If you've never had fried cauliflower, you're missing out. Luckily, True Blue Mediterranean Café in Downtown Bethlehem prepares the dish in such a way that will make you a convert. If, however, you need no persuading when it comes to this particular member of the Brassica family, you'll enjoy it lightly fried and dressed in what owner Ziad Hariry calls “lemonaize”—a zesty combination of lemon juice, plain yogurt, mayonnaise, garlic, salt and pepper.
It doesn't sound like much, but simplicity can be its own reward when it comes to food, if the ingredients are good ones (and they are). Served as an appetizer and also as the star of its own wrap (more on that in a minute), fried cauliflower is one of the most popular items on the menu. “It's one of those things you wouldn't think would be so good, but it really is,” he says.
Fried cauliflower is just one of many standard Mediterranean staples on the menu at True Blue in Bethlehem, which Hariry, 42, opened in mid-July. Think hummus, fattoush, baba ghanoush, gyros, tabbouleh and more. Its opening comes not quite three years after he took over the space of True Blue, a coffee shop on Chestnut Street in Emmaus. True to its former incarnation, that restaurant offers coffee, espresso and the like; you can sip one and sit at the counter while your food is being prepared.
Born in Kuwait to Syrian parents, Hariry and his family came to the United States when he was a teenager. Hariry did not spend his youth hanging on the proverbial apron strings of his mom and aunts; he came to the kitchen much later in life, as an adult, and found he had a passion for cooking. He had been working for 19 years for Circuit City in multiple capacities including home theater installations, and was laid off in 2008 when the company went under.
He started going to the gym, met a woman there named Kristy, and started cooking for her. (Can you guess where this is going?) She kept urging him to do something with it, saying it was really that good; she was fond of his chicken basmati in particular. (And why? “It's just seasoned really well,” is all he'll say.) She brought friends over. And her parents. And he kept cooking, refining his recipes. Everyone loved the food. Turns out, Ziad and Kristy, who owns 1st and 10 Salon in Coopersburg, loved each other, too.
At first he wanted to do concessions—get a food truck for a few thousand dollars and be mobile, selling gyros, falafel and all those sorts of things. It's a much less risky investment than starting a restaurant from scratch with no experience. But the location in Emmaus became available, and he took the plunge. He called his family overseas for recipes, ideas, to talk things through. He started playing in the kitchen more seriously, and the dishes took shape. His spices even come straight from the source—from Damascus. “Nothing I could find here came close in terms of the flavor I wanted,” he says. The shawarma blend—a blend of cumin, coriander, curry, white pepper, and cardamom—is his go-to spice.
To that end, he stresses quality of his ingredients, too. “There's no mystery meat here. Nothing is pre-made; everything is made fresh, when you order it,” he says. He says the chicken gyro is a popular order, and it, like many of the sandwiches, comes with freshly made pita chips and hummus (Disclaimer: the chips are actually made from tortillas because, as Hariry puts it, “they absorb less oil than pita.”) Lunch and dinner is possible here—you won't spend more than $17.99, and that's for the grilled lamb kabob entrée, which comes with salad, rice, humus and pita—along with marinated vegetables, of course.
When asked how or why he fell into cooking, he says, “It's just a feel I have for it. It's something I have a passion for. People know when you put your heart into it. They can tell,” he says.
Go see—and taste—for yourself.
True Blue, 81 W. Broad St., Bethlehem | 610.866.3901
Tues.—Sat. Noon-9 p.m., Closed Sunday and Monday
Take out and catering is also available. Reservations recommended on the weekends. True Blue may open on Sundays, starting the weekend immediately following Thanksgiving, to accommodate hungry holiday shoppers. Street parking is available, along with the two municipal garages. Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Diner's Club cards all accepted. BYOB. You may find a belly dancer on the weekends once a month—call ahead if you're curious, because Hariry says he's working on regularly scheduling entertainment.
