Al Foron - Arabic in America

From al foron

One of the things I like best about Al Foron (see my review with pix: http://www.sandiegofoodblog.com/2011/02/al-foron-cultural-magic-of-home-aka.html ), now that I think about it, is its unabashed openness about being Arabic, or related to the Middle East.

Too many restaurants cloak the Middle East, at least in the US, with a vagueness, hoping that Americans will be tricked into thinking the place is actually a Greek place (safe!) rather than an Arabic place (dangerous!).

So we get all kinds of weird attempts at "Mediterranean" food or Mediterranean named restaurants, usually it means ARABIC FOOD everyone, usually heavily Lebanese centric. But nobody knows wtf Mediterranean food is... restaurant owners, just say Arabic and I bet, like Al Foron, if you are real with yourself, you'll have a hit on your hands.

Unless you are really providing Cypriot, Turkish, Egyptian, Sicilian, Tunisian, Greek, Moroccan, Israeli, Syrian, French and Spanish food, please just say what you are.

I wish Arabic places would stop having Gyros too, leave that for the malls.

Kudos to Al Foron, who doesn't even translate the Arabic word for "oven" in its name.

It's Al Foron, if you don't know what it means, look it up, and it's ARABIC! And its sign is written in Arabic!

Believe that. Go eat there and see.