Outsourced & Zatar

Last Saturday, while I was all grumpy and crisis-of-faithy after picking up the newspaper at breakfast (note to self, funnies only from now on), we decided it would be fun to go to Berkeley to see a nice romantic comedy. You know what? It was! We went to see Outsourced, which isn’t playing yet out in the ‘burbs, hence the driving in to Berkeley.

Outsourced is the story of Todd (aka, Mr. Toad), a call-center manager in Seattle who learns that his call center is going to be closed down, and he must go to India to get the new call-center up and running, as well as to train his replacement. He’s not really keen on the idea, but he wants to keep his job long enough to have the opportunity to vest his stock options, so he does as he is told.

It’s a romantic comedy, so of course he meets a lovely woman, Asha, who opens his eyes to a bit more about Indian culture, as well as helping him to learn more about himself.

I liked the film..it wasn’t full of the same ‘fish out of water’ type gags that you expect when one goes from one culture to another, though there were a few. It didn’t make him look like a big asshole for being American, and it didn’t make the Indians look like simple idiots for not being American. Neither were they sage and wise. They were just people. It was a lovely antidote for what was ailing me. So, if you’re in the mood for a light movie this weekend, pick yourself up, and go see Outsourced. 🙂

Update:  I didn’t realize this about the film, but it is being distributed and sold without a distributor.  That means an extremely limited release in theaters, and the DVD won’t be available via Netflix or Amazon, solely through the film’s website, here.

After the movie, we decided to try a restaurant that we saw on a local PBS show, Check Please, Bay Area. (This link takes you to the reviews for the restaurant from the show.)  Check Please is a homey little show, where people nominate their favorite restaurants to be reviewed. If you are chosen, you go to three restaurants…the one you selected, and those selected by two other participants. You then go on the show, sit around with a glass of wine, and talk about what you liked and didn’t like about each restaurant. It’s pretty groovy. The restaurant we went to was Zatar (restaurant info from Check Please page), a Mediterranean restaurant a few blocks from the movie theater. The food here was SO GOOD, and I’m glad I’m not a vegetarian, because their lamb was to die for. We also had their Mezza sampler, which included Lebna Bil Kusa, Mohamara, and Hummus. Lebna Bil Kusa is a Spread of House-Made Yogurt with Roasted Summer Squash, Sesame & cumin; Mohamara is a Spread of Pomegranate, Roasted Red Peppers & Walnuts, and was our favorite of the spreads. We also had the Vegetarian Moussaka, which was very yummy, though I think perhaps I’m going to try to make a lamb Mousakka sometime soon, because I remember having it once, and it being really good. Everything was flavorful, well presented, and overall yummy.

The owners of the restaurant are the chef and his wife, who runs the front of the house. They maintain their own garden, from which they harvest most of the produce for the restaurant. They are big proponents of organic, sustainable farming, and what they don’t grow themselves, they purchase from local, organic farms. They also have chickens that they use for eggs, and they feed the chickens much of the scraps from the restaurant, which means that there isn’t much waste. The meat is all top of the line Nieman Ranch stuff. The result is that their food is perhaps more expensive than the huge factory-farmed stuff, but it tastes much better, and is better for you.

The two things I didn’t like about Zatar (restaurant website) were that they are cash only, which can be hard to plan for if you haven’t been before (hint, bring plenty, it ain’t cheap), and it’s a very small room. They fill up pretty quickly, and they don’t take reservations for small groups, which means lots of people standing around waiting in a small space, and a line outside. They open at 5:30, and we got there at 5:40, and the restaurant was already over half full. By 6:00, it was SRO. There are only two waitresses, so since everyone came in at once, it took them awhile to get to us with menus, water, and bread. We were almost ready to leave, in fact. Once they got to us, though, everything was friendly and fast and wonderful. So, bring your cash and a bit of patience, and you’ll have a great time.