 Whoa, you guys usually, usually I say five out of five, that's like, you know, it's pretty, ten out of ten. Oftentimes you have to leave the city to get the most authentic experience. So we're heading to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to have Middle Eastern food on a couple different levels, an iconic world famous sit down and a millennial owned open air eatery that will make you feel like you're in the big city over there. We have a couple of comedian friends with us so I know the food is going to be good and the conversation hilarious. As you know one of our goals is always to explore culture through food so Brooklyn we go hard. What's going on everybody? Welcome to another episode of The World NY where we explore culture through food and today we're in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in the middle of a large Middle Eastern and Mediterranean community and we got a very, very special video for you guys. We are in front of Tannerine, probably one of if not the most famous Middle Eastern restaurant in all of New York City and you know we could not do this without two comedian friends, Farooq and Vivek, why don't you introduce yourself? What's up guys, my name is Farooq Hussein, I'm actually a Pakistani comedian here in New York City. My dad is so cheap he doesn't let the lights stay on unless someone looks at the Christmas tree. Tannerine is one of my favorite spots to go to here. Yeah, I'm a Vegas South Indian comedian. I have a nut allergy, alright, which sucks because I look like I have a nut allergy. In this video to make sure that Farooq doesn't consume any of those drinks from the drink menu. So a lot of people out there have probably had Middle Eastern food in some regard, possibly Halal Cards or Falafel, but you have not seen it on this level and Tannerine specifically serves Palestinian food. So let me tell you this is something that a lot of you probably out there have not seen before. Let's go! Alright we've made it inside of Tannerine, it's a beautiful restaurant, it's got an amazing vibe but let's go meet the owner Jumana and let's figure out what we're going to eat today. Hi guys, hi everybody. Today we're serving you a combination of mezzi, which is very representative of Tannerine and Palestinian food, some classic ingredients with a different twist on them made by Shafrawya, my mother who has been in business for the past 22 years. Alright, starting off our feast here at Tannerine, guys we have two dishes that they've kind of put their own little twist on here. Musaqan and that's the cauliflower steak. I've had a big cauliflower before, like fried ones, that's a common dish. You ever had a blooming onion? Yeah. A million times better. A million times better than a blooming onion. Chicken Musaqan. Okay, it's my first time to have it this way. It's not dry at all, like you'd expect it to be dry or you know chicken pizza, no sauce, but this is, it's really breaded like oiled enough that it's kind of crispy but soft. The thing that typifies like house sitting food is they use a lot of herbs and a lot of like... Olive oil, olive oil is key. Cauliflower steak. Cauliflower steak. Oh my goodness. I'm inside, fuck this one here. That's really good. Whoa. That's real bad for you right now. Yeah. It's real bad. By the way, V, we have to adjust because a lot of people are like, hey, that guy doesn't eat anything. Yeah. I got a lot of food allergies and I know a lot of you guys have them as well. A lot of these like first generation Asian Americans, right, like probably lactose intolerance is pretty common. Um, did you? Not allergies pretty common. So we're eating this in between real quick. Oh yeah. What are we just snapping into right here? Fried bread, Bosia, it's a quintessential Palestinian and Middle Eastern spices on. That's hard. The elephant in the room is... You're not Middle Eastern. How do I know you're Middle Eastern? I'm not Middle Eastern. But a lot. You can trick a lot of people. I grew up in Staten Island and I didn't really get exposed to a lot of like even Brooklyn growing up. And then when it's already going out, like with my college friends, what's some kids where you're going to tell your parents you've been going to meet co-ed parties? At a restaurant, probably one of the most famous restaurants, so it's passable. So we usually end up in spots like this. But what are we looking at right here? Right now we're looking at these fried Brussels sprouts with tahini sauce, like an eggplant sauce. And this is fried halloumi cheese. Halloumi cheese is like kind of sweet, but like savory. It's like mozzarella sticks. Fried halloumi cheese. And I would say consistency-wise it does kind of feel like firm tofu, but it obviously has a taste of cheese. Yeah. How familiar are you with this food? I feel like I can like draw analogs to like what I've had. I feel like it's such an interesting like gradient, right? Because you have the Middle East, right? And then you have Pakistan, then you have India, then you have the Himalayas, which is a mixture between East Asia and Paisen