kavkaz (kavkaze / kavkazi) food in kensington/ditmas/midwood?

[ramonasaur]

has anyone tried the kavkaze spots on ditmas near mcdonald ave? (one had a star of david, an american flag, and a flag i didn't recognize in the window.) what's kavkaz(i/e) cuisine like? where are some good places to sample it?

thanks!

[Westminstress]

Here are links from some of my reviews of Cafe Sim Sim from a couple of years back plus another recent review of Old Baku from someone else. I've also been to Kavkaz on CIA but found the creepy atmosphere so off-putting that I never went back. I haven't been to Sim Sim since having a baby 18 months ago but after re-reading these old reviews, I think we'll be ordering take-out soon, probably checking out the other spots also.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/679491
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/572083
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/820210

[jeremyhfisher]

The one with a star of David is called Old Baku. It's Azerbaijani food and worth checking out. Just wrote about it here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/820210

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Old Baku
115 Ditmas Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11218

[Wawsanham]

Don't you mean Caucasian food?--Food of the Caucasus. I once ate at a Georgian restaurant in Poland about 15 years ago. A dessert sticks in my mind. A longish, actually phalic-looking thing, that was thickened grape juice with some nuts in it, and thickened with corn starch. Not bad actually. Other than that, I remember it as being something like Greek food (in very general terms).

[CitySpoonful]

Wawsanham, you can procure that phalic-looking sweet from Gulluoglu. Apparently Turks eat it, too. :) Not bad tasting -- but tricky to eat...

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Gulluoglu
1985 Coney Island Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11223

[ramonasaur]

thanks all. if anyone eats at these spots, report back!

[CitySpoonful]

Kavkaze food is from the Caucasus region? (e.g., Chechnya, Georgia, Azerbaijan?)

The menu looks great -- similar to the Bukharian places in Rego Park, but yet different.

[famdoc]

Haven't been there...but it looks like we're going to need to try it:

http://www.kavkazfood.com/kavkaz_rest...

[missmasala]

This must not be the one with the star of david, since there is pork on the menu.

Menu looks good, so would love a report back whenever you go.

[UnitedNationsOfFood]

I'm not anywhere close to being an expert, but I think "kavkaz" is the Russian word for the Caucasus region (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, parts of Russia). Not positive though... could somebody with better Russian skills verify?

Kavkaz Restaurant looks like a great spot, and I'll try to get out there to try it. I'm a huge fan of Caucasian food, but it's tough to tell where, exactly, the owners of Kavkaz are from. If I had to guess, I would think that the food is Azerbaijani, but that's just based on a small handful of dishes that I recognize as specifically Azerbaijani (dovga, kutabi). Georgian food is also amazing--many Russians (including most of my Russian relatives) will tell you that Georgian cuisine is the best chow in the former Soviet Union.

There's another Azerbaijani place in Sheepshead Bay called Caucasus Garden, and I thought the food was great. They serve lots of grilled meats, as you would find in any Persian or Central Asian place, and a fantastic lamb shank, stewed in olives and sweet peppers. The bread is also ridiculously good--it's pretty similar to the lepeshka that you'll find in the Rego Park Bukharan places. The restaurant also serves a mean kutab (Caucasian crepes stuffed with meat or spinach) and several regional variations on pelmeni (ravoili-like dumplings, known as kurza or mantei, depending on where you are in central Asia).

For my taste, the most interesting dish at Caucasus Garden is the dovga, an oddly fizzy cold yogurt soup made from dill, mint, rice, and spinach. After I tried it, I found a recipe online that included this magnificent line: "In order to make dovga, beat up sour clotted milk with sour cream and flour, add egg and rice. To prevent the sour clotted milk from decomposing, all the mass should be continuously stirred." Mmm, sour clotted milk! Seriously, though: it was pretty good.

If you're feeling really adventurous, Caucasus Garden apparently specializes in lamb fries. Our friendly waitress kept urging us to try the chiz-biz: lamb kidney, liver, heart, and testicles, fried with onions. I'm a wuss, and didn't go there.

And Caucasus Garden is BYOB, and has a great patio in back. Prices are pretty reasonable, too. (A long-winded rant about the place can be found here if this wasn't already long-winded enough: http://bit.ly/st7gmm.

)

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Caucasus Garden
2715 Avenue U, Brooklyn, NY 11229

Kavkaz
943 Coney Island Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11230