EAT OUT: Baba Ghannouj @ 2200 W Main St - Durham, NC

A couple of Sundays ago was my birthday and I happened to be craving some Mediterranean food! So I went to my good friend Yelp to search for a local Mediterranean restaurant, and this is where it lead me to. I chose the vegetarian plate because I LOVE baba ghannouj and falafal! My husband chose the lamb shawerma, but unfortunately my hunger surpassed my blogging desires, and I quickly dug in and started eating before I got a chance to get his plate intact! 

The food was good, but not spectacular. I thought the menu was a little limited, without a wide range of options. The falafal was good, the grape leaves were wonderful, but the baba ghannouj I've definitely had better! Which is kind of ironic given the name of the restaurant :-/

The restaurant is cozy and more of a deli feel than a restaurant per se. When we arrived (around 1pm) the place was empty. At first I didn't know if this was a good thing or not. But it actually worked out perfectly for our very active 11 month old daughter, who just walked none-stop all over the place, exploring every corner of that restaurant, and making the ladies at the counter smile!   

I'll continue to be on the  look out for  mediterranean restaurants in the area to try out, since this one was not quite what I was looking for.  But this will probably be a good to-go place with our little one! Very child-friendly, and will satisfy your cravings for basic mediterranean dishes in a jiff! ;) 

Ohhh, but how I miss the restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area!!!   

 Cute Middle Eastern Decoration

 Outdoor Patio 

Little one loved looking at the squirrels eating the "leftovers" on the ground!

 The counter where the friendly ladies were. 

EAT OUT: Mount Fuji @ the Brightleaf Square - Durham, NC

We have just recently moved to Durham, NC from Chicago IL, so I have been curious about the restaurants in this area and looking forward to finding new tastes!!! Sushi has always been one of my favorite foods to eat out, but also a hard one to find good quality choices. 

I have to say this restaurant at the Brightleaf square impressed me! I wasn't expecting much, especially since it's an "Asian Fusion" restaurant, and not a Japanese restaurant, so I assumed they wouldn't be "experts" in sushi. But the choices I made were excellent! Unfortunately I did not write down the names of my orders, but I remember asking the waiter to suggest something that was a mix of spicy, crunchy & creamy at the same time and the one on the left is what I got (I believe it was called"Tigress"). Absolutely amazing! A perfect blend of spicy, crunchy and creamy, with very good quality fresh fish as well. 

The selection of drinks are very nice as well!!! This margarita may not be a perfect combination with sushi, but it's one of my favorite during summer evenings :)

The atmosphere on a Friday night at the Brightleaf can't get any better! During the summer they have live music on Fridays starting at 7pm, and people even do line dancing! Something I had only seen in movies prior to this day! It is a a very family-friendly atmosphere; a place where you see something that I believe in many places has been lost in our culture today--intergenerational community involvement! With little children, teens, young adults, middle aged and the elderly all together enjoying a great evening of fun!

And you could see each one of them represented in the line dancing! 

This was a fun experience, and definitely a place I'll be returning to! I'm looking forward to exploring more and more of this new place that will be home for the next few years to come and its surrounding area!!! Hopefully I'll have more exciting places and foods to post about :)