ANNOUNCER: And now Signature Dish, a WETA original series.

SETH: Today on Signature Dish, we're experiencing the magic of the Mediterranean.

We'll start with an open-faced sandwich like no other.

CAGLA: It's messy.

It feels like you are eating barbecue.

SETH: If I should make a mess, I'm going to make a mess.

CAGLA: Yeah, you should make a mess.

SETH: Journey to the Mediterranean's crossroads with the Middle East.

KARIM: And this is a classic Lebanese dish.

First thing on the table is the dish when we have a party.

SETH: All right, well, I'm ready for the party.

And savor a Greek delicacy slow cooked to perfection.

ARIS: It's falling apart just with a spoon.

SETH: It's amazing that this thing has more cooking left to do.

I'm Seth Tillman, WETA producer and DC native, and I love good food.

That's why I'm traveling to restaurants across the DMV, at each stop looking for the one thing you just gotta try... that Signature Dish.

♪ ♪ My embrace of the Mediterranean diet begins in Georgetown.

Across the street from the C&O Canal is a tiny food hall called the Grace Street Collective.

Tucked away in the back you'll find Green Almond Pantry, a cafe helmed by Turkish-born chef Cagla Onal-Urel.

CAGLA: I always wanted to be a chef so I decided so when I retire, I'm going to open my own restaurant.

And so when I came to United States to study MBA, I said, "Why I'm going to wait to get retired?," so I decided to go to culinary school.

SETH: After training and working in some of DC's top kitchens Cagla decided to strike out on her own.

CAGLA: I start at the farmer's market around Georgetown.

I was doing everything myself.

I was receiving, cooking, cleaning, packing, and go to the farmer's market.

SETH: Cagla opened her first brick and mortar in Shaw in 2018.

After a terrible fire two years in, she reopened in Georgetown in 2021.

CAGLA: Green Almond Pantry name comes from my name.

My name is Cagla.

So Cagla means green almond.

And yes, my family named me after a nut.

But also, I like different texture.

We use a good olive oil and good vegetables, good local farmers.

And I think Mediterranean food, for me, it just connection with me and my family.

If it takes anybody back home, it makes me happy.

SETH: Cagla!

CAGLA: Hi!

SETH: Nice to meet you.

CAGLA: Nice to meet you.

SETH: Well, thank you for inviting me into this nice, little hidden spot that you got here... CAGLA: Thank you.

SETH: At the back of the food hall.

CAGLA: Thank you for finding us.

SETH: Well, I'm sure it's going to be worth it.

What are you making today?

CAGLA: So we're going to make an egg sandwich, seven-minute egg sandwich.

SETH: Well, I've had a lot of egg sandwiches in my day, but never one with this many ingredients.

How do you get started on the sandwich?

CAGLA: So we make our own bread every day, then I'm going to bake it for our sandwiches.

Okay, be careful.

It's hot.

All right, let's turn our attention to our watermelon radish salad.

SETH: Watermelon radishes?

CAGLA: Yes.

SETH: Okay, I'm not familiar with those.

CAGLA: Really?

When you peel it, to me, it's like they're dream.

So we are going to just peel them first and then you're going to see the magic.

Are you ready?

SETH: Yes, I'm ready.

CAGLA: Okay.

SETH: I'm ready for some magic.

CAGLA: All right.

Let's see.

All right, here it is.

SETH: Okay.

CAGLA: Not that much.

SETH: No, that was... CAGLA: I think it's a magic.

Okay, great.

SETH: That is a beautiful, beautiful color.

CAGLA: Now I'm going to slice it.

SETH: So just a nice, little rough chop.

CAGLA: Do you want to try how spicy it is?

SETH: Oh, sure.

CAGLA: Or is it spicy?

It's a spicy one!

Yeah.

SETH: That one has a little bit of a punch.

CAGLA: Yeah.

A lot of dishes that I make, you can see like, lemon peels.

So we peel it and then I do a really thinly sliced lemons.

SETH: Nice little zesting there.

CAGLA: Yeah.

And then we will do red onion.

SETH: So it'll be a little pungent, as well.

CAGLA: Yes.

So now we're going to grab some celery.

So I like the hard parts so it gives you a different variety of colors.

SETH: I think the yellow part's the one that usually ends up in the trash when I'm cooking at home.

I'm sorry.

CAGLA: Really?

This one, are you serious?