cultures. And then you get to East Asia and then kind of like go up and then... You know what I mean? Like it's like... I like the gradient thing. You bring that up because we were talking about it before. All of our cultures have such heavy food, like it's like food is like such a... It's like cream. It's a drug. It's cream-based. You know what I mean? The siesta is so common between our all, like I feel like the middle of the day nap has to happen because you just ate a lot on your lunch. You know what I mean? Fried Brussels sprouts with tahini sauce. Tahini. Pomegranate tahini. Mmm. Yo, fried Brussels sprouts are really popular right now, but look at that tahini sauce. Ain't one. This gotta be deep, best Brussels sprouts I've ever had. All right, Farouk, what are we looking at? These are fried lentils. The fried crispy onions. That one, I believe, it's a house-made thing. It's with the... I think she said it was something called a Napoleon. This is a very signature tenorine dish. Eggplant Napoleon, tomato and basil salata, redded fried eggplant with our house-made roasted eggplant babel and douche. Fried lentils. This is the best lentils I've ever had. Never have fried lentils. This is like, they're like crispy on the outside and really smooth on the inside, almost like little tiny like, I guess, smooth beans. You're right. Shrunk and a mommy and fried them. Wow. Right? Yo, you gotta combine it with the Brussels sprouts. Look at this. Tombo. I'm sort of spanking it. He's spanking it. Spanking the Brussels sprouts. Eggplant Napoleon. Yo, that eggplant is delicious. Whoa. You guys, that is like a ten out of ten. Usually I say five out of five, that's like, you know, it's pretty, ten out of ten. Yo. All right, to finish off the appetizers that have only got progressively more amazing, we have these filet mignon schwerma sliders. Schwarm. Schwarm. Schwarm. Schwarm. Go with the hummus. Go, go, go. Just dip it in the hummus. Just dip it in the hummus. Schwarm and sliders. Filet mignon. You're packing a lot of flavor. I don't know. I'm very disposed of, guys. I ate this whole thing right after, by the way. You guys, we are looking at the mains here at Tangerine. I mean, this is unbelievable. I think immediately my eyes are drawn to what looks like the most fanciful, nice, well-executed 14 out of 10 rated chicken rice. Yeah. Is that what it is? It's fried pita chips, chicken and over rice pilaf. I would like some of that. Chicken and rice pilaf. Oh. Mmm. That was some of the most tasty like rice pilaf. And I know they should describe it as having kind of like vermicelli noodles. I've seen this before, but I haven't seen the noodles as long. Right. It's literally like a noodle and rice dish put together. That is slow cooked food where I can taste just layers that were previously hidden to me. Almost like listening to high definition music, high bit rate music through good headphones. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just, you're like, that's a new instrument. Wait, let's just get this out of the way. Farouk, you're from Staten Island. You are defensive of Staten Island. Is this correct or not? Yeah. A lot of people got a lot of trash talking about Staten Island. People, all people know about Staten Island is from the Sopranos and the Sopranos doesn't even take place in Staten Island. All right, you guys, I have some kebabs right here and I believe this is lamb and chicken. We're here. We have eggplant baked with lamb over again, vermicelli and rice pilaf. You've had this before. I've never had this before. This is the kebab. And last but not least, we have the fish dish. Kebab. Wow. I could never go back. I could never go back to like four to all kebabs. How do you compare or contrast this to an Indian kebab? We like to mince the meat a lot. We like to make like the patties like sort of situation with it. A lot of the spices that we're having here like their savory and lemony and stuff like that. A lot of an hour cooking is more like zesty and like you kind of feel in the tongue a little bit more like a sriracha flavor. How spicy would you say this is compared to? No, it's spicy. Okay. Eggplant. Wow. This is so good. Do Indians eat eggplants? Yeah. Yeah. We call it banging. Right. Yeah. The banging is banging. The banging is banging. I used to hate eggplant growing up but man, glad I like it. We should do that. Not just eggplant though. It's lamb too. Okay. Yeah. Nope. That is true. And Karouk wanted to make sure that the protein got its due. Yeah. It's not just eggplant. No, I'm not. Finish. Finish. Now I'm just picturing like two old Indie dudes fighting an LA fitness race. No words planted fitness over the last pizza. I think this is the best eggplant I've ever had actually. Like consistently between the couple of dishes that we've had it in. Delicious. Oh, this is the good stuff. This is fresh. Grated filo dough filled with sweet cheese baked and then topped with a rose water and orange blossom syrup and pistachios. Oh my goodness. All right guys. Ending off this amazing meal with dessert. We have Kanafe. Wow. Look