“Surely I have fallen down the rabbit hole” thought menumaven as she entered the dark, dingy empty front room of Al Mostafa grocery and restaurant. A turbaned cleric was braying prayers from the TV high on the wall. Dark, slightly ominous “art” looked down at her. A few brightly colored polyester blankets were sitting on cartons on the floor, perhaps for sale. Some tables, covered in plastic, were pushed against two walls, and on the back wall a counter, with some photographs above it. “Would the Mad Hatter have taken me here if it wasn’t safe?” wondered menumaven. A man appeared behind the counter. When asked if there were any menus, he pointed to the photographs. Were these pictures of food? There was something that looked vaguely like a lamb shank. It turned out to be a whole fish. The thing that looked like a giant shrimp was actually a chicken leg. The heap of small brown pebbles on a plate were bits of lamb. The Mad Hatter, who had survived his first visit here a few weeks ago, pointed to the photograph of brown logs and declared that they were actually delicious kefta kebabs. We ordered the pebbles and logs.
While we waited we were served water from a stainless steel pitcher, poured into stainless steel cups. It tasted interestingly metallic. Several dark men floated in and out of the back room, including one wearing a flowing black bisht. All smiled as us politely.
After a fairly lengthy wait, during which we watched more prayers on the TV, we were brought large servings of our meat choices, two plates of chopped salad vegetables with lime wedges , a basket of pita bread and another basket of a larger, dryer flatbread. After a few minutes a different man brought out two plates of humus. Yet a third, with a plate of sliced tomatoes. I pulled off a portion of flatbread, spread it with humus, piled on some salad, and added a few pieces of lamb. Although the texture of the lamb did bear some resemblance to pebbles, it was very tasty, especially the pieces of fried onion that were mixed in with it. The humus was light as a feather, probably the best I’ve had. All together, it was a delicious mouthful. The kefta was even more enjoyable than the lamb. It, too, was light, not densely packed like many versions of this dish, and nicely seasoned.
As for dessert, a sign on the back wall read “We have ice cream”. It was above a rectangular box that may or may not have been a freezer. I really didn’t want to know.
We drove over to Luci’s Healthy Eats and bought some cake.
The Mad Hatter had promised me an interesting experience, and indeed it was. In fact, I’d go back just to look at the photographs some more and sample some “who knows what”. The food really was quite good.
Al Mostafa Grocery and Restaurant
7144 N. 35th Avenue (North of Glendale) Phoenix
602-526-7544
no website
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