On Mar 11, 3:18*pm, Melba's Jammin' >
wrote:
> This oughtta be good.
> We had lunch at a Middle Eastern Restaurant *today * Holy Land in NE
> Minneapolis. *Rob remarked that much of the food seemed to have a strong
> flavor of *** something. *He didn't know what it was. *Said it wasn't
> necessarily unpleasant except that it was prominent. *I said I'd "ask my
> people." *What do you think it might have been? *I wondered about cumin
> but don't even know if that's common in that kind of cookery. *OTOH, I'm
> pretty sure Beef Teriyaki and Chicken Alfredo aren't common to middle
> eastern cookery, but they were on the buffet line. *:-)
> He had kofta with vegetables, falafel, tandoori chicken, some gyro meat,
> and I'm not sure what else. *Is there a common spice in all of those? *
> If it makes any difference, the owners are Palestinian.
>
> Save any smartass replies for another time. *:-)

Possibly za'atar, which is hyssop-based. Felafal and gyro would have
cumin.
It's what I call a warm flavor, not spicy, but good. Funny thing is,
when I was younger, I thought it smelled like armpit.....

maxine in ri