Archive: Arts & Entertainment

When I first came to Lansing, Aladdin’s Natural Eatery was one of our favorite places to go for reasonably priced, fresh tasting food with Mediterranean influence. It still offers this value today. Aladdin’s is found in College town at 100 Dryden Road. Parking there is sometimes dicey, but you can usually find a place in the parking garage a few doors uphill. Service is usually quite prompt. People with vegetarian leanings can find a wealth of options to dine on.

Try starting your meal with a fresh glass of carrot juice, juiced while you check out the menu.

There is a delicious array of humus with pita, stuffed grape leaves, and crisp, flavorful, fresh-made tabouli with a sesame sauce. Another old faithful in the crisp fall weather is the lentil soup- better even than my mom’s (don’t tell her though). The meat eater is not disappointed either. There are beef and chicken entrees served on salads or pasta, and if you are a lamb eater (as I am☺) call ahead to find out if it is on the special list that night. If you have room left, they do not stint on the dessert case. It is full of sinful options. Those who like carrot cake should get a piece to go.

The Corners Deli is another Mediterranean style deli located behind Talbots at Community Corners. It is in the back lot on the left near the dentist office. They do not advertise because they already have a devoted clientele, but more devoted eaters are always welcome☺. 

Alice and Samuel have been serving home-made Lebanese and Syrian dishes at this site for the past 23 years. In addition to their ethnic specialties, they offer standard deli meat sandwich fare.

Along with the more familiar fare of tabouli, humous, and babaganouj, they offer a wide variety of ethnic influenced salad dishes. I tried Armenian Salad, a dense tabouli dish flavored with a rich roasted pepper and tomato flavor. The Fava bean salad is a spicey mix of green pepper and fava beans in a tomatoey vinaigrette (yummy). I always try the grape leaves. While they are a vegetarian item, the flavor is rich, deep, and meaty with a bright lemon juice note. In addition to the salads, they offer a beef or chicken gyro (home-made) and an array of delicious desserts: sparkling pastries made with crispy filo dough, honey, and nuts , semolina cookies, and fragrant rice pudding. If you would like to learn how to cook this type of food, Alice offers cooking classes on Saturdays, give a call to join them, 257-4019.

Dino’s Mediterranean Deli is found at 215 N. Cayuga Street.  I don’t know how it is.    Let me know.

Locally we can encourage our new deli owners at The Fresh Café at the corner of Rogue’s Harbor to cook some of their Iranian cultural foods for us. Stop by and try their soup. The atmosphere is warm and inviting, their service prompt and sincere, and they vow to keep the food fresh as their name implies.

A great book for exploring Greek cooking is ‘The Complete Book of Greek Cooking’ by Rena Salaman & Jan Cutler, and published by Hermes House. It is laid out perfectly for the novice cook, but has delicious recipes any experienced chef would respect and offer up in a fancy restaurant. I particularly value the colored photos of the process and the finished plate. The high-gloss pages allow for easy clean-up when errant food spatters decorate the page.

Check out the Mediterranean recipes for eggplant on the Recipe Page. 

1. babaganouj 

2. aubergines baked with tomatoes and cheese

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