Lots of stones thrown on my first/last post. Seems the commenters here are merely in line with those elsewhere on the interweb. Nancy offered to put me out of your misery, but I simply said, “I ain’t afraid of no posts.” Besides, some of those stones were justified. Others – not so much. Regardless, I feel properly hazed.
And you won’t catch me throwing stones at Medina, the little Moroccan/Mediterranean resto in Victory Park.
Thursday dinner with the girlfriends started with house-made hummus with warm pita and oven-crisp phyllos filled with goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes and baby spinach and preserved lemon. The phyllos were served with a tangy harissa aioli that we drizzled over them all. Delish!
Half of us moved on to the shrimp calzone, which the menu says is filled with Moroccan preserved red olives, but they looked like regular green olives to me. My friends picked most of them out, saying they simply thought it tasted better without them. They also shared the sea bass tagine with vegees, but by then they were too full to really enjoy it. The other half of us split the couscous and Andalusian scallops, followed by the grilled lamb chops with a ras el hanout vinaigrette reduction so flavorful that one of us was practically licking the bowl.
We also enjoyed the pomecello martini, which had a crispy sugar rim; the unusual but delicious caramel-fig martini; and the pine-honey tea, which tasted to me like eucalyptus though that’s not on the ingredient list (Grey Goose, cardamom-infused roast pineapple, honey, green tea).
Toward the end of our meal, charming owner Sam Benoikken stopped by our table and explained to us that his restaurant is designed to attract women. Sure enough, of the 50 inside seats, 47 of those were filled with lovely Dallas lasses. How did he do that?
P.S. I did not drive home.
