Lamb Wednesday

During my last visit to Pappou, a diner in Parma run by a Greek family, I noticed a chalkboard advertising lamb dinners each Wednesday through summer. Dinners at Pappou come with salad and soup bar. On this evening, the soups were chicken dumpling and cabbage bacon soups.

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Between the two lamb dinners offered, I selected the roast leg of lamb ($9.99) with tomato sauce made with artichokes and fava beans apparently grown from their garden. Fava beans! I'm sure most people visualize Anthony Hopkins when they think of fava beans.

It was around two years ago when tomato-base sauces, a staple in my diet, was phased out almost completely when I nearly ceased eating pasta. The Mediterranean flavor of the accompanying sauce was fine, but for this stomach and palate now unaccustomed to tomato sauces, the bowl of red with artichokes was too acidic for me. Of course, I poked around and ate the fava beans -- what sold me on ordering this over the other lamb dish. 

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The oven baked potatoes wedges were slightly overdone. Along with rosemary, the potatoes were baked with some kind of acid, e.g., vinegar, lemon, that lent a pleasing tang. I don't recall having potatoes prepared this way.

While we prefer our food less cooked through, the wait staff at this diner is almost always friendly and the price is very affordable, so we find ourselves returning at least monthly. The menu is varied from Greek, Mediterranean, American, and deli sandwiches, so there is something on the menu to eat for practically anyone.

- Cassaendra

Pappou
8320 Snow Rd
Cleveland, OH 44129
Tel: (440) 888-9644