Kashkaval - Cheeses of the Orient

Kashkaval on 9th Ave. near 55th St. serves up food from a fuzzy-bordered region I associate with warlords, vampires, and olympic strongmen.   The word Kashkaval, in fact, is a kind of cheddar-like cheese found in Bulgaria, Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Romania.  I know because I googled it.

More to the point, I just wanted a quick, non-committal, ethnic lunch in the bleak Hell's Kitchen neighborhood...and their bar/counter service looked just right.




It's got an authentic shoppe window and awning...and plenty of glass cases inside to showcase an army of cheeses and bowls of "Mediterranean" salads and smearables.

Lots of variety on the menu. You've got a fondue page, a "choose 1/4/5/6 salads" concept page, a cheese/charcuterie page, and a page, well, with Caesar salad.  My explanation - Caesar made it as far as Bulgaria, and brought his salad recipe to the anchovy-curious hordes.

 

When in doubt, kebabs offer safety to anyone who 1) isn't vegetarian, and 2) is too cool for Caesar.

Below let me demo the appetizing layouts of the food plates.  I started with a quad-salad assortment (dolma, curried cauliflower, baked gigandes beans, and babaganouj (aka smoky eggplant spread)).  

Because I wanted to try some meat, I also got a starter of chorizo.  This chorizo wasn't the usual ground up snozzage...it was more like cured meat slices with flecks of extra fat.  Fascinating!

As I was walking out, I roused the sole waitress up from her early dinner at a back table to get me a rugelach from the glass jar for my dessert.  They looked so tempting piled up by the cash register.

Here it is after one bite to reveal the guts, but before the coup d-etat that finished it off:

So the food looked good...but how did it taste?

Salads were decent, but not "wow".  Kind of pasty and flavorless.  The breads - both whole wheat pita slices and baguette rounds - were notably better.

Chorizo looked healthier than your average sausage, but also tasted healthier.  It was dry.

The rugelach was a master of disguise, looking like the most buttery-overstuffed chewy delicacy.  But it was a letdown...too sweet and crumbly.  I like rugelach that resists more when you bite it.  True about a lot of things.

So I award Kashkaval 4 bellies out of 10.  Nice pre-hipster old time atmosphere, but totally forgettable food.  Too many countries in the kitchen.