Erbil Kabob - Kurdish in Fairfax, VA

Four of us tried out this Kurdish place (Erbil is the capital of Kurdistan, in Iraq) near Faifax Circle.

We got one order of Iraqi-style beef and lamb kabobs, an eggplant salad, plus two dishes I’ve never seen before on a menu: Tashrib Lamb and Quzi - Sham.

The quzi - sham is a big package of dough wrapped around rice and heavily seasoned meat, in our case we chose the chicken version:

The seasoning on the chicken was excellent and the rice was nice and steamy and fluffy.

The lamb tashrib was a big slab of meat smothered in a simple but delicious gravy:

The eggplant salad was a surprise, with the eggplant being cooked to a blistered, crispy char. It was unique and divine.

And finally, we were curious about what constitutes Iraqi-style kabob. In this case it was strips of ground meat that retained a good bit of juiciness though they were cooked to a crisp. Salty and fatty and juicy, like a smashburger, but a really great one:

This was all around a successful meal and afterwards we had a tough time choosing which was our favorite. It ended up in a four-way tie.

7 Likes

Plus the hummus, which was very up-front with tahini (my favorite kind of hummus), plus a bitter overtone – which you guessed might be fenugreek.

This meal was really exceptional, I thought.

I’ll add one photo, of what the quzi-sham looked like once it was cracked open.

6 Likes

Like a smash burger but a really great one. Exactly! Excellent lunch. I might add that the beans were beyond bland. The only miss of the meal.

2 Likes

It all looks fantastic!

1 Like

True, I forgot to even mention the beans. Came as a side dish. As you said at the meal, tasted like it came from a Campbell’s soup can. After it had been through the deflavorizing machine.

2 Likes