The other night we went to this little hole-in-the-wall
place for dinner. Panthea’s dad and uncle and uncle’s wife were meeting us
there. Looked it up before we left to get better directions, and even saw a
picture of their sign. So what’s special you’re asking. Well, we turn in and
think we’re lost, or the place went out of business. There is no name on the
building, no windows, broken concrete blocks on the parking spaces, and the
only door is one of those old fashion little square entry’s with a door on 2
sides, and 2 doors without windows going in form the entry. Again, no windows
on the inner doors.
Now let me tell you, we had no idea what was behind door
number one, and door number two said to please use door number one. We open the
door and can barely see inside as it’s so dark. This guy who’s older than I am
walks by and asks if there are just two of us. There are only two guests at one
table and two guys older than me working as waiters.
The place has me looking for Frank Sinatra and his cronies,
and wondering why there is no music. It looks like a dark dingy mid-sixties
lounge without the music. Dim lighting and lots of tables with white cloth
napkins and red tablecloths. Well, we gingerly picked out a big enough table
for the five of us, which was also one of the best lit as there was a light
above the table. Our waiter says we can call him Bud or Steve, but not full of
it. Yes, he really said that.
Panthea’s uncle, whose birthday it was, was being taken out
to dinner by Panthea’s dad. Now I’m curious, of all the places in Tulsa,
Panthea’s uncle chose Eddy’s to eat at. So our older than me waiter asks what
we want to drink, and starts bringing out side dishes of tabouli, hummus, and veggie
sticks. The hummus, what can I say, I didn’t like. The tabouli was fantastic.
So we’re now looking at the very limited menu. Steak (ribeye,
T-bone or sirloin) or steak and shrimp or steak and lobster. Now I have to be
fair, they did have a chicken breast available too. So we order this $20.00
sirloin steak and chow down on tabouli. After a reasonable wait, Steve shows up
with the steaks, except they looked like roasts. I mean the steak covered the
plate, and was at least 2 inches thick. I’ve never seen steaks this big and
this thick. The baked potato was holding onto the edge of the plate for dear
life, not to mention a basket full of dinner rolls. We all rolled ourselves out
after dinner and everyone had a to go box. Yes, even me. In my younger days I
could eat 2 or 3 steaks, just not this size.
Eddy’s even does take-out. I mean this place is a little
known gold mine. The height of the dinner crowd while we were there was about
dozen, at six o’clock. We did learn that Steve is Eddy’s brother. They are from
the middle-east at one point. And they whip up a fantastic steak dinner. So while I’m still drooling over steak and tabouli, here’s a
recipe for tabouli.
Tabouli
It’s a classic middle-eastern salad. A lot of people use it
as a snack.
Ingredients:
1 cup medium-grind bulghur (bulgur or bulgar) sometimes
called cracked wheat.
1 cup boiling water
1 cup each diced tomato and cucumber
½ cup diced onion (soaked in ice water to crisp it) or green
onions (These don’t need to be soaked.) We had green onions in Eddy’s tabouli.
1 cup chopped parsley
¼ cup chopped mint (or cilantro or dill if mint isn’t
available)
The Dressing:
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon each salt and pepper
Instructions:
Mix the bulghur and water in a bowl and cover. Let it sit
about 15 minutes, or about as long as it takes to chop everything up.
Cut everything up
Mix the dressing ingredients together
Mix the bulghur , vegetables and herbs
Pour the dressing over it and mix well
Let it sit for about an hour for flavors to blend
Then enjoy
Tabouli is a wheat grain-beast salad that uses bulghur,
sometimes called cracked wheat, although not exactly the same thing. It’s wheat
grains that have been parboiled, dried, and then cracked into pieces. Since it’s
already cooked, all you have to do is rehydrate it.
No comments:
Post a Comment