New Zealand will always be one of my favorite place to travel to. My family has a small holiday home in
Queenstown that is nestled away in the countryside. The five of us used to travel there either during our summer or winter holidays and would have the time of our lives. It was our home away from home with everlasting memories and moments that makes my stomach swirl whenever I reminisce about them. It is the place that bonded my family together whether we were learning how to ski, playing golf, wining and cheesing, bundling up altogether in a tiny space, jumping on a trampoline or even playing a game of tennis.
On average, New Zealand has about 40 million sheep. That means there are 13 times more sheep than people!
Consequently, I fell in love with sheep...literally SHEEPSESSED and would beg my parents to buy me sheep everything! My birthday is on December 31st so every winter break that we spent over there, my family would run around Queenstown buying me - sheepskin pillows, pajamas, posters, stuffed animals, etc.
So obviously I never ate lamb. Refused and refused and refused... until a few years ago when I got a teeny bit curious...
Tried it, hated it. It had a bizzare stench and taste. Turned it down everytime it was offered to me again.
Then I moved to DC for college and began to eat a lot of Mediterranean food as kabobs, gyros, falafels, hummus, etc are all very popular here - except I made sure to stay away from the lamb. After my friends noticed my new-found love for kabobs, they told me about an amazing restaurant in Arlington, Virginia called
Ravi Kabobs. We went and they made me order the lamb kabobs which are apparently to die for. I was nervous and pretty certain I would find them repulsive. To my surprise, they blew my mind and tasted DELICIOUS. There was neither a sewagy-moldy-rotten odor nor taste!
Ever since then I have been hooked on lamb. In the past when I imagined lamb, I'd picture cute baby sheep running around in the countryside in New Zealand.
Now I picture a skewer or chop of lamb sizzling on a plate marinated in a spicy blend of herbs!
Ever since my trip to
Ravi Kabobs, I have always picked lamb over any other meat on the menu and scoffed it down like there was no tomorrow! I even started making my own lamb:
Yesterday I woke up craving the kabobs from
Ravi Kabobs. So a friend and I drove down there and enjoyed our delicious meal. The lamb and chicken kabobs come with rice, a huge hot and soft pita and a side of lentils. The entire meal is unbelievably satisfying.
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| Lamb Kabob meal at Ravi Kabobs |
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| Chicken Kabob meal at Ravi Kabobs (also amazing) |
The restaurant is a casual, inexpensive and conservative place that has won the "Washingtonian Best Bargain Restaurant Award" since 2006.
The restaurant has been so successful so they had to open another restaurant across the street called Ravi Kabob II !
The address of Ravi Kabob I is:
305 N. Glebe Road, Arlington, VA, 22203.
The address of Ravi Kabob II is:
250 N. Glebe Road, Arlington, VA, 22203.
If you love lamb or even hate lamb, trust me and head down to
Ravi Kabobs!
it's always interesting how palates change as we grow older
ReplyDeleteplus i always love hole-in-the-wall type recommendations -- looks like this is a good place!
This place sounds fantastic! By any chance is the lamb dish known as shwarma? If not, you have to try Middle Eastern shwarma. It is an incredible (almost always) lamb dish.
ReplyDelete@Scottbacker - Nope, its not a shawarma, thats meat that is grilled on a spit. That's really good too! Their is a good restaurant in Georgetown that sells them though - George's King of Falafel.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me sad. I am sad you no longer think the cute wallace and grommit sheep is cute enough to stop eating. Kidding. But it is interesting trying to divorce cute fuzzy animals from food. I get wierd about veal.
ReplyDelete