SETH: Sorry.

CAGLA: This is the heart part.

You use... We call heart... Yeah, heart as a heart.

SETH: I'm sorry to disappoint you.

CAGLA: Okay, great.

There is so many ways you can use these yellow ones.

You see that I make it some of them big, some of them small.

SETH: You embrace those imperfections.

CAGLA: I do.

I always say, just like your mom is cooking.

Now we are going to get the darker color.

I use local parsley.

Then I'm going to slice these.

And then we have pickled mustard seed.

We are putting hot pepper, black pepper, and now sea salt.

And then I will add some fresh lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil.

SETH: Of course.

It wouldn't be Mediterranean flavors without the extra virgin olive oil.

CAGLA: So you can see the color, how beautiful.

And we didn't do anything.

It's just the vegetables itself is beautiful.

So now this is ready for our egg sandwiches.

So now we're going to cook our eggs.

We are going to cook them in the boiling water for seven minutes and then we are going to put it in an ice bath.

We want to stop the carry over cooking so we shock them with the ice.

After our bread is baked, we are going to cut in half and then we drizzle some olive oil.

Then we put our sliced eggs and now we are going to put our watermelon radish salads on top.

And we will finish it with anchovies and then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

And it's ready.

Boom!

SETH: Cagla, this is an absolute open-faced thing of beauty, like no egg sandwich I've ever had before in my life.

CAGLA: Before you start.

This is not a date sandwich.

It's a messy, feels like you are eating barbecue.

You always give extra napkins with this sandwich.

If you want to eat with a fork and knife, you can do it, good luck.

But I think it's hands-on.

SETH: If I should make a mess, I'm going to make a mess.

CAGLA: Yeah, you should make a mess.

SETH: All right, here we go.

CAGLA: Let's make a mess.

(crunching) SETH: Perfect.

Just the right sandwich to make a mess with.

The eggs, they're so creamy.

I mean, did you call those soft boiled?

CAGLA: Yes, they are soft-boil eggs, but we call this jammy eggs.

SETH: Jammy?

CAGLA: Yes.

SETH: Okay, well, it's a great little texture.

CAGLA: Yeah.

SETH: And the brightness, too, of the olive oil and the lemon juice.

Everything comes together so nicely.

CAGLA: Thank you.

SETH: And I actually missed the anchovy on that bite, so I've got to go for another one.

CAGLA: So you have to do another one.

SETH: Let's make another mess.

CAGLA: That's why I want to see it so that's why I didn't take a bite.

(laughing) And then you can go with your fork, whatever's falling apart.

SETH: Well, all that stuff will be there later... CAGLA: Okay, great.

SETH: To enjoy.

So besides the sandwich, too, you've got all these beautiful spreads here.

CAGLA: Yes, I put some of the spreads here for our little table.

But we have a lot of vegan salads at Green Almond.

This dip is very popular, I will say.

People love it.

I love it to pair with anchovy and the crostini.

I put it for you to try it.

SETH: Some more... CAGLA: More anchovies and more like the bread.

SETH: More lemon, more olive oil, more anchovies.

CAGLA: Yes.

When people ask me what is the food about, it's very simple.

The vegetables are beautiful as it is.

When I make soup, too, I keep it very simple ingredients so you can taste the...

If it's a mushroom soup, you taste the mushroom.

It's the potato soup, you taste the potato.

So when they ask us, "Green Almond Pantry, what is it?

It's a Turkish restaurant or is this like, Italian?"

I said, "I am just going to cook what I like to eat."

So here, Green Almond, we you know, support local farmers and the good-quality products and then make the stuff that we like to eat.

SETH: Well, I think that's beautiful.

This was an incredible bounty of flavors and textures.

CAGLA: Thank you.

SETH: I loved it.

I can't wait to come back.

CAGLA: Thank you.

Looking forward to see you again and the whole crew.

Thank you so much.

I mean it.

♪ ♪ SETH: Leaving DC, I'm making my way to Greenbelt in Prince George's County.

My stop is the Roosevelt Center, the historic shopping plaza in the heart of the New Deal-era planned community that's home to the family-run Cedars of Lebanon.

When I was small, I liked to cook, even 10 years old, 11 years old.

SETH: After graduating from culinary school, Karim cooked all over the world, eventually landing a job as a private chef for Lebanese diplomats in Washington.

