Ala' Al-Deen

Culinary Diversity is something that I feel everyone in the HD should implement into their everyday eating experiences. The ability to try something new will open many new doors into a thousand new worlds that you never would've experienced otherwise. Middle Eastern food is something that doesn't really sound glamorous compared to Thai, Italian, Chinese, and French cuisine. The scary part about trying something new is finding where to go to get it, Middle Eastern cuisine isn't something that's on every street corner in the HD. This type of cuisine requires effort and a little bit of investigating in order to find a joint that serves the food the way it is meant to be served. Ala' Al-Deen sits on the outer part of 7th street in Victorville, overshadowed by Bakers and the almighty Los Robertos Mexican Restaurant. It's outside appearance is mediocre at best, but the gold-mine of culinary treats inside are undeniably the HD's best kept secret!

After getting over the dull outside of the building, stepping inside of Ala' Al-Deen is actually pretty inviting. Beautiful floor tile, clean tables/chairs, and a huge menu equipped with large pictures make your new culinary experience a whole lot easier to get used to. The last thing anyone wants to worry about is questioning the cleanliness of an establishment, Ala' Al-Deen immediately wipes those thoughts from your head, allowing you to concentrate on what meal you'll be sampling on your culinary adventure into a new world of food!
The lady at the counter recommended I try the "Large Meal Sampler" to get a feel of what the restaurant and the Middle East have to offer. Understanding what you're eating is usually the best way to get someone to try something new, I will go plate by plate in the picture and explain each item so you guys understand Middle Eastern Cuisine a little more before you go out there and dive head first into the culture.

The top left Item is a paste known as "Baba Ghanoush", a Lebanese originated paste made of cooked/blended eggplant, olive oil, and various spices. This dish is eaten with Pita bread, just dip the bread into the Ghanoush and enjoy! I thought that this dish was addicting and fun to eat, the pita bread acts as a soft vehicle for the pasty goodness of eggplant and dark spices. If you're a fan of Hummus, you'll most likely love Baba Ghanoush.

The next item in the picture is the green dish known as "Tabbouleh", Tabbouleh consists of Bulger (wheat cereal bits), Tomato, Onion, Cucumber, chopped mint, chopped parsley, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt. This dish is also eaten with pita bread. The Tabbouleh tasted like an Italian version of pico de gallo. The parsley added a darker kick to the dish that helped my taste buds absorb the bright flavors of the tomato, lemon juice, and mint. The taste of the bulger wasn't strong in the dish, it mainly added a soft texture to offset the crunch of the cucumber and onion. The whole dish came together perfectly and was even better when combined with the Baba Ghanoush, it gave the Baba Ghanoush a well needed crunch!

The third dish on the plate is called "Hummus", Hummus is another type of paste made from boiled chickpeas, Tahini (sesame paste), garlic, olive oil, salt, and lemon juice. Hummus comes in many different varieties and can be found at your local grocery store, flavored Hummus is starting to become extremely popular in almost all grocery store aisles. The Hummus at Ala's had a strong lemon and garlic flavor to it, it was extremely addicting and forced me to order another pack to pita bread so I could keep enjoying the flavorful paste!

Overall the 3 starting dips were amazing! The large amounts of lemon in all of the dishes did an excellent job in cleansing the pallet and providing a light appetizer to prepare me for my main course! I could easily see Hummus replacing salsa at any party in the near future, that's how good it is!

The next dish in the sampler was the "Arabic Salad", the salad consisted of romaine lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber in a parsley accented vinaigrette. The salad was a little on the oily side, but the freshness of the cucumber and tomato helped overshadow that with huge garden-picked flavor! I liked the pita concept so much that I even used pita bread over a fork to eat my salad!
The main course was a huge sampling of Chicken, Steak, and Kefta. Kefta is typically made with lamb or ground beef, heavily seasoned, formed into a meatball or cylinder, and grilled. All of the meat on the plate came in bite-size portions to allow the diner to use the pita bread as your main dining tool of destruction! The meat was accompanied by a grilled onion, tomato, and a savory/buttery rice. The first thing I tried was the chicken, it immediately melted in my mouth and left behind a huge explosion of flavors. The meat had numerous seasonings on it that provided layer upon layer of huge flavors, all finished off with a perfect char from the grill! The steak was seasoned similar to the chicken and was cooked to a perfect medium temperature. The steak also melted in my mouth similar to a steak that's been marinated for over 24 hours! The Kefta had a very distinct taste to it that kept it's flavors on the fence between an italian meatball and a polish sausage. It had light and dark flavors that had my taste buds constantly confused, but begging for more! The buttery rice added as a flavor enhancer and added great texture to accompany the pita bread.
The glory of this huge offering of food was that it allowed me to combine different items to create different flavors and combinations. The huge flavors and seasonings in every dish left me feeling like this food had a ton of care and preparation in it. Every dish felt like it was perfected and executed just how the cook intended. The staff was also very helpful in explaining each dish and even offered me a sample of Falafel (deep fried chickpea mash/hummus), the taste was very similar to a hush puppy (but way better than a hush puppy) and left me knowing exactly what I would be ordering on my next visit! Ala' Al-Deen is easily some of the most flavorful food in the HD and has opened a gateway to a new world of culinary experimentation. If you've never tried Middle Eastern cuisine before, I highly recommend you take a chance and immediately head over to Ala' Al-Deen's, they are most likely going to be your new favorite restaurant! The "Large Meal Platter" easily feeds 2 and could be stretched to feed 4 people and came in at just over $30 with 2 soft drinks (I also ordered an extra pack of pita bread). Ala' Al-Deen is located at 14303 Seventh St. in Victorville.