Mamnoon’s brunch spread.
Image: Mamnoon
Mamnoon launches brunch service this weekend (Sat and Sun, from 10am to 3pm)—and judging from the fatteh fittr I happened to eat there recently, it’s going to be an important one.
It was my first dinner at Mamnoon since Jason Stratton took over as exec chef from Garrett Melkonian, installing David Gurewitz as chef de cuisine and Carrie Mashaney as pastry chef, and under the watchful eye of the prowling Stratton it was manifestly clear the kitchen has remained on its game. Gurewitz launches brunch with a full Middle Eastern card including harees (wheat porridge with chicken, cardamom, and butter), sujuk hash (beef brisket hash with sumac and fenugreek and eggs), za’atar bagels (with smoked black cod, labneh, and mint oil), falafel sandwiches, and sweet breads and pastries from Mashaney. And more.
Including fatteh hummus, a variation of the sublimely fine dish I mentioned above. To call it Middle Eastern nachos, as our waiter laughingly did, is not far off in texture but misleading in gravitas, for this dish shimmered with the depths of the Levant, in flavor and in genuine interest. A bowl of crisped pita shards in yogurt with chickpeas and tahini and pine nuts, the layers are drizzled with brown butter, then crowned with a poached egg. (My dinner variant featured morels in lieu of the egg.) By turns tart, savory, rich, tangy, and crunchy—this was a stunner to the very bottom of the bowl.
And, as a brunch dish, really more like migas than nachos. Details. The point is, Dad wants brunch at Mamnoon this weekend.
|
|
|