From Lebanon With Love

New restaurant showcase Mediterranean cuisine

Sometimes, an ethnic restaurant will adapt dishes for American tastes. Not so at Coco’s Lebanese Cafe, where owner Genoveva Ancer shares the dishes her Lebanese family has been making for years.

“We’re not Americanizing anything. We’re not watering down the food,” she says of her new restaurant, which opened in late October behind Teatro Scarpino on West Avenue in Fayetteville.

But that doesn’t mean patrons should expect fiery-hot dishes. Instead, Lebanese food is characterized by aromatic spices and fresh ingredients, says Jeny Ancer, the restaurant’s manager and daughter of Genoveva Ancer.

In part because of Lebanon’s role as a trading center in the Middle East - and because of its location on the Mediterranean Sea - Lebanese food features a wide variety of spices and ingredients, even common ones such as potatoes, that other Middle Eastern countries do not. It is somewhat similar to Greek food, with staples such as hummus, lamb and yogurt on the menu.

Dishes at Coco’s include Kibbeh, which the Ancers describe as Lebanon’s national dish. It includes lightly fried lamb and beef mixed with wheat and stuffed with pine nuts, onions and minced lamb ($7 for a half order, $12.50 for a full order).

Another classically Lebanese dish is the Wara Enab, or stuffed grape leaves. The dish ($5 half, $9 full order) features hand-rolled grape leaves stuffed with rice, ground lamb and beef. A vegetarian version($4.50 half, $8.50 full order) comes with rice, lentils, fresh herbs, pine nuts and raisins. A cabbage leaf variety, also known as Malfouf Mihshy, is also available.

Other options include a hummus dish, a blend of chickpeas, garlic, lemon and tahini, which is a sesame seed paste ($5.50). Similar to hummus is babaganoush, which is made from eggplant rather than chickpeas ($6).

The Ancers say the restaurant is very kid friendly. They jointly point to dishes such as Ftayer, a fried pastry filled with ground lamb and spices and served with a citrus tahini sauce or yogurt-cucumber sauce ($2 each) or Coco’s Pita, toasted pitas served with cheese, tomatoes and olives ($6.50).

Desserts include dates drizzled with goat’s milk and caramel ($2.50) and homemade baklava, a layered pastry of walnuts, almonds, fillo dough and syrup ($2.50).

The restaurant offers catering services and will take on private parties. After an introductory period featuring only lunchtime hours, the restaurant will begin opening for dinner as well.

Whats Up, Pages 17 on 12/07/2012

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