+Christine Dalessio and +Stacey Rothrock Steinfeld tried out a restaurant on Wednesday that billed itself as "Lebanese Fusion Cuisine." Among the drinks advertised on their menu was "Arabic Mint Tea." Of course, I had to try it.
My former favorite restaurant, Pamir, now unfortunately closed, had an excellent mint tea drink made from a good black tea with extra muddled mint that had to be strained off unless you wanted mint leaves in your teeth for three days. This "Arabic Mint Tea" did not live up to that.
It was good, don't get me wrong, but its potential to be so much better made it disappointing. First of all, the base for the tea was regular old off-the-shelf Lipton black, which nearly made me cry right in the restaurant. Rather than muddling the mint, they stuck a mint sprig the size of my hand in with the tea bag, and then added hot water. While I love mint well enough that it was a nice drink on a cold, damp night, it could have been done so much better with a decent black tea. Muddling the mint in the glass (like they do for mojitos) would have enhanced the mint flavor far more than just dumping half a mint plant into a mug.
For those curious, the restaurant in question was La'Mezza in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. The appetizers were better than the entrees, and the menu was smallish. Of the last two "not-Pamir" restaurants we've tried, this one is very much in second place.
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