Compare and Contrast: Greek Champaign

Okay. I don't write here nearly enough. So, instead of doing two full blown write-ups, I'm going to start something different. Comparisons of similar places. So today, we're going to talk about the Greek scene. No, I'm not talking about the sororities with the hottest girls or the frats that throw the best keggers. We're talking food.

Pasha's vs. Papa George's

The initial response that comes to mind when you enter both places is very different. You walk into Pasha's, and you think, "sort of plain looking restaurant, and the layout's a little odd, but it seems cool enough." Pasha's has a sort of open layout, but a strange flow to the place. It seemed like there was some potential there. On the other hand, you walk into Papa George's, and you think, "So this is where all of the old apartment furniture ends up." It's in a sort of stereotypical Applebee's sort of layout where you walk in, look onto a U-shaped bar, and has seating to both sides. It didn't exactly inspire confidence.

And the presentation of the food sort of verified my view of both places. At Pasha's, the presentation was a little muddled, but it still felt like a restaurant, maybe one that was trying a little too hard, but it was what you expected. At Papa George's, the plates were old, beat up, and looked like they came from a diner that had closed. And, much like the furniture, they were probably remnants of the Pickle's era.

The meze (small plate appetizers, sort of like tapas) at both places have a combo option, where you can try a number of different things. Pasha's has a combo platter with a number of cold dips and spreads, all of which were tasty. Some highlights include the creamy cheese spread, which was a definite favorite and the hummus, which was a little garlicky, which is a good thing in my book. Papa George's has a pick 3 or a pick 5, which also lets you get some of the warm mezes. And by and large, I'd stick with the warm, meat-based ones. We got some phyllo stuffed with cheese, which was okay, not great (and sort of a small portion), some pork kebobs (so many places use loin, which is often an inferior choice to something off of the shoulder) that were tasty, but dried and tough, and some really good grilled lamb meatballs. For the cold choices, we got a spicy feta dip that was a little runnier than I expected, and a forgettable garlic-mashed potato spread that can be excellent at some places, but ended up a little oily and gritty (though tasty). I will say that the grilled zucchini that came with the potato spread was awesome, however the pita at Papa George's were stale. Ugh. This was not a problem at Pasha, which had just great flat bread.

Looking over the menu, the one thing that Pasha's has that I like is a big combo platter, where you can taste a number of different things. At Pasha, we loaded up on a Pasha special (the combo platter) and also added on some of the Lahmacun (a flat bread with ground lamb on top). The food was all good, with the lamb kebobs being better than the chicken (which was a little dry), and the grilled, lamb meatballs being tasty as well. The pita was nice, the meat all had good flavor and was cooked right. I would say that the meat tended to be grilled and tasty. On the down side, the only moussaka was a vegetarian option, and there was no pastitsio. So, no Greek casseroles.

Unfortunately, Papa George's does not have the combo platter option, but while their mezes were iffy, their entrees were awesome. Moussaka was very tasty, as was the pastitsio. You could definitely tell you were eating Greek with the fragrant spices (cinnamon and nutmeg, I think) that were in the background. Now what set apart Papa George's was the presence of some slow cooked items. The lamb stew and the lamb shank jumped out at us. The lamb stew was really good. The reddish gravy had this deep, rich flavor that I thought was great. I think that the lamb itself leaned a bit on the fatty side, and could have used a little more of the connective tissue that gives so much flavor. The meat was either too fatty, or almost too lean and didn't stay super tender. But the flavor was darned good. Unfortunately, the shank, which was incredibly tender and had great flavor by itself, was cooked in a think lemon-like cream sauce that sort of curdled, and had these giant canned artichokes in there. I actually don't mind canned artichokes on salads or baked on top of pizza, but it was just sort of a mess. If they would make the shank in the sauce for the stew, I'd just go there for that dish once a week.

