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One of the perks of city living is the farmer’s markets that dot the neighborhoods during the summer and fall. Two weeks ago, while walking around Rittenhouse Square, I bought luscious Pennsylvania peaches and nectarines. The next stand featured baked goods and breads. I struck up a conversation with one of the bakers. As always, talk turned to food because I told him I was trying to decide what to prepare for dinner.
He told me about a small café run by a husband and wife in Haddonfield, N.J. On a brutally hot and humid evening, Edward and I headed across the Ben Franklin for shopping and dinner. What is most striking about the town is, although there is a Starbucks, the majority of the shops are independently owned.
Mediterranean Café is a tiny place. The BYOB, which seats 20, has an eye-catching patio with tables, colorful umbrellas and a lovely garden.
The wife is a bubbly woman who described each dish in intimate detail.
“The soup of the day is Swiss chard,” she said. “Swiss chard is similar to spinach, but you get the idea.”
The soup ($3.95) was a good-sized bowl made with vegetable stock. It contained sliced carrots, fennel, celery, tomatoes and the aforementioned Swiss chard. It lacked seasoning, but salt and pepper pepped it up a bit. Since it was a thin soup, I thought it needed small white beans or tiny pasta to give it body.
My favorite part of an Eastern Mediterranean meal is the platter of appetizers and warm pita that accompany it. The pita arrived in a pretty copper oblong container lined with a colorful paisley napkin.
The sampler ($9.95) featured hummus, mirza, dolmeh, falafel, some cool, tiny diced vegetables fragrant with mint and a few slightly salty Kalamata olives. Except for the mirza, I have savored each item on this sampler in Israel and numerous Middle-Eastern restaurants throughout the country.
The hummus was topped with a tiny pool of olive oil, but needed salt. Mirza is a chopped salad of roasted eggplant mixed with roasted tomatoes. It, too, needed salt. (I understand some people are watching their salt intake, but there are times when a sprinkling of this once-precious commodity is called for.) Dolmeh, or grape leaves, were filled with rice laced with lemon juice. One large falafel was destined to be cut in half. It was coated in crumbs and may have been baked in the oven rather than fried because it was totally free of grease. The platter overall was generous — actually three people could have shared it.
Fried Spanish cheese ($8.95) consisted of four rectangular slices of dense cheese that were well-seasoned. In Greece, this cheese is called haloumi. I asked the wife about it since I assumed it came from Spain. Her husband, the chef, an affable man from Iran, told us the cheese was made in Wisconsin. It was uncommonly good.
Dinners come with a house salad. Unfortunately, the mixed greens topped with beans were drowned in much too much balsamic vinaigrette. This dressing is not used in Middle-Eastern cuisines. Lemon juice is the acid of choice, although red wine vinegar pops up now and then.
I ordered the lamb kabob dinner ($16.95) medium-rare while Edward selected the falafel dinner ($12.95). I received dreary overcooked lamb, which was gray in color and certainly not rosy-pink. It imparted a strange flavor of part sweet and part salt.
The husband whisked it away and brought me another. It was a near repeat of the previous order.
“I marinate the lamb in balsamic vinegar,” he said.
It ruined the juicy succulence lamb must have. Still, I enjoyed the grilled vegetables that came with it, along with a large mound of perfectly cooked, fragrant basmati rice.
The falafel platter also came with rice and vegetables. We particularly liked the grilled asparagus and grilled whole baby red and yellow peppers. I usually call long green squash the “dreaded zucchini,” but I give credit to the chef. He dried the squash and set it on the grill. I sprinkled on the salt and enjoyed.
When we received the check, my dinner was removed from it.
Mediterranean Café is a vegetarian heaven. The majority of dishes are vegetarian and the prices cannot be beat.
Two tips of the toque to Mediterranean Café.
Mediterranean Café
312 N. Haddon Ave.
Haddonfield, N.J.
856-433-8984
38915539
38915669
