Plano Restaurant Guide

A typical Middle Eastern meal begins with the appetizer, or mazza. Ali Baba features an excellent sampling of mazza, including baba ghanouj, a puree of eggplant and tahini sauce, a thin nutty paste made of ground sesame seed. Also included is hummos, a puree of chickpea and tahini sauce, tabouleh--a salad of burghul (cracked wheat), parsley, garlic, lemon juice and tomato; dolmas--stuffed grapeleaves with rice, ground beef and seasoning, and an assortment of Arabic pickles, black and green olives, tomato and onion. The mazza is served with pita bread, which is used instead of silverware. Small pieces of pita are pulled from the loaf and used to scoop the mazza.

Shish kebab, or grilled meats, are also quite popular--and Ali Baba features grilled chicken (Shish Tawook), grilled ground beef kebabs (Kafta), and lamb or beef (Mashwi Shish). Other wonderful dishes are the seasoned and grilled gyros and the rotisserie quarter chicken (Golden Chicken), Kibi--ground beef with burghul wheat and almond.

Legumes, such as lentils, chickpea and fava are quite common and have been used quite uniquely to create such dishes as hummos-- made from chickpea and tahini. Another surprising dish made from the chickpea is Felafel, made from ground chickpea and fashioned into a seasoned, deep fried fritter which is very popular.

Most meals are served with wonderful blend of rice balanced with a vermicelli pasta and a side dish of pita bread. Yogurt, a staple in the Middle East, is often found as an accompaniment to most meals.