{"id":4401,"date":"2008-09-18T17:24:53","date_gmt":"2008-09-18T17:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mrnystyleandtravel.com\/?p=4401"},"modified":"2013-02-04T17:30:59","modified_gmt":"2013-02-04T17:30:59","slug":"4401","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrnystyleandtravel.com\/?p=4401","title":{"rendered":"Gazala’s Place: New York, New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"221908_215270151830234_1776624_n\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Recently voted BEST FOOD<\/em> nabe in New York (by Time Out New York<\/em>), Hell\u2019s Kitchen has to be one of the most gastronomically diverse neighborhoods in the country.\u00a0 Each May, more than a million people wander along the mile-long smorgasbord that\u2019s known as the Ninth Avenue International Food Festival, where nearly all of the world\u2019s cuisines are represented.<\/p>\n

Yet, apparently, it wasn\u2019t until this past year that New York was able to claim a restaurant preparing what\u2019s known as Druse cuisine.\u00a0 That would be Gazala’s Place, a shoebox of a restaurant (much like many of the best ethnic restaurants along Ninth Avenue), where the front window often showcases a tray piled with white-and-black sesame seeded bourekas.<\/p>\n

While these bourekas look deceptively like bagels, they\u2019re as light as a feather, thanks to the phyllo pastry that encases a pilowy filling of goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes\u2014and while it\u2019s tempting to grab one of these delectables for the road, take proprietor Gazala Halabi\u2019s advice and let her warm one in the oven for you\u2014or better yet, return for dinner, where you\u2019ll be soothed by Israeli Druse specialties.<\/p>\n

A small religious community, the Druse inhabit the mountains of Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, and their cuisine highlights some of the best of the Mediterranean.\u00a0 There\u2019s pita, for example, but it\u2019s closer to a\u00a0cr\u00eape\u00a0in texture, thanks to being handmade on Ms. Halabi\u2019s sajj, a Druse griddle that appears to be an upside-down wok.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also baba ghanouj, smoky and creamy with tahini, and falafel that feels light, and fried pita cigars filled with potatoes and spices, and foule moudammas, a fava bean spread with garlic, pepper, and lemon.<\/p>\n

With its dark wooden chairs and tables, pillows, and upholstered benches (seating just eighteen), Gazala’s Place has the feel of a small village home, high in the mountains of Israel\u2014where the cook wants nothing so much as to insure that you eat well for the night ahead.\u00a0 You\u2019ll want to return the favor\u2014and return, often.<\/p>\n

LINK: Gazala’s Place<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently voted BEST FOOD nabe in New York (by Time Out New York), Hell\u2019s Kitchen has to be one of the most gastronomically diverse neighborhoods in the country.\u00a0 Each May, more than a million people wander along the mile-long smorgasbord … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[763,762,761,114],"class_list":["post-4401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-restaurant","tag-druse-cuisine","tag-gazala","tag-gazalas-place","tag-new-york-city"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s31sdB-4401","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.mrnystyleandtravel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/221908_215270151830234_1776624_n.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrnystyleandtravel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrnystyleandtravel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrnystyleandtravel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrnystyleandtravel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrnystyleandtravel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4401"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrnystyleandtravel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4406,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrnystyleandtravel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4401\/revisions\/4406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrnystyleandtravel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrnystyleandtravel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrnystyleandtravel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrnystyleandtravel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}