He and his wife Maria later worked for nearly a decade in Greenbelt at the neighboring New Deal Cafe before deciding to open a spot of their own serving authentic Lebanese cuisine.

KARIM: People in Greenbelt, they accept us.

MARIA: And they were surprised to find us, how good the food was, how extensive the menu was.

So for us, this is everyday life, it's not a surprise.

But when somebody from outside says this, it kind of... KARIM: Make us happy.

MARIA: Makes our heart beat faster.

KARIM: I like to cook the best way, fresh stuff.

Everything I start from the scratch.

We're using fresh olive oil and we have fresh lemon juice, not in the can.

People start coming looking for this, tasting the food, and they like it.

SETH: Chef, nice to meet you.

KARIM: Nice to meet you, too.

SETH: Looks like we got some eggplant, pita, chickpeas.

Full Mediterranean, Middle Eastern spread right here.

What are you making today?

KARIM: Fatteh Bethengien.

Fatteh is the yogurt sauce.

And eggplant meaning is bethengien.

SETH: Oh, I got it, bethengien is eggplant.

KARIM: Is eggplant.

SETH: I love eggplant.

I'm not sure why they get a bad wrap from so many people.

Is this just a classic Lebanese dish?

KARIM: This is a classic Lebanese dish.

Usually when I work with the embassy, the first things on the table is the dish when we have a party over there.

SETH: All right, well, I'm ready for the party.

And so how are you going to prepare this eggplant for cooking?

KARIM: We going to do fried it.

SETH: Fry it, fry it?

Okay.

KARIM: Full fry.

SETH: But you got to get the moisture out somehow first, right?

KARIM: Yes, yes.

First step, we put a little bit salt.

SETH: Nice, generous amount.

KARIM: Okay, we soak a little bit and a few minutes and after we put in the towel, we take the water out.

Now, when we're waiting for the eggplant, we put the yogurt, we'll put a little bit tahini, we'll put it a little bit salt and we'll put little bit garlic.

And we're mixing together.

Some people they're using lemon, but... You can try it.

SETH: Oh, try it with a little pita chip?

KARIM: Yes, yes.

SETH: Are these house-made pita chips?

KARIM: Yes.

SETH: Everything has to be made in-house, right?

KARIM: Yes.

SETH: Nice garlicky flavor on that.

I like that a lot.

KARIM: Now with the second step, we grab the tray, we put it in the towel, we put it eggplant and we... SETH: Oh yeah, a lot of liquid coming out already.

And that's going to really help firm up the texture of the eggplant as well, right?

KARIM: Yes, yes, and not take so much oil also when you fry it.

The next step now after when we take out from the water and everything, I'm going to take to the stove and fry it.

We put the dish together, we put toasted pita bread, we have the chickpeas, we put the eggplant, and we put the yogurt sauce.

We'll fry a little bit the pine nut with olive oil.

We put on the top of the fatteh.

We put a little bit paprika and do a little bit cinnamon.

The fatteh bethengien will be done.

SETH: All right, Karim, Maria, this Lebanese feast that you've assembled here, this looks incredible.

This fatteh bethengien, how do we attack this thing?

KARIM: Okay, I serving for you.

SETH: All the good stuff's at the bottom, right?

KARIM: On the bottom.

SETH: Actually, there's probably good stuff on the top and bottom.

KARIM: Now you can try.

How you like it?

SETH: That warm yogurt and the creaminess of the eggplant, but a little bit of crispiness, too, from the pita chips.

What a wonderful play of textures and flavors.

That's terrific.

MARIA: It's a lot of flavors.

You don't feel a strong flavor of eggplant.

It just melds beautifully together.

SETH: And the chickpeas, so many times you have dishes where the chickpeas are kind of hard or uh, crunchy.

These just melt in your mouth.

KARIM: Supposed to cook the chickpeas well done.

We soak it overnight and next day, we taking time to cook not short time.

SETH: You can't rush this.

KARIM: No, no.

You cannot rush with the chickpeas.

SETH: And this beautiful platter here, as well.

This is like some of the various mezze you could get to share with your meal?

KARIM: Yes, you're looking for cheese pie, the vegetarian kibbeh, chicken kibbeh, meat kibbeh.

And we have in the middle vegetarian grape leaves.

MARIA: We make the best kibbeh.

We have people coming here just to eat kibbeh, especially vegetarian.

