For years now, Aladdin has been serving delicious and authentic Mediterranean cuisine at their restaurant located on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard. Thousands of people have joined them for food and friendship over the years.

Aladdin is an important part of San Diego’s community and has made it very popular. Thanks to the popularity of Aladdin Café, the same people who have brought you delicious food at their first location will now be opening a second restaurant. This is a huge opportunity and presents a wonderful chance to let even more people experience the joy of delicious, high-quality Mediterranean food.

Introducing Zytoun Gourmet Mediterranean
Zytoun Gourmet Mediterranean will be opening up in Seaport Village, starting in mid-February. San Diego has been working hard to renovate Seaport Village, with over two million dollars spent on the restoration process and Aladdin is excited for the opportunity to be a part of it.

The boardwalk has become a bustling hub of activity, with the focus on local food and small business. Effort has been made by the city to encourage small, local businesses to join the boardwalk, and the owner of Aladdan’s café has answered with a brand-new restaurant.

The new location will be in the Carousel district, along the boardwalk, with ample patio space to enjoy the view of the San Diego Bay while enjoying the delicious cuisine. Zytoun is quite close to the historical Carousel, allowing those walking around to enjoy the area a chance to see both.

Although it has a different name and a different location, you can expect the same great food from Zytoun that you have come to expect from Aladdin over the last 30+ years.

What to Expect
Zytoun will be featuring Kabobs, hummus and falafel among the many different foods at their new location. If you’ve ever been to the Aladdin, you have a good idea of what awaits you at the our new location.

Although the location is new, it’s important to understand that the quality of the food is not. All of the same high-quality ingredients will be used at the new location.

In previous posts, we looked at two classic ingredients in Mediterranean food: Olives and Olive Oil. Yet Mediterranean food is filled with a bounty of classic, flavorful ingredients. Today, we will look at another important ingredient to Mediterranean cuisine, feta cheese.

Feta cheese is an ingredient that has become a global phenomenon, but did you know it was once only made in a few specific regions of Greece?
Feta is the oldest known cheese, with the first mention of it as far back in time as Homer’s Odyssey. In one of the oldest fictions in the world, the cyclops Polyphemus is seen with a herd of sheep, making feta cheese.

The details on how it is made are shared in the story, not only confirming it was made by ancient Greeks at the time, but how important the cheese was at the time.

How It’s Made
Feta Cheese is made by heating sheep milk (or sometimes sheep mixed with goat milk) with rennet to curdle it into a cheese. The curd is then separated from the whey and left in barrels, tins, or other vessels to brine in a salt solution.
The result is a crumbly white cheese that is finished relatively quickly compared to other cheese that need to age.
Feta has a protected status and can only be called Feta if it was created with traditional methods in Greece.

How It’s Used
With Feta Cheese being written about as early as the 7th century, it’s no surprise that many great dishes have arisen from it. The people of Greece, and others around the world too, have had plenty of time to experiment with this cheese and turn it into amazing dishes.
Feta cheese is used in a variety of dishes, sprinkled in as a vegetarian alternative to meat in Gyros, crumbled over salads, and baked into famous dishes like Spanakopita.

Nutritional Benefits
Like almost all the ingredients in Mediterranean cooking, feta has a wealth of nutritional benefits. They are lower in calories than other cheeses such as cheddar, but provide calcium, vitamin B12, and many other vitamins and minerals.
Feta cheese may support bone health, and also may improve digestive health. It may also help with vitamin absorption and weight management.
Between all of these nutritional benefits, it is no wonder Feta is a part of the Mediterranean diet.

Tasty, Nutritious Ingredient
The Mediterranean diet is well known for being particularly healthy. It’s little surprise then that the ingredients that make it up all seem to be a powerhouse of nutrition in different ways. This incredible cheese has been providing Greek citizens health benefits since the ancient times, and is now available around the world for everyone to enjoy.
The next time you tuck into a Greek Salad or a beautiful Spanakopita, take a moment to appreciate the delicious Feta accenting your food. It’s truly an amazing ingredient, rich with history, and thousands of years of knowledge went into those delicious bites your craving.

At Aladdin Cafe, we love a good meal and enjoy seeing others savoring Middle Eastern food and vegan food. We also understand the benefits of eating healthy.

Managing a healthy diet isn’t about limiting food or staying thin. It’s balancing that pizza with foods that maximize energy, improve mood and minimize health risk. What we eat has a significant influence on not just our physical but our emotional and mental well being.

Healthy choices doesn’t necessarily mean giving up foods. It means being aware of what goes in our bodies. We know it’s not as easy as it sounds. We love to eat as much as the next guy. But we also think about healthy eating, such as adding one salad a day to our diet. You’ll find once you get in the habit of making healthy choices, you’ll see the results and be more conscious of making healthy choices.

Here are a few tips to help with that.

Get in the habit of reading labels. Manufacturers know most consumers don’t. Consumers have no idea of the huge amounts of sugar and unhealthy fats these companies put into packaged foods.
Eat more foods with fewer trans fats. It doesn’t always have to be fried chicken. From time to time, go with grilled fish seasoned to taste. Be aware of the refined carbs you ingest. These are infamous contributors to risks like heart disease and so many of us consume them beyond healthy boundaries.

We spend too much time concerned with calories, obsessively counting them to the decimal point so that we can eat a donut. We’ve come to believe that’s healthy, when truthfully, denying ourselves regular portions of food isn’t always the best option if you haven’t been advised by a doctor. Instead of counting calories, simply make healthier choices. Look at foods in terms of variety, freshness and color. Avoid processed and packaged foods.
This cannot be stressed enough: drink water. Water is natural and flushes the system of all the toxins and waste that otherwise gestate. Low energy, headaches and consistent lethargy can be symptoms of dehydration. On top of this, many people often see thirst as hunger and end up eating unnecessarily. If you find yourself hungry — especially if you’ve eaten within the last two hours — drink a glass of water and see if the desire passes.

Be aware of your mood after you eat. Consumption of junk food might feel satisfying, but it can drain you of energy and make you uncomfortable and nauseous. Healthy foods won’t do this. Aladdin Cafe is all about healthy, fresh and premium quality meals. Whenever you eat with us, you make a healthy choice.