Holy Land Cuisine
By: Mr. T on
July 14, 2008
Instead of going for the individual entrees, we opted to share four dishes, as well as make it an all-vegetarian experience. The baba ganoush was out, so instead we ordered a plate of hummus ($4.95). Falafel notwithstanding, hummus has to be one of the most recognizable of middle eastern concoctions to have gained a strong international following in recent years, especially given the fact that it is both inexpensive and quite healthy. The downside of its popularity, however, is that - like a taco, a hamburger, or a slice of pizza - the fondness that people have for hummus also means that everyone has their own opinion of what perfect hummus should be. For me, the hummus at Holy Land Cuisine was near perfect. The consistency was not too thick, nor too thin. There was exactly the right amount of slight garlic bite to it. The deal-breaker? There was a copious amount of olive oil provided with our plate of hummus, which I REALLY enjoyed being a huge fan of olive oil generally (you can’t spell “love” without “olive”). In terms of our orders of food at Holy Land, we were a solid one for one.
We also ordered a bowl of the fool medames ($4.95) – mashed fava beans cooked with some mild spices. Gosh, who would have guessed that adding some garlic, seasonings, and olive oil makes beans more palatable? In my opinion, the fool was the best dish we ordered by a long shot. It was a real delight. It had a semi-thick, curry like consistency, and a very pleasant aroma. You could see there were portions of fully-mashed, as well as partially-mashed, fava beans in the bowl, and a very generous amount of olive oil too. It was not nearly as thick as one finds some beans served, for example in some Mexican restaurants, where they are so thick that the beans resemble a scoop of ice cream. The fool was a slam dunk: two for two on our orders!
Worth mentioning here is that for both the hummus and fool, we received several plates of Iraqi-style “samoon” bread as well, which is puffier than the unleavened pocket-flat breads one might find in other middle eastern restaurants. We were quite impressed with the freshness of this bread. Minutes after tearing into a piece, an exposed part would begin hardening – a testament to how recently it was baked. Being the base of the meal, this fresh bread served as a very strong foundation. Also, shortly after ordering items, I asked for some more bread, and the server brought us another plate without charge.
The third dish we had was fatoosh ($4.95) – basically a green salad with toasted bread, olive oil, and lemon juice. Fatoosh is one of my favorite dishes. If made well, big chunks of toasted bread, combined with fresh greens, juicy tomatoes, and a smattering of lemon juice and olive oil make for a delightful salad. Unfortunately, too often I have found that many cooks overuse the lemon juice and olive oil too much for my liking. At Holy Land, both Mr. Wilson and myself felt that the fatoosh had too much olive oil and lemon juice, and not enough toasted bread, making for a somewhat damp, overly-acidic, overly-tart salad. We were both a little disappointed in this one.
Finally, we had the spinach fata’r ($4.95 for two pieces). This was the only dish that neither of us had any frame of reference for comparison to, as we had never tried this before (nor heard of it - if anyone out there knows about Iraqi cuisine and would like to weigh in about this concoction, please do). The fata’r was basically baked bread stuffed with a few spoonfuls of well-cooked spinach. Like the dipping bread, it was very fresh, and had a very soft, fluffy consistency, as opposed to a crispier calzone-type breading. To provide a local frame of reference, using Mr. Wilson’s words – the fata’r was basically a small runza stuffed with cooked spinach. I noticed that this was the first of the dishes that Mr. Wilson polished off, and I also liked it, but needed to dip it in the fool and hummus to add flavor. Having said that, we both thought the spinach fata’r succeeded.
With three of our four dishes being quite tasty, our outing to Holy Land Cuisine was a very positive experience. And after being stuffed, there was still enough food left over to take some back to the office. We literally had to wipe excess olive oil off our hands before leaving.
Holy Land’s management seems to be a family-based structure, and as such, will have its benefits and drawbacks. Several times throughout our meal, the friendly owner checked up on us to see if our food was good, and seemed a little interested in our choice of orders. Obviously, they have some experience in the Lincoln market already with their North 27th branch being open for a few years now. However, the super-competitive downtown market is an entirely different animal from North 27th.
Holy Land’s vegetarian-friendly menu should, hopefully, be a hit when the students come back from break, and it seems like given the menu choices and overall atmosphere (paper plates, no tipping, very casual – i.e. this is not a place for the necktie-wearing, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, PBS-watching crowd), that the downtown Holy Land is probably pining its hope on a good reception from the student body once fall rolls around. Regardless, the authentic middle eastern tastes are indeed a refreshing and very welcome presence in sandwich-heavy downtown. When we were there, it was pretty much packed. But I wouldn’t be surprised if - like other downtown eateries that have established themselves in recent years – Holy Land has to tweak some menu items, portion size, or price, in order to survive, or thrive, in downtown.
Finally, one further note: the hookah bar component of the downtown Holy Land has not yet gotten going. We are definitely looking forward to returning when it is.
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Thanks for the informative review. I just noticed Holy Land on Sat, and thought I’d give it a try. Sounds like I should.
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