Dessert as Pasha's was pretty standard. The rice pudding was OK. A little lemon zest and ginger (I think) livened up the taste. One dessert at Papa George had to be tried. A house, rolled baklava that featured pistachio and fig. The server warned us that the chocolate was overwhelming. And sure enough, we saw that each end was dipped in a chocolate ganache that was way too thick. It really took away from the nice, subtly sweet, nutty, earthy flavor that the figs and pistachios gave. The filling was a little dry, and wasn't quite as sweet as it should have been, but the chocolate killed it. I was brainstorming ideas for ways to sweeten up the dish w/out the chocolate and w/out using plain honey, but I came up with cutting honey with orange juice and adding some fragrant spices. I really think that the dessert would be more of a hit with something other than chocolate. Maybe even a honey sweetened yogurt sauce would have been better. But hey, I don't work here. I just eat here.

The thing about Greek places is that you get a lot of food for your money. Really, if you order an entree, it's enough for two. How I'd do it is by doing some appetizers, maybe an appetizer combo, and splitting an entree, and probably go somewhere else for dessert, stuffed with Greek food. With soft drinks, tax, and tip, you can probably get by with $35 or $40 for 2 people. Not bad, if you figure that you'd pay about the same at a Chili's.

In any case, we have some Greek options in Champaign that don't require pledging and hazing. Personally, Pasha's a place I'd take people to socialize. I'd go to Papa George to have a little personal quiet time with some slow cooked lamb. But oddly enough, I think that the best Greek place in the area may be The Deluxe out in downtown Danville. Maybe these two places will pick it up in the coming months.

-foodgeek

See links to websites for restaurant information.

Ratings:
Papa George's - No stars, but with room to move up to 1 star
Pasha's - 0.5 stars, without much upside

A New Addiction

So, I've officially become obsessed with the cooking aspects of Top Chef. I still don't care for the reality show aspect of it, but I do like hearing critique and learning about how things work (or don't work) together. That said, I think that it's pretty clear that there's a large gap between the best and the next tier of chefs. For example, I would've placed even money on either Tre or Hung to win this season, after the first episode. But, I love the notion that even for something that's as simple as cooking, that there are superior levels to be reached. And I'd love to be able to reach those levels. I think that I can fire up a stove pretty well, and I consistently manage to put out solid food for myself and my friends. But I don't know if I ever could, or would ever want, to be a chef in a restaurant. I could see myself making it through culinary school, without a whole lot of trouble. But I'd never want to put in the crazy hours. I think that if I ever open up a place (and I would love to at some point), I'd hire on good people to run the day-to-day operations, and I'd just go around, shaking hands on the floor and wander into the kitchen to bother my cooks and come up with an "owner's special" every once in a while. So, I think that my culinary ceiling is pretty limited, but still reasonable enough so that I can make myself some good food at home.

Currently in my kitchen, I've been playing around with a couple things. One is paella. I think that I've gotten a decent grasp on how to flavor rice with the spices that help give paella that nice flavor. And obviously, I know how cooking meat and seafood in the rice adds flavor, as well. I'm trying to get down how to get the nice crunchy edges on the paella, without drying everything out. The other thing is ceviche. I really enjoy using the citrus to cook fish, but figuring out what to use in there has been interesting. I'm trying to work out a nice salmon version with some Pacific Northwest flavors, but it's hard to make it distinct from the traditional Latin American-style recipes. Maybe there's no need to, though... we'll see. And finally, I've decided that I need to develop my knife skills. So, I've bought some extra veggies and chickens so that I can work on my chopping and boning skills. Heh-heh. I said "boning skills."

Anyway, there's not been a whole lot new in the food scene here in Champaign. There's a new sandwich joint that opened up next to Crane Alley, but that's lunch only. I'll try to make it in to give it a look over. I know that I promised a few reviews, which will be coming soon. Really, I've been just rocking it out in my kitchen more the last few weeks, with occasional trips out to KO Fusion for sushi (trying to stay healthy) and Harold's for fried chicken (failing to stay healthy). But, I've still got some good thoughts on the brunch scene, the tapas scene, and the adventures of the Escobar's/Milo's folks which I need to get out to you guys (preferably after I go out for brunch, tapas, and to Escobar's and Milo's again to refresh my palate :-)

We'll catch you soon!
-foodgeek