CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS??

Every once in a while, I will actually read the local paper and get a food tip. That's how we ended up at the all you can eat sushi place in Berkeley, and it's also how I heard about a Turkish restaurant in Berkeley. Now Tom and I had just been talking about how we missed Family Restaurant in Brookline, with it's casual atmosphere and giant plates of tasty, cheap food, we really hadn't found anything like it around our new home, so we were quick to try out our new find, Turkish Kitchen.

Unfortunately, everyone else had also heard of Turkish Kitchen (at least 2 people I'd talked to at work had planned on checking it out), so even though we arrive a little after 6 on a Friday night, the place was packed and not a seat was free. Actually, it looks like the place has been here for a while, and with its key location right near the Berkeley campus and it's low prices, it's a popular place for students. Luckily, the tables turned pretty quickly, so we only waited about 10 minutes before we were seated. The staffed seemed friendly, but really overwhlemed by their new found popularity and it looked as though they were just struggling to keep up.

Tom and I decided to start with a shared hummus, which was actually quite good.

Tom then ordered a dish that had been recommended in the review I'd read. It's basically chicken, wrapped in a lavash bred and topped with a special sauce. Unfortunately, they give him the lamb version, rather than the chicken one that he'd ordered. But it was so busy, he didn't bother to return it, and just ate it. He actually enjoyed it, except for the special sauce that they'd put on top.

Meanwhile, I had a really great chicken kabob platter. The pieces of chicken were cooked perfectly and were totally tender and flavorful. I enjoyed it a lot.

Overall, I thought out meal was pretty great, though in the future, I think we'll be ordering take out, rather than battling the crowds. After dinner, it was still pretty early, so I thought we'd visit a childhood favorite, Foster's Freeze. Foster's Freeeze is a lot like Dairy Queen and famous for it's dipped ice cream cones. I hadn't had one in like 15 years, so I wanted to give it another try. I thought it was kinda funny that they had these display models of what the ice cream should look like. They even had little diagrams one wall pointing out the shapes of the ice cream, which was kinda funny when you see what my cone ended up looking like. So I ordered a chocolate ice cream dipped in chocolate...

But when the guy handed it to me, this is what it looked like....

I made Tom hold it while I took a pic, but I was laughing so hard it was kinda difficult. Anyhoo, the chocolate on the exterior of the cone wasn't so great. There was so much cocoa butter in it to make it harden instantly that it was just waxy, though the interior ice cream was pretty decent. Next time, I'll order it without the chocolate shell.