at the cheese pull. Earlier we were having the halloumi that doesn't melt and this one is definitely melting. This dessert. Let's go. Let's go. Oh, that's rich. That's rich too. You haven't had something like this. Trust me. This is like a totally different flavor palette. That's just such a blend. It's a blend of texture. You know how we're saying all the food is light. I get why now. You got to be gross. You got to be gross. You got to be gross. The rest of the video will be shot with Farouk sleeping. Yo. You need to see afterwards. All right. That wraps up our amazing feast here at Tannerin. But we still got to hit the streets real quick. Guys. We're losing light but we're going. Right now we're about to head to the main strip on Bay Ridge where all the restaurants are. It's by 86th Street and Fifth Ab so yeah. Let's go ahead over there. This is the grab and go spot really. This is the spot for me. I don't go over here. You can grab quick pilaf or quick shawarma and just be on your way that trains right The train is right over there. You sit there and eat by yourself and everybody watches you. This kind of still has some elements of like old New York. What is that? Yeah, I mean, I think that for one, like it does feel like there's a neighborhood we feel, right? Like you don't see that at some point in a lot of these more gentrified areas. Everything is small business. The congressional district, like I was telling them, is the same as Staten Island. And Staten Island is very against big business moving in. They like the mom and pop. I think a big part of it too is, if you have a very strong ethnic presence, then it's much harder to gentrify people. But this spot is repping Palestinian street food very hard. Very hard, very hard. So this is specifically Palestinian. Let's go and see what some of the stuff they got. She was poppin'. What's your name? Yes, yes, yes, yes. Ayat, so it seems after you. Okay, it seems after her. Oh, whoa, you're Ayat. We are with the owner of Ayat. Her name is Ayat. We're the restaurant a lot with my friends and stuff. So I brought him here. Oh, okay, all right. All right, you guys. We are sitting down here at Ayat restaurant. We just talked to the owner. Yeah, we have a little bit of a different variety of things over here that she's going to be bringing out. Has this become one of your go-to spots in the neighborhood? You're like, yo, I like the vibe. I like the food. I got to come here. Yeah, definitely. It's very easy. It's also reminds me of more of like a Manhattan Viola where we're saying like, you just come in, order right there, get your stuff and you can go. This is why we come out here to see spots that like Manhattan wouldn't have. Yeah, I asked her and she said it does look like a spot that would be in the old city in Palestine. So like, you know, obviously more before the younger generation, but still in that country. It feels like I'm in like a street, like cafe, like the vibe that she's going for, I feel that like, you know, some old man's going to come pour coffee for me. And I'm like, yeah, it's that vibe. It's going to be, yeah. He has to be over the age of 65. He has to be over the age of 65. And not smile. No, and if he does, missing teeth. So let's break bread. Let's break bread right here. Wow. So it wasn't breaking a loaf of bread. It was like a flap of bread. It's more like a two-eat bread to bread. Can you touch the bread? Me can. You can touch them raw. But make it the easiest final boss battle. All right, over here we got great leaves, stuffed with rice and meat. And over here we got Lubna, which is like a yogurt-y, sort of like a salty and creamy, like a yogurt dip. Yeah, dip the bread in like a chip. Right, like that. Oh my God. Oh, really good. I think immediately the thing that stands out, obviously the both Palestinian spots, even though they're at different price points, lemon. Lemon. Lemon and herbs. This is a moussakhan. So a little bit of a variation that we had earlier, tannery with the chicken on it. This is more of a traditional street food kind of version. Moussakhan. Go ahead, man, have a slice. Yo, that was like a nutty cheese slice right there. My sesame on top of it? Oh man, this is a great thing to share. I mean, it does taste like a cheese slice, but the kick here is like the roasted sesame seeds on top. I really did not think the little bit of roasted sesame seeds was gonna make such a big difference. Right? Yo, gotta try this. Very unique tasting. All right, and last but not least, we got chicken and lamb shawarma. Now this is the piece de resistance right there. Like that is top tier. Basically, I mean, we've cut it up, but you get it like a giant burrito slice, right? What is it about mixing the chicken and lamb together? I mean, this is a common combination. You know what it is? The chicken for the texture, the lamb for the saltiness of the taste. Mix shawarma. Oh, perfect amount of tahini sauce. Perfect amount of kind of like sour bite to it. Mixed in with the savory warm meat. All the vegetables, instead of being a traditional salad vegetable, they're all pickled. I like how it's served in a very like fun, cool, like, you know, millennial facing way. I mean, look at this cool plate. The aesthetically, the food looks cool. The music is blasting, the vibes are good. You know, I would have never thought I would come to a Palestinian street food spot and enjoy the vibe. I think from what the owner is trying to accomplish with matching the food with the vibes, with the attitude and everything, 10 out of 10, I would say. This is exactly the kind of mesh like, I feel like I'm in a Palestinian street cafe right now. Yes, you can just imagine what we had. