Reader Mail

The mailbag is overflowing this week - so, Second Helpings fans, we will have two days - count 'em two, two, TWO! - of Reader Mail.

Greek, Turkish and German food are the topics today.

Come back Friday and I'll have more mail and also a link to Eric Ruth's 55 Hours review of Ole Tapas Restaurant & Lounge.

Keep the email coming to me at ptalorico@delawareonline.com. You ask. We answer. Every Friday (and sometimes on Thursdays...)

QUESTION: Hi Pat, I read Second Helpings last week and enjoyed it very much. It also prompted me to ask a question I have asked at every Greek Festival I have attended here in Wilmington, the first week in June, for the past 10 years or so.

Why, with the large Greek community in Wilmington and the number of people who seem to LOVE the traditional Greek food, is there NO Greek restaurant here?!

I don't mean a restaurant that makes some dishes with a Greek influence, or a fancy gourmet Greek restaurant, but a "taverna" style one that serves souvlaki, lamb chops, moussaka, gyros, fried calamari, saganaki, tzatsiki, taramasalata, etc.

As it is now, we drive to Bryn Mawr, Pa., to Lourdas Tavern (very near the train station in Bryn Mawr) when we need our "fix" of great Greek food.

And it's a BYO on top of that!

Thanks,
Beth Tomanelli, Wilmington

ANSWER: Beth, that's a very good question. One of my dearest friends is Greek and very picky about Greek food and, well, we just haven't found any place in Delaware that she approves of.

You could try the European Bistro, 1710 Naamans Road, Wilmington, 529-7773, which serves gyros, spanakopita and avgolemono.

Or, if you're willing to drive to Philadelphia, I'd head to Dmitri's BYO at 795 Third St. (Catharine Street), (215) 625-0556 - it's casual and often very crowded.

I hear wonderful things about Estia, 1405-07 Locust St. (between Broad and 15th street); (215) 735-7700, but it is a more expensive, "gourmet" dining experience.

Readers? Do you know of any other places? Restaurateurs, why aren't you offering Greek food?

QUESTION: Istanbul is Back. The former owner [of a Turkish restaurant] has re-opened under the Cappadocia name in same location on Fletchwood Road in Elkton, Md. The food is as it was when it opened in 2000. He and his son wanted to get the place back to serving great food. The location has gone from basic to night club to pizza joint. Go back and try the food again.

ANSWER: I believe you're talking about Istanbul Kabob House (175 Fletchwood Road, Elkton, Md.), a restaurant I haven't visited since 2004.

The restaurant had ZERO atmosphere - really, it was like a bingo hall - but a slice of its lahmacun, sort of a Turkish version of pizza absent the cheese, would bring me back to that plain Jane dining room in a minute. I loved the ultra-thin, melt-in-your mouth pita that was spread with an addictive spread of ground beef, onions, peppers and parsley. The restaurant's superb puffy bread and spreads, especially the wonderfully smoky baba ganuj and patlican soslu, or mixed pieces of eggplant in a spicy sauce of tomatoes, green peppers, onion and garlic, were other winners.

I do hope this is true and will make a trek there soon to check it out. Fingers crossed.

QUESTION: Ms. Talorico, thanks for the long list of German Restaurants [in a recent Second Helpings Reader Mail post.]

Here's a link to one more: Sebastian's Schnitzelhaus . Channel 10 did a short story on it a month ago. It is in Wrightstown, N.J. near Fort Dix.

It is somewhat expensive with a full Schnitzel meal with red cabbage and potato pancakes about $20.

Many thanks for recommending the Dumpling House in Wilmington. Delicious food and comfortable experience.

Rasa Malaysian Cuisine, [a new restaurant in Independence Mall, 1601 Concord Pike in Brandywine Hundred, 543-5286]; had good food, but the noise level at lunch was intolerable. Imagine the cacophony at dinnertime after cocktails!

Will Prost

P.S.: For serious chileheads only, I would recommend the last appetizer on China Royal's menu: "salt roasted green peppers." Out came five or six long green chilies in a faintly sweet brown sauce. I got through two and took the rest home to add to some stew.

I've never had such a hot and tasty long chile and I grow two or three dozen different chile plants each year obtained from ChilePlants.com Home Page . They also ship unusual fresh chilies this time of year from their farm up across the river from New Hope.

ANSWER: Great letter, Will. Lots of helpful information.

And more good German food news....

QUESTION: Pat, I read your column and have the name and location of German restaurants.

One that I have visited several times is" The Alpenhof Restaurant and Guest House." It is located at the following address: 903 Morgantown Road; Reading Pa., 19607; (610) 373-1624; alpenhofbnb@aol.com

Another place for German food is "Cannstatter Volksfest-Verein." The Cannstatter is at 9130 Academy Road, Philadelphia, 19114; (215) 332-0121 Both of these restaurants require some driving but the food is well worth the trip.

"Guten Appetit."

They also have a good selection of German Bier.

Yours for gut eating,

John Nothstein.