[DFW] Jasmine Market & Cafe

[Richard Kilgore]

Jasmine Market & Cafe

107 E. Main Street

Richardson, Texas 75061

972-437-4522

I spotted this Palestinian cafe tonight and stopped in for a bite. One of the owners, Abu Jamil Anani, has been known as Wally in the hospitality industry for the past 30 years after immigrating to the U.S. Recently retired from hotel management, he is an outoing, enthusiastic and gracious host for this new (open only 67 days) Main Street gathering place for area Arabs. Jasmine is situated in the 100 year old building he and his co-owner nephew rehabilitated. The kitchen is open until 11:00 p.m., but he says customers often stay until 2:00 a.m., hookah smoking on the back patio.

I had a lamb Shish Kabob Plate with crusty, flavorful roast lamb, rice, grilled tomatoes and onion, pickled turnip (even Fifi would love it), and Hummus with Pita Bread. The Arabic coffee may be an acquired taste for many-- it's strong stuff, and leaves a finely ground coffee and sugar sludge in the bottom of the two ounce espresso cup. Hot tea is served in small glases that need a little time to cool. Dessert was Burma -- baked cheese and philo topped with pistachio and covered with a warm simple syrup at the last minute, a tasty combination. They bake Burma twice a day, and my serving was just recently out of the oven.

Prices are quite reasonable, with Plate dinners for $6.99, sandwiches for $3.99, 12 appetizers from $1.50 for Kibbeh to $4.99 for Falafel, and $1.00 - 1.50 for desserts.

The market has a good selection of proccessed foods. A small selection of fresh fruit and vegetables, and a sign said they also sell meat, but it was not on display. And I noticed some 10 liter pressure cookers that looked very solid.

I will return.

Anyone else discovered this place?

[nessa]

Yep!

I was on my way to the Taj and spotted the farsi writting and nearly got whiplash.

On the way home, my friend and I stopped and did some grocery shopping there. We met the chef of the cafe and were just charmed. He spent a ot of time with us walking around the store and pointing out things and talking about ingredients etc.

I keep meaning to make it back to the cafe. He also told me about a Middle Eastern Bakery and gift shop just down the road. I passed it but did not stop. Its on my list of things to do!

[Richard Kilgore]

I was in the neighborhood again and stopped by to try their sandwiches. The chef, smartly dressed in a white chef's coat, offered me a sample of their beef and chicken. Both very good, and I chose the chicken. Out it came in a few minutes, wrapped in a large pita also stuffed with pickles, pickled turnip, a yougurt sauce. Delicious, and it was huge! About 2 1/2" in diameter and 12 - 15 " long, for $3.95. A very good deal, and perhaps enough for two light eaters.

The chef tried to explain to me something about a lamb dish he had simmering in a stock pot on the back of the stove for a special the next day, but my attempts at gesturing Arabic were not suficient for us to communicate. Actually, I am sure he was communicating just fine, but my translator had stepped out of the room. At any rate, he was clearly enthusiastic about the lamb special, and I'll have to stop in to try it sometime when they offer it again.

[theabroma]

I just did a series of series of reviews of ethnic food locations in Richardson which will appear in the July/August issue of Richardson Living. I covered both Jasmine Market and Hubble Bubble Cafe (their full business name!) as well as Afrah, which is on Main Street, just east of Greenville.

Where Jasmine's strengths lie are in their fabulous selection of Middle Eastern groceries - jarred artichoke hearts, 3" across, 7-8 to a jar for $5.00, rose petal jam, fruit syrups for flowery summer drinks, and weirdly wonderful canned Turkish goat cheese. The shawarma (giros) are great, as is the lamb stew. The sweets are ok.

Afrah, on the other hand, while they do serve a lunch and dinner menu, of lamb, chicken, and beef, and it is good, will have you slappin' your mama over their pastry and gelato. All traditional and French pastries are made on premises (by Moody - short for Mahmood; he appears to have a fairly level, genial sense of humor), who has trained in Lebanon, and Europe. This is the 5th Afrah - the other locations are all in and around Beirut. The pastries are incredibly hard-core authentic, and hand made. The gelato is obscenely richly flavored - case in point either the blackberry or pistachio. Oh, and they make their own pita bread and bake it to the order in a funny oven in the corner of the store that looks like a South Seas black metal hut on stilts. How cool is it to stand there and watch as YOUR bread is peeled onto the gas fired, open front oven floor where it begins to puff up and brown. Well, its not quite as cool as taking the first bite out of it. It will ruin you on plastic bagged grocery store pita forever.

But the absolutely coolest thing is that both Afrah and Jasmine will set you up with a 3" tall narghile - or water pipe (hubble bubble), complete with the traditional honeyed tobaccos perfumed with fruit. They will ensconce you on their patios, and you can just kick back, smoke, and watch the valets park the flying carpets out front.

Seriously, it is most relaxing, and it is a very different way of enjoying tobacco. While you're at it, have a coffee and pastry or ice cream.

Both places have been open 1-1 1/2 years. They are a very welcome addition to the Metroplex. Odd that they have opened in what surely must be rather tough times, but glad to see that they are flourishing.

Go, eat, smoke, enjoy!

Theabroma

[nessa]

oh MAN i love the narghile/hookah things. I'm not a smoker, but those are so wonderful. Its a water/liquid cooled smoke that is infused with all kinds of delightful flavors. I'd not realized they had them. Well I knew Jasmine had them for sale, but not for smokin'! I gotta get back there!

[theabroma]

Nessa, let me know when you are available for a smoke ... or watching someone else do it. Althougn I shouldn't say this, I kinda prefer Afrah, but ... I like Jasmine.

I'll be delighted to meet you at either place if you'd like a partner in crime.

We can stop off at Poshak's over by Taj Mahal Grocery on the west side of 75 and Belt Line and pick up some of those embroidered shoes with the turned up toe tip!!

Theabroma

[nessa]

I'm in! Partners in crime are the best partners to have!

[Richard Kilgore]

Thanks for the report, Sharon. I'll have to stop in Afrah And try the bread and pastries. Sounds great! And congratulations on your reviews.

I believe Jasmine is only a couple of months old -- co-owner Abu Jamil Anani told me 67 days when I stopped in on May 19th. Also see my note above on the late night hookah smoking.

[memesuze]

These notes may have me visiting my mother more often - I grew up outside of Richardson, in Buckingham, and remember Saturday afternoon at the Ritz Theater, getting library books at Miss Jessie's Dry Goods Store, and picking up supplies at Morris' Ice House - all on Main Street. Thanks for reminding me to wander around town....

[theabroma]

The real hoot for me on the waterpipe angle was wandering into Afrah one afternoon and there were two group smokin' like a Sonny Bryan's franchise. Then, there there was this one guy, off to himself, dressed in the long white shirt-like garment MidEastern men often wear, with a cup of the "sweet as love, black as night, and strong as a motherlinlaw (or, something like that)" coffee in front of him on the table, one hand holding the pipe hose, and the other giving a credible imitation of an orchestra conductor in a rush. When I saw the little black cord running from his ear to the table I realized that he was heavily engaged in conversation with someone on his cell phone.

I love those little moments where the traditional and the techie collide - and you realize you don't have to throw the baby and the bathwater out together, and remake yourself into a "suit" just to partake. What was it little Rosa in Dicken's Hard Times told Mr. Gradgrind? Something to the effect that she fancied a house with a carpet with roses on it on the floor, and a place for Queen Mab's chariot among the steam engines???. I say amen.

Theabroma