Alforon with MFH

It has been awhile since I've gone out with Mi Firme Hina (MFH), who's been one of my closes friends through work and in life. Even though she no longer works at the same site, we still  see each other at district meetings but hardly get to chit chat since we have to sit with our sites.  So, every so often, we try to get together to catch up on things. Last year I took her out for her belated birthday lunch at Aladdin in Hillcrest.

This year, I gave her several choices. Sab-e-Lee 2 in Santee? Ba Ren in Clairemont? Que Huong in City Heights? Alchemy in South Park for brunch?
We ended up going to Alforon in the College Area. She hadn't been there before and it was also close by where I wanted to take her for dessert...



In the photo above was our Mezze - we had Baba Ghanouj, a small serving of their Garlic Paste (OMFG, so good!), a bowl of yogurt and cucumber sauce, plus pickled vegetables and pita bread. Below is our Baba Ghanouj which we really enjoyed...

I ordered a couple of their flatbreads. I know you've seen this before in my previous posts but this is so good that I can't even think of ordering anything else. This was the Chicken Tawook - chicken and garlic paste on flat bread cooked in the specially made oven in back.

The other type was the Lam Bajeen which had ground beef and diced red peppers.

Look at how amazingly thin that bread is! You can see right through it! The owner George came by to see how we were doing and we told him we loved this flatbread. He told us that this variety only used two ounces of dough. He also used only 1/3 lb of ground beef spread thinly over the bread. He explained that the ground beef is put on raw  because it cooks rather quickly in the oven.

The last two times I was here we didn't order dessert (First Visit with the 2 C's in May and Second Visit with the family/no photos from that visit believe it or not!). This time, I made sure to order their special dessert, the Aaysh Essaraya.

George explained the lower layer as a cross between cream and mousse, topped with a layer of "plain cake" (his words) soaked in syrup (rosewater) and lastly, topped with finely chopped pistachios. This is not a dessert that's offered anywhere in San Diego except here. The dessert was unlike anything we'de tried before. MFH and I both liked the texture of the pistachios on top and the flavor of the syrup combined with the creaminess of the bottom layer. The cake layer was a perfect middle ground for this dessert as well. If it weren't for those damn kids the nuts, I probably wouldn't have liked it as much as I have an aversion to soft and goopy desserts. This was a really nice balance since all three layers offered something quite different.

Gosh, just looking at this photo, I feel compelled to go here again just to have this dessert!

P.S. - Just to let you know, my friend chose her own nickname, Mi Firme Hina which comes from a song by the Latin rap group, Proper Dos (it came out in the early 90's). A "firme hina" is Mexican slang for "very hot chick". It's one of our in-jokes. Anyhoo...

Next up, dessert down the street...