My New Year’s resolution for 2007 was to make the effort to try some new restaurants. If I’m going to keep this blog interesting, I can’t exactly keep going to the same five restaurants over and over again. I haven’t been doing too well with my goal, though, so I have since amended it to include, not only restaurants that I have never been to, but also restaurants that I have only been to once or twice. Either way, the goal is to break out of the routine.

Since I nearly broke my back Thursday morning slipping on some black ice outside my apartment building, I didn’t feel like walking too far for dinner tonight. Robert and I decided to go up the street to Karam’s Lebanese Cuisine. If you live in Seattle, you may be already familiar with Karam’s from the food stalls at various street fairs. They are the ones with the big banner that reads “There is no such thing as too much sex or garlic.” Their famous garlic sauce is sold in many supermarkets here too. We have only been Karam’s once before even though it’s very close to us. The restaurant has very little atmosphere but I love that the owner, Anis Karam, greets you at the door, takes your order, fills up your drinks and then heads back into the kitchen to start making your meal.

For his dinner, Robert chose the lamb kabob and a Lebanese beer, Almaza. They were out of the bulgur and nut stuffed pumpkin, my first choice, so I ordered the char-grilled salmon and a Lebanese wine, La Dame Blanche du Chateaux Kefraya. The wine was very exotic. I’m pretty terrible at discerning flavors in wine so I’m not sure what made this wine so interesting. Almond? Honey? Even mint, perhaps? Maybe I just think that because those are common Lebanese ingredients. I don’t know. The salmon was tender and had a perfect amount of char as did Robert’s lamb. Both entrees were served over rice and smothered in super-garlic sauce. Also, they both came with pita, hummus and a salad. There was an unfamiliar red spice on everything. I told Robert that, if I had to guess, I thought it was sumac. I’ve never had sumac before but I’ve heard of it. Then, we asked the owner what it was and he said “It’s sumac, a Lebanese spice.” Yes!