Beyti

My first adventure to Brighton Beach!  I've known Brighton Beach to be a Russian neighborhood - and we certainly saw Russian establishments in the area - but as we discovered, there is also a large Turkish population in the southern tip of Brooklyn.  I have only had good Turkish food (in fact, I sort of believe you can't go wrong with Turkish food) and our trip to a small kebab place called Beyti confirmed my theory.

Beyti definitely looks like a local favorite.  The sweet smell of roasting meat hits you when you first walk in.  The people working there probably don't speak the best English.  People were walking in shirtless from the nearby beach and boardwalk.  Sanitary?  Probably not.  But gladly it didn't take away from the food.

We shared a large mixed appetizer platter and a mixed meat entree.  The mixed appetizer platter was great: a big dollop each of a mint yogurt sauce (think tzatziki), hummus, babaghanoush, chopped eggplant, whole roasted eggplant, something with beans and potato chunks, and an herb/tomato salad.  We happily scooped up each dollop into pita bread. My favorite was definitely the mint yogurt sauce.  It was tangy, but also had some deeper zesty-garlicky kick.  Reminds me of when I was in London and shopped at Tesco; I used to buy tubs of tzatziki and spread it straight on crackers for a snack.

The meat platter was a beautiful artist's palate of grilled meats in all different forms: slices off the gyro, chunks off kebab skewers, and a whole lamb chop.  There was also fluorescent purple cabbage slaw, rice pilaf, and salad.  Oddly, though I'm not a huge fan of plain white Asian rice, I love rice pilaf.  Love.  Something about it just tastes better.  I mean, it's not hard to beat the taste of white rice, which tastes like nada.  Rice pilaf seems like the equivalent of cooking white rice in a more rich, flavorful broth or something.  Together, the meat and the sides were great.  Everything was well-flavored but not too salty or overwhelming.

Again, I have yet to go wrong with Turkish food and our dinner at Beyti just hit the spot perfectly.