The Power of Rediscovering Your Neighborhood

The pandemic has shrunk our worlds. But it has opened our hearts to the places closest to us.

In the past two months, I have ventured farther than nine blocks from my front door exactly once. I don’t own a car. I’ve been lucky enough to work remotely. And, while friends and colleagues decamped for vacation properties or relatives’ homes, I have been stuck in my Brooklyn apartment.

Except I haven’t felt stuck. As the fear and frustration of living in the global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic settled over New York, a fragile source of joy emerged for me: my own neighborhood.

The Absolute Best

Modern Middle Eastern restaurants are easy to find across New York City these days. But Mimi’s Hummus, which opened here in 2009 before spawning Manhattan outposts, remains one of the best. The hummus, capped with softened chickpeas, spiced, sautéed mushrooms, or a tomato-and-eggplant stew, is ethereally smooth and rich without any lingering heaviness. Other must-tries include the gently caramelized roasted cauliflower with garlicky tahini, and the Iraqi pita, called sabich in Israel, which jumbles fried eggplant, sliced boiled egg and potatoes, shredded cabbage, and dollops of smooth tahini and the tangy pickled mango sauce amba into an overflowing flatbread pocket. Brunch brings several delightful takes on shakshouka, including one that pairs the eggs poached in rich tomato stew with spicy lamb merguez sausage, and another that swaps the familiar tomato base for braised Swiss chard and sheep’s-milk feta.

Brought over from Sephardic Jews from northern Africa, shakshuka has become a staple dish in Israeli cuisine—and a brunch favorite at restaurants, Middle Eastern and otherwise, across the U.S. In the dish, a rich tomato saucespiced with cumin and cinnamon serves as the base for poaching eggs until they’re just set. Here, Mimi Kitani of the beloved Mimi’s Hummus in NYC offers her recipe, which she serves at the restaurant with house-made pita.

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