CHEAP EATS: Odd spellings translate to Ali Baba treasures

LITTLE ROCK — Ali Baba, if you remember your Arabian Nights, used the password “Open Sesame” to open the entrance to the 40 thieves’ treasure cave.

There’s plenty of sesame, in the form of tahini, on the menu at Ali Baba, a restaurant within a Middle Eastern grocery store in the back end of the former Discount Records building on South University Avenue in Little Rock. (There has been a Subway sandwich shop in the front half of the building for many years.)

There is tahini in the hummus, which Ali Baba’s menu spells “hommus”; the baba ghannouj; and the Jerusalem salad, where it lightly tops, with a little olive oil, a mix of a lot of diced tomatoes, onions, fresh mint, parsley and cucumbers in a lemon juice marinade. (Aside from the various spellings that normally arise from differing Arabic-to-English transliterations, there are a number of items for which the menu could have benefited from the attentions of a copy editor, including “lettus” and “tzeki souce.”)

We looked in on Ali Baba just after it opened, before the restaurant portion had really gotten on its feet, and weren’t impressed, but the variety and quality of Middle Eastern dishes there have definitely impressed us now.

Just about everything is made to order; even the tzatziki (or “tzeki souce”) is blended on the spot. So it’ll take a few minutes for your order to come out, especially if there are other customers. But it’s all worth any wait.

The restaurant portion of Ali Baba occupies perhaps a third of the floor space, a compact kitchen (big enough for two, tops) with a grill, a pair of rotisseries for the gyros and chicken shawarma. Seating is available at about a dozen cafeteria-style tables with sturdy plastic chairs that shriek as they’re dragged across the faux brick floor.

Pick up your bottled or canned drinks (including Mexican versions of U.S. sodas with sugar instead of corn syrup) from the grocery-store refrigerators and pay at the grocery-store cash register.

Ali Baba’s “hommus” ($3.99), a “tongy” blend of tahini, lemon and pureed chickpeas, is excellent, whipped to a surprising smoothness and topped with extra-virgin olive oil and, most unusually around here, a jalapeno pesto, which gives a really big kick to the already flavorful dip.

The kitchen was out of the “beef meat” when we ordered a Hommus Meat Plate ($7.99),so the cook behind the counter helpfully suggested gyros meat instead. We probably came out ahead; the gyros was nicely spicy, about as good as we’ve had locally, and there was plenty of it. The cook left off the jalapeno pesto, but we didn’t miss it.

Ali Baba makes excellent, fresh falafel, chickpeas ground with parsley, onion and spices and formed into an egg-shaped patty and deep-fried; there’s no fryer; the kitchen folks use a pot on the stove. It’s available as three pieces for $1 or on a sandwich ($3.99) rolled up in a large flaky pita with hummus and Jerusalem salad.

We hereby rave, once for the beef and again, especially, for the lamb, over the shish kebabs ($8.99 for the beef, $9.99 for the lamb), cooked and served not on skewers but as chunks of meat broiled on the open-flame grill until they’re cooked medium to medium-well with the edges just a little crisped. Aside from the one piece of beef that was a little gristly, they were near-perfect, and the lamb was fantastic. Also available, chicken ($8.99) and kefta (ground beef, $8.99; ground lamb, $9.99) kebabs.

You get quite a bit of food for your money on the entree plates, which come with sides of Jerusalem salad, a pickle medley (pickled cucumber and turnip chunks and tangy olives) and your choice of hummus or a very nice basmati rice.

There are a few items on the menu for which we had reservations, based solely on their names, which probably sound perfectly normal in Arabic: Foul ($3.99), fava beans mashed with garlic, hot pepper, lemon and olive oil; and the Fatta Meat Plate ($7.99), ground beef blended with hummus, garlic, spices and pita pieces. We’ll work up the courage to try them soon.

The Ali Baba kitchen vends no desserts, but feel free to check out the grocery shelves, where you’ll find a wealth of cookies, pastries and even real halvah, a sort of sesame-paste fudge, $3.59 for the small tub.

Ali Baba Address: 3400 S. University Ave., Little Rock Hours: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday Credit cards: V, MC, D Alcoholic beverages: No Reservations: No Wheelchair accessible: Yes Carryout: Yes (501) 379-8011

Weekend, Pages 38 on 11/05/2009

Print Headline: CHEAP EATS Odd spellings translate to Ali Baba treasures