Garlic whip is a way of life. It’s a $3 side that goes a long way, like adding zip to the moussaka filled with chickpeas, squash and eggplants cooked down so it almost melts in the tomato sauce. Even though a chicken shawarma pita wrap already comes with a garlic whip, which liquifies from the warmth, add more to pep up a bundle already punching with seasoned meat and pickled turnips. (Garlic whip is sold at farmers markets and in the restaurant, and the family is working on getting it into stores.) Could the black bean hummus get a lift from garlic whip? Sure. And though it’s probably not right to add some to kibbeh niyye—a Lebanese dish of raw lamb mixed with cracked bulgur and adorned with streams of oil, pickled radishes, raw onion slices and lots of mint leaves, which is a cleaner, lighter, version of steak tartare—that garlic whip sure wouldn’t hurt.
Layla’s Lebanese Restaurant
Lebanese | $$
2217 Old Bridge Road, Woodbridge
