Aladdin's Genie in a Platter

Eating ice cream from a pink spoon makes it taste better. And food on a platter is better than food on a plate.

The “Genie in a Platter” ($11.99) at Aladdin Mediterranean Cuisine is a vegetarian feast. The contents vary a little from visit to visit, but there are always roughly a dozen items. The outer ring of the platter is covered with salads — tabouli, lentil and cucumber — along with hummus and baba ghanoush. In the middle of the platter, there’s a mountain of rice topped off with a crown of fried cauliflower and lemony potatoes. All of this comes with a basket of warm pita, fresh from the brick oven. It’s a Texan maxim made Lebanese: More food means more enjoyment (at least in the first 20 minutes, before your stomach begins to hurt).