Turkuaz, Broadway and 100th

Coming from Detroit where there is a plethora of wonderful Near Eastern eateries, I often hunger for a good hummus or baba ganoush, a good grilled lamb chop or kebob, a good lentil soup, and hot, freshly baked bread.

You enter Turkuaz and you are in a room redolent of the Middle East:  wooden floors covered by oriental rugs, banquets surrounding tables, a wooden bar.  You go through a blue velvet curtain to enter the back room where the ceiling is draped with silk upholstery fabric (that might cover a sultan's sofa) and the tables are covered in white tablecloths.  At about 8 on a Friday night, when we came in, the room was not terribly crowded.  By 9:15 when we left, the tables had mostly filled, and yet, the space was serenely quiet.  We could easily converse without shouting over loud music or a crowd's din.  At 9:30, a belly dancer was coming.

We started by ordering two glasses of red, Turkish wine and an appetizer sampler ($19.95) which included six cold appetizers:  Humus, babaganus (mashed eggplant salad), patican salatasi (eggplant salad), soslu patican (cubes of eggplant cooked in tomatoes and garlic), acili ezme (spicy, finely chopped vegetables), cacik (thick yogurt, cucumber, garlic and fresh dill), and imam bayildi (baby eggplant with onion, red and green peppers, pin nuts and garlic).  Each salad was divided by sweet, oblong slices of cucumber.  Freshly baked flat bread was served for dipping.  The sizable portions covered a large plate -- and all were unexpectedly delicious.  Our favorite were the sweet tasting chunks of eggplant cooked in tomatoes.  Our second choice?  All of them.  We loved the thick and smooth texture of the ground chickpeas in the humus; the garlicky, cucumbery yogurt, the smokey flavor of the babaganus, the unusual texture of the eggplant and vegetable salad -- ground with what tasted like pine nuts.

For our entree we ordered the grilled baby lamb chops ($26).  They were served with a mound of rice pilaf, and a mound of cut-up tomatoes mixed with chopped onion, parsley and dill.  The lamb chops, cooked medium-rare were extremely tender and tasty.  I relished every bite.

We almost left without dessert, until the charming hostess dressed in traditional Turkish garb suggested the kazandibi or milk pudding ($4.50).  It was a large, thin square of yumminess -- creamy, like a creme brulee, but not as rich -- covered with a dusting of cinnamon and ground walnuts.

We look forward to future visits when we can order the grilled fish, the chopped tomato, cucumber, and green pepper salad, kebaps and koftes and dolmas, and other delectable Turkish delights.

The bill came to $80.24.