Like many of you, we have been distracted of late, worried that Haitham Shomali’s recent bout with food poisoning was going to force him to cancel his upcoming American tour.
Good news! It appears Haitham’s good to go. If you’re just now getting this news, you probably are not regular viewers of Dandana TV (“America’s Top Middle Eastern Channel”). We have to admit we’ve let our subscription expire. We got caught up on the most recent development—along with the latest in Arabic music videos—watching on the big screens at St. Louis Coffee Oasis & Mediterranean Café.
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This place is tucked into a slew of other eateries along Euclid, right in the hip heart of the Central West End. There’s a fairly decent fish taco place close by. A fine Thai joint across the street. The splendid Brasserie by Niche is right around the corner. So why push open the door at the Coffee Oasis?
It’s the foule. Well, there are a lot of other reasons we’ll get to in a moment. But there aren’t many places where you can enjoy Jordanian foule, one of the less well-known delights of the Middle Eastern table. Foule—it’s pronounced like “fool”—is a thick salsa of cooked fava beans ground into a rough paste and mixed with vegetables, olive oil, lemon, and garlic. At Oasis, a dish of it comes as a side with gyros or grilled chicken, and pita. But order a bowl of foule with some warm pita and you’ve got one of the greatest light snacks in town, the garlicky, lemony, earthiness of the sauce just perfect with that warm, comforting, quilt-like bread.
That whole “light snack” thing, not incidentally, is the key to a lot of Middle Eastern dining, as you know. Mezze. They’re like tapas, nibbles, small plates shared by the table, the kind of eating that makes for long and leisurely dining.
You want to go the typical route, there are plenty of generic mezze at Oasis. Hummus, rich and textured like peanut butter, perfumed with tahini. Baba ghanouj, buttery smooth. Grape leaves steamed and plump with rice, onions, and a fresh whack of mint. All of these come with wedges of pita, perfect for noshing. You want something more substantial, there are gyros, salty, herb-flecked ground beef kabobs, spinach pie, and tan marbles of crunchy, tender falafel.
A big draw here, though, are Jordanian specialties like that piquant foule. Lebni (above) is another Jordanian classic you might overlook here and won’t find anywhere else in town. It’s a substantial, paste-like yogurt. The full name for it is Lebni Jarashyeh—lebni from Jerash. Jerash is in northern Jordan. It was already a town when Alexander the Great established his headquarters there. You can slather Oasis’ lebni on pita; it’s so thick it makes for a sandwich kind of mezze. You should. There’s a lot of good food in St. Louis. There isn’t much that you can say you could have shared with Alexander the Great.
The Za’atar bread’s description in Oasis’ menu doesn’t exactly wow the casual reader. If you are impressed with lebni’s provenance, though, you ought to be fascinated with za’atar.
It’s a combination of seasonings, oregano, thyme, and marjoram and the dried leaves of a plant called za’atar itself, a bushy herb usually translated as hyssop. Mixed with olive oil and dressed on pita, the flavor is exotic, prickling the taste buds. The Israelites used brushes of za’atar to paint the blood of the Paschal sacrifices on their doorposts while they were in Egypt’s bondage. And it was za’atar David was referring to when he wanted to be purified in Psalms 51:7.
Do you remember those “one man band” guys who were rigged up so they could play half a dozen instruments? You do? Man, you’re old. Those guys haven’t been around for like, what? A century or so? Anyway, that’s what the Oasis is like. The owner comes out, takes your order, then goes in the kitchen and prepares it, then serves it. If they had valet parking, he’d probably be taking the keys to your Hyundai. In a lot of places, this would make for service slower than the pace of a Garrison Keillor monologue. He manages it, though, and it’s amazing to watch his energy.
There are some other reasons Oasis is worth a visit. Arabic style coffee, bitter and strong and presented right at your table in a dulla, the little, long-handled pot that, if you want to do it the right way, is poured only with your left hand. There is a remarkably wide selection of European beers, Italian, German, Czech—that can be poured with either hand.
What, if nothing else, could convince you to try this place, though, are the desserts. Oasis has one of the most extensive menus of Middle Eastern desserts, stacked tantalizingly on shelves behind glass right at the front of the place. There’s baklava, of course, flaky, honey dripped, crispy, ruinously sweet. Consider though, some more unusual offerings.
Basma (right) is made from a couple of layers of knafeh dough separated by a layer of pine nuts and cashews. The dough itself is a minor miracle of dessert baking. It’s flour and water, mixed and poured into a sieve so it comes out in long strings that are kneaded. The result is a baked dough that’s chewy without being hard. Just enough sugar’s added to give it a mildly sugary taste.
It’s a filling of dates, pistachios, and walnuts that give mamuul its taste, the fillings wrapped in domes of a flour crust that make them look like baked igloos. Those snowy square pillows are ballouri. The ballouri dough is just barely cooked, that’s why it’s white; the filling is a beautifully delicious sludge of crushed pistachios and rosewater. What look like golf balls of spun, crusty brown dough are burma, spheres filled with pistachios that approach baklava for sheer, sweet indulgence.
There is an abundance of good eating in the CWE. There are also plenty of places where the usual Middle Eastern favorites are presented and nicely so. You want to try something unique, though, St. Louis Oasis Coffee is the place to visit. And if there is any breaking news on Haitham Shomali, you’ll be the first to know.
St. Louis Coffee Oasis & Mediterranean Café
8 S. Euclid
314-361-6666
Mon: 8 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Tue – Sun: 8 a.m. – 10 p.m.
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