A Taste of Mediterranean: Arpeggio Grill

To me, one of the mysterious yet charming cuisines is the Mediterranean dishes. In the years that I studied in Toronto, I had tried several Mediterranean restaurants. I personally loved the distinctive spices used in the food but I could not determine if any of these restaurants were authentic. However, my food hunting journey in Austin fulfilled my desire in searching an “approval” Mediterranean restaurant. With the recommendation from my Turkish friends, they guided me and my family to this mysterious and delicious food hunt.

Before I begin to show you what I have looted, I want to briefly talk about the food history in Islam. To my best understanding about the restrictions, all consumable food and drinks need to be Halal (permissible). A general rule of thumb to me is that any 4-legged animals which hoof has two toes are Halal, for example, cattle and lamb. Swine is an exception. Animals whose diet requires killing others are not allowed to consume. The examples are tigers. In addition, blood is strictly prohibited in the food.

Comparing to other food culture, my Turkish friends did not think that their cuisine is limited by these religious restrictions. I agreed with them; the Mediterranean food had its own position because I could not recall any trace of cross-food culture among the Mediterranean and other cuisine I had tried before.

Enough of my personal opinion about the Mediterranean food culture, please allow my taste buds to explain my experience in the restaurant, “Arpeggio Grill.” I had been the store twice with my family. My first time visiting I ordered the chicken kabob plate. The plate included a side of Greek salad, pita bread, and rice as well. The serving order was different from the Western Cuisine because I expected the salad would first be served following by the entrée. At Arpeggio Grill, all dishes came out at once. I personally preferred this way because I could have a mix of taste o everything. The first bite of the chicken kabob to my surprise was that the meat was very tender and juicy. Austin restaurant usually served white meat. Yet, I loved dark meat because of the chewiness. However, from now on I could say this is my own misunderstanding because white meat could be cooked as tender as dark meat. Not only did the texture surprise me, but the taste also (and more importantly) engraved in my mind. The strong scent of different untold herb rushed into my mouth. However, the taste of chicken meat was not overwhelmed by the herbs. To me, the portion of the herb was just right so each time when I chewed the meat, a combination scent of meat mixing with herb released.

Then next thing I immediately put into my mouth is rice. This was just my habit but my habit had led me to a wrong way of tasting the Mediterranean rice. The reason was that the rice was cooked with basmati and chicken broth. The rice itself was a perfect dish. Now I finally understood why my Turkish buddies did not enjoy the regular plain Asian rice. To make an analogy, the rice tasted similar like Hainanese Chicken Rice. However, the rice served in this restaurant was less oily and lacked of the taste of ginger but enhanced with basmati. I wished the rice portion was bigger because I loved grains very much.

The salad in the plate had a very important function because once my mouth was saturated with the strong taste of rice and kabob, something fresh could help clearing the scent. The salad came with a side of tzatziki dressing. I usually did not like any dressing but I could not resist the taste of fennel. As my taste was restored back to its level, I was ready to finish the rest of my plate.

                                    

The food amazed me but in fact the environment was another factor that I loved. The restaurant not only provided regular seats but also a carpet area for the foreign to enjoy. Sitting on the carpet was one of the best experiences I had ever had in my dining experience because I felt like I was eating as a royal family. Looking around the restaurant, most of the customers were from the Middle East or Muslim background. This ensured me that this restaurant served authentic Mediterranean food and its reputation was notable.

 

Retrieved from Arpeggio Grill Website at 20th Nov 2014

Retrieved from Arpeggio Grill Website at 20th Nov 2014

P.S. 

Arpeggio Grill

   6619 Airport Blvd,

   Austin, TX 78752

  11:00am-10:00pm 

  

• The following link is the menu of Arpeggio Grill

http://www.arpeggiogrill.com/#!menu/c24tf

• The carpet area requires shoes to be taken off and children are not allowed to enter.

• This is Lamb Shank plate. In Austin, it is difficult to find Lamb. However, if you cannot tolerate the smell of mutton, I advise you can try others. 

Interview with Jaice Yang: Will technology replaced printed newspaper?

    When I was young and my family took me to the restaurant for lunch, I would always be bored because all I saw was people holding their newspaper high and nobody talked to me. However, when I went back recently and went to the same restaurant, people, including my parents were now looking down at their tablet. All of a sudden, I discovered that all the newspaper posts had gone and printed newspapers were diminishing every second. This raised my interest in determining if the printed newspaper would be replaced by technology very soon. In order to solve this mystery, I decided to interview Ms Yang, a professor at Texas State University School of Journalism Massive Communication. Interestingly, her opinions stated that printed newspaper should not go extinct any time soon.

        According to Ms Yang, old and established technology will co-exist with the newly emerged technology. She provided an example, radio. She stated that when the television became popular, people were concerned about the future of radio. However, the radio “…[had] reinvented itself,” and nowadays satellite radio are everywhere. Then, she mentioned that the rapid improvement of the Internet had again threatened the existence of television. Ms Yang believed that such concern was not necessary because to date, television and radio could still be found everywhere in the world. She confidently believed that the printed newspaper should follow the trend of radio and television and it should not be replaced soon.

        The concept Ms Yang described was clear and simple. However, the practical approach would be a challenging process for developing a co-existing printed newspaper form. Ms Yang was optimistic about the challenges. She claimed that, in fact, many of the printed newspaper company “had been doing so” because newspapers were now distributed through websites and apps on smart devices.

 thought that at the current state, the invention of new products was not the major concern for the company but rather the management of several products. She illustrated this point with the example of the Coca-Cola Company. She stated that in order to succeed, the Coca-Cola Company had developed several other products such as Sprite and Diet-Coke. The newspaper company should manage and differentiate their products among website newspaper, printed newspaper, and app. If these products are similar, she implied that the existence of these products was just redundant. The most important problem the printed newspaper should be working on is to develop a distinctive feature for each product.

        Additionally, Ms Yang claimed that the printed company should recruit new Journalists who have mastered both the traditional and web languages. Her reason was that the newspaper companies seldom change their structure and outfit of the website. A change usually occurred in two to three years. Although she agreed that people would complain the change of website required a long time to adapt to and frequent change only confused the user, Ms Yang supported her opinion with Facebook management. She said that many Facebook users were upset with the frequent change of Facebook website interface. However, she claimed that each time the change actually improved the user experience of the website. The newspaper company’s failure to change would imply that the performance neither improved nor decreased. In order to attract additional viewers, the company should also train the journalism to study the web language. Ms Yang said that the traditional school of journalism did not allow their students to expose to web data and language. The training could improve the variety of the content in the website.

        Listening to Ms. Yang’s opinions, I was convinced that the printed newspaper should not be replaced soon. Her opinions were interesting to me because I always thought that the printed newspaper industry had already shrunk and collapsed. Ms Yang’s statements were optimistic and triggered my expectations about how the newspaper companies could transform and adapt to the modern user.