Grubby: Taci's Beyti

Krista has summoned us to this Midwood (unknown BK neighborhood) Turkish place twice now and we have been sated and pleased both times. Wild stuff here. And perhaps the best factor: BYOB. I love being able to bring our own booze in. While during our first visit, someone yanked a bottle of Ketel from their mother's fridge but we opted for Austin's finest during our second visit: Tito's Vodka (made from corn!). This was of course accompanied by wine and Baltika beer.
Here's the deal: it is cheap and good and full of lamb. God is great.

So, our visit tonight was in celebration of Krista's 30th. She is oooooold. But really I've been loving the 30's big time, so...Krista, the fun just started!

I believe that tonight we were under the vision of Taci himself. His mustacheod countenance was sitting across from us at a table situated below a framed 8x10" of himself ten years younger. He didn't seem to mind that we remained at the table drinking for two hours past our last bites of food.

And now on to the food...

Lamb is the name of the game here. Entrees are almost all meat based. But let me first begin with the appetizers.
Your typical Mediterranean/Middle Eastern appetizers are present. Chopped cucumber/tomato salad (with farmer's cheese) was a big hit. Eggplant appetizers, less so. The grilled eggplant, a bit too smokey. The baba ganoush was as I normally see it. This was a green, seedy, chunky and eggplanty ganoush - good for some, but as someone who hasn't quite fallen for eggplant, not appealing. It was nothing like the creamy dip presented at Salut or some of the other places I've written of. The cheese rolls, or "cheese cigars" as they were called by Lisa, were high class cheese sticks - feta supplanted for mozzarella and phyllo dough in place of breading. Fantastic. My favorite appetizer: tarator - "a very special mixture of tahini, yogurt, sour cream, fresh garlic and parsley". Sublime seeded bread triangles were great for dipping.

Entrees were all meat based and lamb was the meat of choice. It really is all about the meat here. Gyro and doner kabob satisfied all. The gyro meat was choice. The Iskender Kabob is the tomato-ey thing you see below. I'm on the wall here with this. I love the idea of crunchy pita squares and yogurt served with your meat. But something about it didn't quite ring my bell...and it was the tomato sauce. Loved the meat, loved the pita, loved the yogurt but that sauce. It just seemed canned or phoned in I guess. I don't know - thoughts?
The Karasik Pide threw me for a loop. Described as three kinds of meat (sausage, lamb and pastrami) in a cheesy pocket, it arrived looking like a delicious calzone. And it was...to some. The curing of the pastrami and sausage to me seemed off. I just wasn't feeling it - really gamey, not spicy. Basically, it was a gamey hot pocket. The lahmacun was basically a pita with chopped stuff on top (tomatoes, parsley, onion...), not that outstanding, but others seemed to like it.


Taci's Beyti is good stuff. I'm certainly not down on the place, I'm just trying to seperate the great items from the good.
This place is especially good for big parties. It's fucking BYOB and cheap. Go and bring your vodka, please.

Info: 1955 Coney Island Ave, Daily 12-11pm

Grubby: Tacos Matamoros

Amazingly, post- Bud pitchers, we found ourselves peckish only hours after inhaling huaraches etc. Being in Sunset Park, tacos were the clear choice. Stepping out of the Melody Lane haze, a rapid i-phone search led us to Tacos Matamoros.

These were real - reminded me of many a Baja roadtrip. Tacos like these weren't common in San Diego, but minutes across the border, they are all you can get. Two corn tortillas, a hefty spoonfull of grilled meat, raw onions, cilantro. That's it. Far and away, the winner here was again Chorizo. That makes Chorizo 2-0, 2KOs in one day. Can't say it was any better or worse than the rest of Sunset Park joints, but it was good and sufficient.
After two or three more tacos, we were done. Gets me thinking that is damn near time for another Food Adventure.

Full Stan:
Info: 5th Ave, Sunset Park. BYOB

Grubby: Cheburechnaya

Second on our Uzbek adventure was Cheburachnaya. Not nearly as good as Salut but it did have its positives. For one, it was BYOV (the V is for Russian Standard, the "best selling premium vodka in Russia" - see below.)



Cheburachnaya was more of a group/party spot compared with the cozy Salut. And it had this man running 20+ burners for kababs:


The specialty here are the chebureki - isosceles turnovers, perfectly golden, filled with either ground lamb, cabbage or pureed potato, and served with some kind of cross between salsa and gravy. Total toss-up on the prefered filling - some raved about the lamb while potato was cited by others as superior. These were my highlight.

Bowl-shaped, cracker-like bread called noni-toki was tossed about the group and used to scoop baba ganoush which was good but not nearly as good as Salut. The lamb kababs were also good but inferior to Salut. Way more gamey than what we had just sampled.



Basically, I would recommend Salut over Cheburachnaya to anyone in most situations, unless you are having a big group and want to celebrate. Cheburechnaya was kind of jumping for a Sunday afternoon. And they serve 4 types of Baltika. And you can bring your own vodka.

Am I being too harsh? Should I not be comparing the two? Leave your piece in the comments.

Info: 92-09 63 Drive; Closed during Shabbas

Grubby: Cafe Glechik

I'm just going to get this out of the way now. A lot of the places I end up loving, I have found through Robert Sietsema's excellent writing. This is one of those treasures.

Why go to Brighton Beach you ask? Well, Glechik should be reason #1. (If you have other reasons, please inform - I know there must be lots of cool shit going down but I'm in the dark).

This is home cooking. I think. I don't come from a Russian/Ukrainian home. But I'd imagine your grandma might cook like this, if she were good for anything.

Everything on the menu is pretty good - I don't think anyone has ever ordered a dissapointing dish. Start with pickled vegetables (including pickled watermelon). Order a couple pitchers of juicy compote and a nice, raisin-y Kvas. And go to town. The varenikis (dumplings), sprinkled with wonderful crispy, fried onions, and pelmeni (also a dumpling) are great. Get the pelmeni "Moscow" for cheese and egg. Order sour cream - it is necessary.


Everything is pretty great - stroganoff, schnitzel, fries covered in garlic and parsley, but the real gem here is the Stew "Glechik". An impossibly dark brown, thick gravy surrounds dumplings and two deliciously slow-cooked chunks of what I'm assuming is lamb on the bone. It's intoxicating.

Take a group - although they always seem a little unsure of what to do with big groups. Bring your own vodka.



And get some sour cherry vareniki for dessert.


Info: Open 7 days 9am-10pm, 3159 Coney Island Ave.