Galit (⭐)
Menu
I visited Galit, a Middle Eastern restaurant in the middle of the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago last week.
Immediately upon sitting down, my first two thoughts were how busy the restaurant was, and how you could see directly into the busy kitchen. Since I had never been here, I ordered the “4-course choose your own adventure” and the wine accompaniment. To be honest, I have not tried many of these foods and spices before, so I wasn’t quite sure what anything was going to taste like.
Hummus & Salatim
To start things off, I had the masabacha hummus, labneh, sweet potato, ezme, and pickles.
My first thought when these plates came out were: “Wow, look at the size of that pita bread!” I was quite hungry since my reservations were for 8:45pm, so everything immediately looked very appetizing.
I was most interested in trying the sweet potato, the dish closest to me, so I tore a piece of the pita bread and ate it together with the sweet potato. It tasted fairly normal but tasty, and so did the pickles. I really like pickles and don’t get the opportunity enough to try pickled vegetables other than cucumbers.
The small dish with labneh was what I tried next, and with the pita it tasted kind of similar to butter on a roll but flavored a little more sweet and sour than butter.
The ezme on the far side of the table had a balanced flavor that went well with the other dishes. It didn’t have a strong tomato flavor, but with the other spices, it complemented the other dishes nicely.
Finally, I had the masabacha hummus in the middle which was delicious. I don’t normally eat hummus since I haven’t been sure if I liked it or not in the past, but this dish made me realize maybe I would like some types of hummus in my diet. Chickpeas are very nutritious and the consistency of the masabacha went perfectly with the remainder of my pita.
The wine pairing for this meal was Keush, ‘Ultra’ Blanc de Noir Brut Nature from Armenia. I’m not really an expert when it comes to wine tasting so I can’t really comment too much on any of the specific flavors from the wines I had but this one was memorable for being light and bubbly, almost like a champagne.
Mezze
Next, for mezze (appetizers), I ordered the grape leaves and carrots.
My initial impression was that I really don’t know what either of these foods is going to taste like, but the grape leaves immediately looked more appetizing so I grabbed one, dipped it in the yellow saffron sauce and gave it a try.
To my palate, it was very bitter initially. It tasted very healthy and full of nutrients though, and although I don’t know what grape leaves taste like normally they seemed to me to be very fresh and authentic. The third one tasted much less bitter, especially after dipping in more of the saffron sauce.
The carrots had an overwhelming flavor, maybe the piece I initially got had a ton of duqqa, which has a variety of warm spices in it. That is definitely not a flavor that is common in American cuisine, so in the moment I was really struggling to come up with a term on how I could describe the flavor of the carrots. The spices were very aromatic, warm, and earthy. There was so much covering the carrots and the flavor was so strong that I had to leave some spices on the plate, but overall a very tasty pair of appetizers.
The wine pairing for this meal was Yarden ‘Golan Heights’ Chardonnay Galilee from Israel.
Over Coal
For our main course, I ordered the lamb basteeya.
The lamb was delicious, I regret not trying more of the sauces on my plate but I was definitely feeling the effects of three glasses of wine after the waitress had brought us a glass of Chateau Musar Gaston Hochar from Lebanon to enjoy with our entree.
The lamb was tender and tasty, and it kind of reminded me of a pot pie, except sweeter. The powdered sugar (at least that’s what I think it was - it was very sweet) topping was a break from the slight bitterness of the carrots and grape leaves of the previous meal. I also tried a bite of the mushroom schnitzel. The outer coating of those was fried to a nice and crispy consistency, although the mushroom was a little more sour than I was expecting.
Dessert
For dessert, I got the olive oil cake. I wanted to try the phyllo pie - maybe next time! The crispy meringue was interesting, obviously very light and like biting into a cloud. The cake was definitely sweeter than I was expecting, I don’t know why I expected a much stronger flavor of olive oil.
The final wine pairing was a special one, it was a wine that has been brewed in the same method since biblical times which involves adding new barrels of wine to older barrels that are never fully emptied. The result was a very sweet and deliciously aged dessert wine called Keo St. John Commandaria from Cypress that was very enjoyable to drink when paired with the olive oil cake.
Rating
Overall score: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars
Would definitely go back here if I ever have the opportunity! Thanks for reading, and shalom y’all!
