"To create the time-tripping, border-crossing menu at Aalia, Paul Farag drew inspiration from 600 recipes in a 10th-century Baghdadi cookbook, but also his Egyptian father’s eggplant mes’a’aha. Some of Farag’s references are more than 1,000 years old, but his ideas are inspired and ultramodern, like shrinking a bowl of fattoush salad onto a cracker, or offering a sweet and smoky dip of buffalo labneh and beetroot molasses to be eaten with sorrel “cutlery.” Must-try dish: Farag reimagines the classic Aussie Weis Bar as a swirl of whipped coconut cream, fruity sorbet, shredded green mango, and sumac tajin seasoning, all encased in an elaborate wave of brown-butter kataifi pastry." - Lee Tran Lam