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what? I actually don't think it's that different than like a lot of the textures in Indian food and that beer was really good. The smells and the air of it, the molecules. You enjoy the molecules. I did, I did. It's almost like I ate something. I would like to see a food show hosted by you two guys. Who can be vague? I'd love to see Vivek giving the commentary while Farouk eats. Vivek is a food critic from Ratatouille. But he just doesn't eat anything. He just knows it's bad. He just knows it's bad. My favorite was the moussaka. Yeah, I really enjoyed it because of just the roasted sesame seeds on top. I thought it brought a totally new flavor that was unexpected. Yeah, I'm gonna agree with you. I've had all this stuff before. I've only had this once, fresh out the oven and it has a flick of the wrist move. You know what I mean? Like very, very flick of the wrist move and just getting a little sesame on there and game changer. All right, you guys, thank you so much for joining us on that Middle Eastern food crawl here through Bay Ridge. Shout out to Farouk. Shout out to Vivek. And thank you for taking us on this tour today. I mean, honestly, I would have never got exposed to Tangerine or here at IOT. Man, I thought it was really interesting that both spots were more Palestinian based, you know? And that's really cool because I'd never had that food. But guys, there's all types of food out here. Bay Ridge is very, very diverse. And man, I just had some dishes that I'd never had before. And anytime, you know, I think I eat a lot of food but anytime I can taste something that I've never had, I learned a lot. We went to two similar cuisine restaurants but set in two different vibes, totally, first of all. And there's no overlap in the type of food they presented to us. So it was like, I felt like I experienced Palestinian royalty and the Palestinian proletariat in one day. No matter what you do, you feel like you know somebody or something and then you go sit in very established one or something for like even a minute and you realize how little you know. Yeah, I mean, my big takeaway even without eating anything was like, I thought it was so cool how passionate both owners were over like their vibe. They're trying to create the food. Like we asked so many questions and they had the answers like so detailed to every question. There's so many more similarities between what we eat, like how we view things, our challenges and there are differences. And so we focus more on that. That's like when you're really gonna have a better time like interacting with the people around you. You can find me at Farooq you on Instagram and at Fataladon on Twitter, follow me. You can find me on Instagram at Indian Maisel. Hey guys, it's getting pretty late. I heard you have a show tonight. Yeah, we do. It's at Ample Hills Creamery in Brooklyn at seven and 845. Otherwise, if you follow me, you'll find me. The show would have already happened by the time you see this. Yo, I've seen Farooq set very funny. You made me laugh. I don't wanna give away the joke, but you compare yourself to John Lovitz. And it made me laugh very hard. For those watching who still remember who John Lovitz is. For those who don't know who John Lovitz is. Check out all their social media down below. Shout out to the two restaurants that we ate at today. Ayat is A-Y-A-T, T-A-N-R-E-E-N, both in Bay Ridge. Locate them, find them on, they're both on Instagram, find them, support them. Let us know in the comments down below what else we need to try out around New York. Yes, we are leaving Manhattan officially, guys. We're hitting up Queens and Brooklyn. Who knows, Staten Island might be next. Jersey might be next. It might take a minute to get there. Unless you guys really run out of ideas. After we do New York, we're definitely hitting up everywhere else, guys. But thank you so much for watching and leave it in the comments down below. Be nice, everybody, be respectful. Thank you so much for watching. Hit subscribe, hit the like button and check out their stuff, guys. This is Damon and Andrew from the Funk Row, signing off. And until next time, we out. Peace. For Middle Eastern rather than Pakistani. Yeah, okay, so I get mistaken for a dark Sicilian. I get mistaken. Yeah, which is actually funny. The Sicilian is in his funny. I get that. I get a lot of Egyptian. That's all the boys. I get Egyptian. That's all the boys. That's Sicilian.