A night in the Sahara

Middle Eastern is what we were craving, so we made our way to Sahara, a small oasis of a spot on Elgin. More lounge than restaurant, this dark little spot still takes its cuisine quite seriously.

With just three of us dining, we decided to make it a true family affair and ordered some platters for sharing. We started with the Mezze platter, a large platter with all the usual suspects on it: hummus, baba, Moroccan cigars, feta and spanakopita. With little room leftover, our main courses arrived, a mega platter of perfectly grilled shish kebab meats and a piping hot and aromatic lamb tagine.

The main courses came with a heaping bowl of fluffy couscous and lightly spiced steamed vegetables.

Price to portion, Sahara can't be beat. We ended up with a bag full of leftovers and actually toted them around town with us -- they were too good to leave behind!

Crabs

Brian's family always crabs on Labor Day. Since we weren't going to make it back to Philly for the feast, we had to find some crabs here in Hong Kong. We ended up at the Thai restaurant in Shek-O.

Since they don't seem to have Old Bay out here, we had to make due with what was on the menu. We ordered the garlic crab and chili crab. I think we both liked the chili crab the best. The garlic crab was way too potent.

Where do you go for crabs?

I hanker for a hunk of cheese

Chinese cuisine is governed by rules: Balance spicy with sweet; Cut food into bite-size pieces; Include a fish with each meal.

Yet one rule in Western cuisine has no place in the Asian handbook: the more cheese the better.

Diary is all but absent from Chinese food, so it should come as no surprise that trying to find cheese when one is hankering is no easy feat. Even most Western grocery stores that have cheese departments seem to have added them as afterthoughts rather than as mainstays of a deli department.

So I'm asking you, readers ... are there any good cheese shops out there? Until I find one, I'll be humming this tune ...