{"id":258707,"date":"2019-09-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/the-fantastic-rise-of-alforon-2\/"},"modified":"2019-09-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T07:00:00","slug":"the-fantastic-rise-of-alforon-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/the-fantastic-rise-of-alforon-2\/","title":{"rendered":"El fant\u00e1stico ascenso de Alfor\u00f3n"},"content":{"rendered":"

No fue hace mucho tiempo que el eminente restaurante liban\u00e9s de San Diego era solo un punto oscuro en la escena culinaria.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despu\u00e9s de abrir en 2010, Alforon atrajo a peque\u00f1os residentes curiosos del vecindario y estudiantes de la cercana SDSU. Con su fachada no llamativa que apenas parpadeaba desde una peque\u00f1a plaza, el lugar era f\u00e1cil de pasar por alto, y todav\u00eda lo es a pesar de haberse expandido a una tienda contigua desde entonces.<\/span><\/p>\n

Word eventually began spreading about the restaurant\u2019s unique Old World cuisine as well as the owners\u2019 charming front-line style of hospitality. Local food critics picked up on the buzz, and soon after, so did Guy Fieri of the Food Network\u2019s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Dos veces.<\/span><\/p>\n

La primera vez que Fieri llam\u00f3 a la puerta fue en 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I said \u2018no\u2019 to doing the show because we were still too small,” said George Salameh, a native of Lebanon who owns and operates the restaurant with his delightfully outgoing wife, “Sam.”<\/span><\/p>\n

No fue sino hasta el a\u00f1o pasado que Food Network se puso en contacto con Salameh nuevamente. Esta vez, estaba listo. Y las c\u00e1maras empezaron a rodar en julio.<\/span><\/p>\n

El segmento (temporada 30, episodio siete) ya se emiti\u00f3 un par de veces y seguramente se repetir\u00e1 durante el pr\u00f3ximo a\u00f1o. Hasta el momento, ha dado como resultado un aumento en el negocio de 20%, seg\u00fan Salameh, cuyos elogios tambi\u00e9n incluyen numerosas rese\u00f1as enmarcadas y art\u00edculos escritos en las paredes por medios impresos locales y nacionales.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despu\u00e9s de comer aqu\u00ed en tres ocasiones diferentes, entiendo completamente el alboroto.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, I most recently fell madly in love with soujouk flatbread, as did Fieri, who said, “I could eat 100 of these.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The flatbread is one of many hot, puffy discs baked in the alforon (oven) from unbleached “hard” flour with assorted meat toppings and stunning combinations of spices. The recipes are hand-downs from Salameh\u2019s father and grandmother, although they supposedly date back centuries.<\/span><\/p>\n

El soujouk presenta carne de res finamente molida con queso blanco liban\u00e9s. La carne est\u00e1 acentuada con zumaque, fenogreco y toques de chiles rojos. Aunque simple, cada bocado es novedoso y reconfortante.<\/span><\/p>\n

In other visits I tried the “zaatar supreme,” which enlivens the palate with an exotic blend of earthy spices imported from Lebanon. They include wild thyme, sumac and fresh mint. Dollops of soft Kefir cheese add the right touch of creaminess.<\/span><\/p>\n

El pan plano de pollo tawook presenta carne de pechuga picada dentro de pasta de ajo casera, que domina ligeramente las especias que se usan para marinar las aves. Es delicioso, no obstante.<\/span><\/p>\n

El pan plano m\u00e1s delgado de Alforon es el lahm bajeen. Utiliza solo 2.1 onzas de masa que se estira a 10-12 pulgadas. La corteza fina como el papel se convierte en el recipiente para la carne molida salpicada de trozos de tomate y cebolla, adem\u00e1s de chispas de canela y otras especias. Se deshace en la boca y se asienta ligeramente en el est\u00f3mago.<\/span><\/p>\n

No fue hasta hace unos a\u00f1os que Salameh introdujo los kebabs en su men\u00fa ampliado. Ped\u00ed el plato combinado con pollo y filet mignon kebab. Las carnes est\u00e1n marinadas en diferentes especias que no pude identificar; el pollo durante tres d\u00edas y la carne durante la noche.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ambos excitaron las papilas gustativas con el apoyo de un esponjoso arroz basmati, un tomate asado, una cebolla asada, pasta de ajo y una salsa de yogur, pepino y menta, que destaca Salameh.\u00a0<\/span>no es<\/em><\/span>\u00a0tzatziki.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Tzatziki is Greek and it has onions and shallots in the recipe. This doesn\u2019t,” he noted.<\/span><\/p>\n

El men\u00fa se extiende al cordero ouzi; chorizos en cazuela de barro; champi\u00f1ones portobello al horno con queso feta; y excelente hummus casero y baba ghannouj servidos con charcos de aceite de oliva liban\u00e9s de sabor afrutado. (Observe cu\u00e1nto sabor m\u00e1s suave tiene el aceite en comparaci\u00f3n con las variedades de California).<\/span><\/p>\n

There are also six different types of “kibbie,” which are blends of various meats, bulgur wheat, onions and spices shaped into balls that I trust live up to their many raves.<\/span><\/p>\n

For dessert, look no further than the “aaysh essaray.” You won\u2019t find it anywhere else because it\u2019s an original creation by Salameh. Served in large squares, the base is an eggless custard carpeted with crushed pistachios and kissed by nutmeg, cinnamon and a modicum of rosewater.<\/span><\/p>\n

El comedor ampliado de Alforon todav\u00eda se siente tan acogedor e \u00edntimo como el d\u00eda que abri\u00f3. Ofrece un encanto r\u00fastico, casi de estilo medieval, que prepara el escenario para comidas con ra\u00edces hist\u00f3ricas del Medio Oriente.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sin duda, el restaurante es una verdadera joya, pero ya no es un secreto.<\/span><\/p>\n

“People come here from all over \u2014 from North County and South Bay, and all the way from Los Angeles,” said Salameh in preparation for even more fanfare once the Food Network starts randomly re-airing his episode down the road.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2014Frank Sabatini Jr. es el autor de 'Secret San Diego' (ECW Press) y comenz\u00f3 su carrera como escritor local hace m\u00e1s de dos d\u00e9cadas como miembro del personal del ex San Diego Tribune. Puedes localizarlo en<\/em><\/span>fsabatini@san.rr.com<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It wasn\u2019t long ago that San Diego\u2019s eminent Lebanese restaurant was just an obscure blip on the culinary scene. After opening in 2010, Alforon attracted faint trickles of curious neighborhood residents and students from nearby SDSU. With its non-flashy facade barely blinking from a small strip plaza, the place was easy to miss \u2014 and […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":258708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"The fantastic rise of Alforon","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-258707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}