KARIM: With walnut, with spinach, and little bit pomegranate and pumpkin.

MARIA: And the shell is made from butternut squash grounded with bulgur.

SETH: There's a lot of goodies hiding inside that shell.

But of course I have to ask about what looks like maybe a slice of apple pie on the far end of the table?

KARIM: Yes, this is my homemade from my... Maria, she made it all the time here.

The best apple pie, you can see it.

SETH: Maria, you're the dessert queen here at the restaurant?

(laughing) MARIA: I'm a dessert worker.

And queen, I don't know what?

I'm an humble person who likes to bake, likes to cook, likes to make things to make people happy.

And food makes people happy.

SETH: Well, hear, hear.

That's incredible.

I would not have imagined I'd have to travel to a Lebanese restaurant in Greenbelt... MARIA: In Greenbelt.

SETH: To have such a wonderful apple pie.

I love that you could come here, share a little mezze platter with your friends and family, go for this incredible fatteh bethengien, and to finish it off with a homemade dessert?

What a meal.

Thank you guys so much.

KARIM: Thank you for coming.

MARIA: Thank you for coming and all of you.

Now time to eat.

SETH: Time to eat.

KARIM: Time to eat now, everybody.

♪ ♪ SETH: I'm wrapping my Mediterranean voyage in North Bethesda.

Just off Rockville Pike in the Pike & Rose development.

I'm paying a visit to Melina.

The restaurant was started by Dimitri Moshovitis, the co-founder of fast casual chain CAVA, along with Chef Aris Tsekouras.

ARIS: I born in US.

I left when I was four years old.

When I moved back to Greece, I was living in Athens, came back when I was 36.

I moved back to work in a Greek restaurant over here.

SETH: When COVID hit, Chef Aris needed to improvise.

ARIS: So when all the restaurants was shut down and tried to figure out how we're going to survive, I started baking breads on the restaurant that I was working and start creating a small bakery with deliveries on the Gaithersburg area and some farmer's market.

So as everybody in my position and all of them, they want to advertise their job through Instagram and social media.

So it's something that I do very often, post photos of my food or my breads.

SETH: Chef Aris' Instagram caught the CAVA co-founder's attention.

He loved my bread.

He start ordering more bread.

And then he approached me if we want to collaborate to open Melina restaurant.

So in Melina, we have a different type of mezze that we can share on the table or different type of entree that we can share.

♪ ♪ SETH: Chef, nice to meet you.

ARIS: Welcome to Melina.

SETH: Well, thank you for inviting me.

Love the dramatic olive tree right in the center of the restaurant.

Tell me what you're making today.

ARIS: So today we're going to make our signature dish, it's a lamb kleftiko.

SETH: Kleftiko a new one for me.

What does that mean?

ARIS: So the name kleftiko comes from the word kléftes, that means thieves.

So they used to steal goats or sheeps or lambs.

And the way they prepare the lamb was just digging a hole on the ground with the fire inside, put the meat inside, cover with the dirt so they avoid the smell and the smoke, and then leave it a couple of days and then come back and take out the meat.

SETH: All right, well, a dish named after some sheep and lamb thieves, that's pretty badass.

But you're going to be able to recreate that kind of underground cooking effect but using modern kitchen tools and techniques?

ARIS: Yeah.

Here we don't make holes in the ground.

So we cook the lamb neck sous-vide for 12 hours.

SETH: And so you said lamb neck?

ARIS: It's more tender, it's more flavor.

SETH: It's not a muscle that gets a lot of workout, so it's nice and fatty.

ARIS: Yeah, exactly.

SETH: All right, so how do you go about putting the dish together?

ARIS: So I'm going to take this lamb outside of the sous-vide bag.

SETH: All that wonderful brine there.

ARIS: Yeah.

Actually, it's juice from the lamb and the fat of the lamb.

You can see that it's falling apart just with a spoon.

SETH: Oh, coming right off the bone, wow.

ARIS: Yeah.

SETH: It's amazing to think this thing has more cooking left to do.

ARIS: Yeah.

So here we just have to remove the central bone from the neck and then we can remove also this one that's very tough.

SETH: I see a lot of nice fat, too, on this.

ARIS: Yeah.

So on this step, I'm going to use a blowtorch to give a nice caramelization on the outside.

SETH: Blowtorch?

All right.

Ho-ho!

