greek delights from zou zou’s, nyc

Last week, I took the train to New York City to watch a Noah Kahan concert with my mom and my girlfriend. Noah is one of the few musicians who has more than two or three songs to which I feel emotionally connected. Now, that could very well be the result of a home-state based placebo; maybe simply knowing that Kahan is trying to speak to the experience of growing up in Vermont is enough to convince the emotion center of my brain that his music is melodically beautiful. It could also be the result of pure nostalgic attachment; for me, almost every song on his debut album is associated with some major turning point in my life. I have no idea, then, why I like Noah Kahan so much, other than the neandarathalian equivalency of “Chase hear guitar man play sad song, Chase happy.” In the same way, I have no idea why certain cuisines are my favorite; I don’t know why I would rather go for fancy Indian or Lebanese food than fancy French food, other than knowing that “Chase taste yummy grub, Chase want more.” Zou Zou’s, a nice Greek restaurant near Madison Square Garden, activates that primitive neural pathway that can make a (nearly) grown man scarf down a sharing-sized plate of dip in 3.35 minutes without so much as a breath.

Sharing Dip Plate

The sharing plate here comes both with pita and veggie sticks (carrots and lettuce). Restaurants often provide multiple dip options, but it’s always a good idea to expand the possibility of new flavor permutations by offering various vehicles for that dip. The dips themselves were all great. The hummus was sweet and nutty, which balanced out the blander veggies quite well. The peaches paired very well with the whipped ricotta; this might honestly have been my favorite part of the meal. This is one of those dishes that I would definitely either pair with an appetizer or get two of. It’s snackable, but delicious, and that’s a dangerous combo.

Duck Borek

Borek is a light, fluffy, savory pastry designed to be easily pulled apart. This signature item had Orange-Coriander Glaze, Pistachios, and Candied Orange Peel. It was a high-quality dish that the chef had clearly put a great deal of time into. The bread was almost creamy by way of being moist and fluffy— this sentence makes absolutely no sense, but if you tried the dish, you’d know what I mean. The duck meat tasted good, and it complimented the dough’s sweet glaze quite nicely. I think there could have been more duck, however; the dough overwhelmed the dish at some points.

Butter-Filled Sweet Potato

It’s honestly pretty tough to bring out all of the flavors of a sweet potato, but I’m realizing that the way to do it is just to slap enough butter on top to clog a drainage pipe. This dish tasted inexplicably like Christmas. I don’t know how else to describe it.

Our Manti

Manti is a type of Turkish dumpling consisting of a spiced meat mixture (usually lamb or ground beef) steamed or boiled in a thin dough wrapper. This Manti was filled with beef and paired with a garlic labneh. The dough was decent, but filling was absolutely a winner. Zou Zou’s strength lies in flavor contrasts, and that was on display with the beef/labneh combination.