Among the many Brooklyn middle-eastern take out heavens, this one stands the ground of its own. A tiny seating space accommodates about 10 to 15 customers right alongside the kitchen, giving the place a homey feel. I usually go with a simple green salad – presence of artichokes and fresh feta making it a special. D and I took my parents there, and while everyone went with lam and chicken I opted for a tuna wrap. Despite the generic name, my meal didn’t disappoint – the fish was spiced and flavorful and my first course of lentil soup warm and tasty enough to put our whole family in a good mood. Our sprits, further lifted by two bottles of wine purchased at the nearby Smith and Vine, called for a finishing touch of baklava. The place is BYOB which makes it not only a delightful, but also a cheap eat.
Address:
283 Smith St.
Brooklyn, NY 11231
Map
Yesterday, to reward myself for half an hour of cultural misguidance related to purchase of contact lens solution, I headed to Java Caffé. Serving coffee to “take away” (since every one here learns English from a Britt) is Budapest’s new thing, and Starbucks look-alikes are opening everywhere. Java Caffé is a chain but cool despite the whole confusion with the word café in the title. 
My first official cross-bridge trip to Buda commenced on possibly one of the worst weather days in Hungarian history. My beloved visitor Joke and I, naively umbrella-less and optimistic, headed for the tram stop. I have related to Joke the “riding the tram without a ticket theory” that has been passed down by generations of Budapest expats – apparently it costs less to ride the tram for free and get caught than buy tickets. Content with our righteous choice of payment avoidance we rode the number 6 to Moszjva Ter and were spit out in the middle of a large track, road, and people crossing. 
I manage to visit, apparently one of the hottest venues in Budapest, twice in one weekend. Meet Artemovsk 38 – a Ukrainian stone barge in former life – now a restaurant, bar, concert space, and dance hall all in one rusted body. On Friday we went to see a show of a gipsy musician –Mitsoura. Her shrill voice and accompanying blurry hippie-times style video made me feel stoned almost immediately, but overall the concert was impressive. On Saturday, we returned for a work party. The good part about A38 is that it’s enormous in size. This, of course, prevents the waters of Danube from moving it in any which direction, so even those weak of stomach when at sea will be fine.
Big props to Lonely Planet for having this place on the list of Budapest cheap eats. My new all time favorite chow paradise is well hidden on one of Pest’s tiny streets. I had an entire pot of Mushroom Goulash - quite possibly the best soup ever, only to be compared to my mom’s borsch, and a salad, which I wasn’t so impressed with. But who cares about leafy greens when you can have hearty soups and other delicacies delivered to the table in cute pots and pans?
Well, the 
Last century’s city of working-class immigrants from Western Europe, Saint Louis still prides itself on having some of the country’s best old-world Italian restaurants. Cunetto on the