Chef, I normally like to sit back and watch the chefs work their magic, but a blowtorch, this just looks like too much fun.

Can I try my hand at this?

ARIS: Oh, yeah, for sure.

Here you are.

SETH: All right.

Oh, boy.

There is some real power in this thing.

This is the fun part of the job, right?

ARIS: Yeah.

SETH: Almost too much power.

All right, I'm going to return the toy back to you.

ARIS: All right.

So needs a little bit more on this side.

All set.

SETH: All set.

I love that it's just bubbling away in the top there.

ARIS: Yeah.

So next, we're going to bring it inside the parchment paper.

So we're going to place the lamb over here.

On top, we're going to put a little bit of salt.

SETH: Nice quality salt.

ARIS: Yes, that's Maldon salt.

Going to put some roasted grape tomatoes, some roasted bell peppers.

So now we're going to add some Graviera cheese, is very similar with the Gruyère.

SETH: It'll have that nice little Gruyère melting ability, as well?

ARIS: Yeah.

SETH: Okay.

ARIS: So we're going to finish with some fresh oregano.

So we're going to use a little bit of the juice that we had from the sous-vide just to give an extra humidity when we put it in the oven, and finish it with a little bit of olive oil over here.

And then we are ready to wrap it.

SETH: So this is simulating cooking underground.

ARIS: Exactly.

So we grab those sides here.

Just with a string over here, make a nice... SETH: Oh, it's like a present.

ARIS: Yeah.

SETH: So what goes along...

Thank you.

So what goes along with the lamb?

ARIS: This one, we're going to serve with some sourdough pita bread.

SETH: Is this a special kind of Greek pita?

ARIS: It's a traditional Greek pita just we make it with sourdough yeast over here.

So you can see how fluffy are they.

SETH: This will be our utensil for the dish?

ARIS: Yes.

So now I think we are ready to cook.

So the next step is to take the lamb, put in the oven for around 15 to 20 minutes.

Then we're going to cook the sourdough pita bread over the flat top with some olive oil, give it a nice golden color and make it crispy.

And then we're going to sprinkle a little of chives and parsley leaves and a little bit of extra virgin olive oil on cup.

And then we're going to serve the lamb with some pickle onions, tzatziki, and crisp potatoes.

And then we're going to enjoy the lamb kleftiko together.

SETH: Chef, this is such a colorful spread.

So we're using the pita as our utensil here, right?

ARIS: Yeah.

You can use the pita as a utensil to make small sandwiches or you can just cut small pieces from the pita and enjoy it the way you want.

SETH: I think I'm going to start with some pure lamb here.

Is this just going to fall right apart?

ARIS: Yes, that's for sure.

SETH: All right.

Oh, so this is a pocketless pita?

ARIS: Yeah, yeah.

SETH: That's the Greek way.

ARIS: That's a Greek way.

SETH: Okay, let me try a little bit of this.

Sometimes there's just not much you can say.

The way all those flavors melded together in that parchment, and there's such a nice smokiness to the dish, as well.

I like to think my blowtorching had a little to do with how well that turned out.

ARIS: For sure.

SETH: But just incredible flavor on that lamb there.

And so what's your preferred bite?

ARIS: My preferred bite, I would go more on the traditional way so we can spread out a little tzatziki over here, take a little bit of the lamb.

SETH: Oh, the cheese, too, of course.

ARIS: Cheese, peppers, and the tomatoes.

SETH: So it's like making your own little souvlaki sandwich.

ARIS: Exactly.

And then you can just wrap it up to have a bite.

SETH: That might be the traditional way, but I want to try mixing and matching just a little bit here.

And these pickled onions are going to really help cut the fattiness of the lamb, as well, right?

ARIS: Right.

The pickled onions that we add on the dish and the tzatziki has lemon and ginger inside, gives some acidity to cut up the fattiness of the lamb.

SETH: A little extra zest.

ARIS: Exactly.

SETH: This communal way of eating, this is very much a big part of Greek culture and cuisine, right?

ARIS: That's true.

To share nice food, nice wines with friends and family in Greece, it's one of the big things on our culture and our hospitality.

SETH: Well, Chef, it was a real treat to watch how you put this together.

I don't think the Ancient Greek goat thieves would've ever been able to pull off a spread like this.

Well done.

ARIS: Thank you very much.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ANNOUNCER: To find out more about great food in the Washington Metro area, visit weta.org/signaturedish.