ms. Hipster and Hipster Jr. Jr. might order something different so I could taste test, but, alas, they were as unoriginal as I was and went with the chicken shawarma platter. The platter comes with two sides — which led me to choose hummus and leben (yogurt). Because they are the most complimentary items in my mind in terms of texture, temperature and taste.
So, as we all know, shawarma can come in a couple different forms. There’s the spit shawarma. Which is basically sliced off a vertically stacked mass of layers of chicken. It comes off the spit in ragged chunks and generally has some lovely textured edges and a fat quotient that can make it both melt-in-your-mouth and a little crunchy at the same time. And, if cooked correctly, can be absolutely delicious. If not, it can dry out quickly and become a bit too toothy and necessitate sauces to invigorate the protein. Manouche doesn’t mess with that version and instead gives you the strip shawarma. Based on one of their Instagram posts, it looks like the chicken is cut into these strips and then cooked on a flat top grill a la every Halal cart in NYC. The chicken isn’t chopped up like it is at those carts — making me think that perhaps Manouche is using a higher-quality protein — but they soak and spice the stuff in a really flavorful marinade that didn’t make me miss the spit. Plus, they managed to keep the chicken nice and moist and consistently cooked. We did takeout and were amazed at the amount of food they gave us. I should have known it was going to be a load when I needed a forklift to get the bag back to my car. But we instantly regretted ordering three platters after the ladies looked at me with that there’s-no-way-we’re-going-to-finish-this face. More leftovers for me! The platter came with a couple pieces of flatbread each, plus some additional pitas if we we were into that kind of thing. The chicken, as mentioned, was incredibly flavorful and perfectly cooked. The hummus was smooth and a nice garlicky compliment to the chicken. And, weirdly, the best thing on the plate was the yogurt. The stuff was sour and earthy and tangy and just really decent. I hope I’m not embarrassing myself and it was like some lame Oikos stuff, but I’d be willing to be it’s the real deal.
This is all to say that we had a very positive (and filling) experience with Manouche. Next time we’ll eat in the actual restaurant, as I liked the look of the dining room. And the dude who handed me my bag — not sure if he was the owner, manager or just some dude — gave me that friendly look and smile that said “you’re going to enjoy this.” Which I can totally appreciate. It seems like a business that cares about its product and takes pride in putting out a good experience. And that, my friends, is how you build repeat clientele and good word-of-mouth advertising. Done.
176 Broad St. – Bloomfield
973/707-7633
manouchenj.com
