Habibi, Habibi El Nour Al Ayenee (My Love, My Love, The Light of My Eyes)

And now the elder sibling, The Fisherman and I visit Habibi, just one block north of Souk. Seeing as they are related to each other, naturally we had to compare and contrast.

What I like about Habibi, which is also more of a grab and go place, like Souk, but there's more space for browsing.

Or if you're me, oggling and trying not to drool on the merchandise. 

From lanterns to prayer beads, tea, tea implements, spices, pantry items, to frozen yummies, there's a little of everything in Habibi, including Shark, which I think is a halal Spam. Seeing as Spam makes me nervous as it is, it's holier cousin made me more uneasy.

We ordered falafel for The Fisherman to try, shwarma, and lahmajun, a pizza The Fisherman could get behind.

The falafel was good, not great. I think coming in "late" on a Friday might have been the culprit. As they say, "Fresh is best." Note to self, work on fantastic falafel recipe and get frying.

The shwarma was good. It probably would be better earlier in the day, as was the lahmajun.

The lahmajun, heavy on the meat and onions, light on the tomatoes, was a favorite of The Fisherman.

Overall, I love the amount of stuff they have here if you wanted to make anything at home (sumac, anyone?) but I was a little disappointed about our food. I mean, this is what we get at 8 o'clock on a Friday in Sunnyside, a spillover of youngsters like myself from Astoria and LIC? *sigh*

Maybe Souk's stuff was better because it's new and I also haven't had good Middle Eastern food in ages. Maybe Souk is more of a Middle Eastern deli, with spreads, dolma, and other fixings available, along with some ingredient type things to purchase, whereas Habibi seems to be more of a store with an eatery on the side. Either way, it beats a schlep to Brooklyn, it's a little bit different than Astoria, and it motivates me to go earlier, perhaps after work. 

Next up: Korean Fried Chicken so good the skin shatters with r0xx0r! I'll write about my experience at Kyedong in, where else, Flushing. Until then, mangia!