JANUARY 21 • 2021 | 45

F

olks used to love going to Cedars
of Lebanon Lounge on Columbia,
Detroit … Customers will never for-
get the potpourri of Middle East food that
was so exotic … as well as the wonderful
native dancing that brought
many stomping feet.
The food brought out
always tickled the tongue
with an odor of pleasing
excellence … Like the hum-
mus with tahini …a dish that
consisted of mashed chick-
peas and sesame seed butter


















… lightly dusted with paprika … Dipping
the unleavened Lebanese bread in this mar-
velous tasting spread made a perfect begin-
ning for what followed.
I remember having an entrée and several
side dishes, including baked kibbeh, stuffed
grape leaves, stuffed cabbage and stuffed
squash … The entrée itself, cooked as it was
on a skewer with chunks of green pepper,
tomato and onion was a succulent treat.
The highly spirited native dances,
we were told, dated back to the days of
Solomon and Sheba, and had changed very
little over the thousands of years that had
passed.

ONE OF THE reasons Detroit had so
many fine restaurants was the polyglot and
typically American makeup of its people
… Wherever a large and varied number of
ethnic groups live side-by-side, restaurants
would spring up serving exotic food pre-
pared in the fashion of the “old country” …
Another such restaurant was the Sheik, din-
ing in the very best fashion of old Arabia …
It took but one trip to see that the food was
superb … The eggplant a la Sheik was deli-
cious, consisting of eggplant, rice, ground
meat and tomato sauce.
I recall writing down the entrée, shish
kabob, tender chunks of lamb cooked on
a skewer but served on a platter … These
chunks of lamb became even more tasty
when dipped in sour cream or the hummus.
A really wondrous side dish, I wrote
down, was the kibbeh, a ground lamb and
wheat baked in an oven … the result was a
cake-like goody, not sweet, but distinctive.
DOES HE KNOW SOMETHING …or
somebody higher up? … Many restaurant
owners are kept busy just holding their own

paying bills or whatever … And Joe Vicari
keeps adding to his entourage of dining
spots … Many other eateries are busy with
take-out or carryout or delivery service
… as is Joe, but the Joe Vicari Restaurant
Group also continues to work on future new
eatery openings.
OLDIE BUT GOODIE … A visitor to
Israel attended a concert at the Moscovitz
Auditorium … He was quite impressed
with the architecture and the acoustics …
He inquired of the tour guide, “Is this mag-
nificent auditorium named after Chaim
Moscovitz, the famous Talmudic scholar?”
“No,
” replied the guide. “It is named after
Sam Moscovitz, the writer.
”
“I never heard of him. What did he
write?”
“
A check,
” replied the guide.
CONGRATS … To Dr. Stuart
Kirschenbaum on his birthday … To Janet
Sloan on her birthday.

Danny’s email address is
dannyraskin2132@gmail.com.

RASKIN
THE BEST OF EVERYTHING

Danny Raskin
Senior Columnist

Detroit’s Long
History of
Fine Middle
Eastern Food

Hummus

Shish

kabob

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