Miss Ada and Golda’s Modern Spins on Middle Eastern Cooking | The New Yorker

"I found the combination of brown butter and fried sage—spooned nutty and fragrant over a sweet but earthy carrot hummus and again over fluffy whipped ricotta—sets the tone: warm, puffy, chewy pita pairs beautifully with rich, stretchy stracciatella marbled with olive oil and seasonal toppings. Describing itself as “Mediterranean with a twist,” chef-owner Tomer Blechman, originally from Israel, roots the menu in Middle Eastern traditions while happily borrowing Italian, Mexican, and other influences (an “Israeli mole” beneath a short-rib skewer; a Dead Sea #2 that’s basically an Israeli margarita). The cooking is consistently lovely: substantial, shareable skewers; fork-tender short ribs strewn with pickles and reminiscent of pastrami; a complexly seasoned ground-lamb kofta impaled on a cinnamon stick; a satisfying za’atar-crusted salmon on a smear of labneh; and my favorite, an airy labneh mousse crisscrossed with seasonal-fruit granita. There’s house-made blueberry kombucha, it’s difficult to get prime-time reservations, and dishes range from $8 to $28." - Hannah Goldfield