I have only been to Ali Baba's once during my time in Morgantown. I don't remember much of the visit, except it was with one of my best friends who is no longer with us. I'm also pretty sure I wrote about it for the newspaper. (Edit: I did, three years ago)

It's located in the airport - not beside it - IN the actual airport. So you drive and park in the passenger area. It's odd to see the lack of security around the airport and whatnot. You enter the building and go up to the second level and follow the signs. It's like a miniature abandoned airport. There was no one around when my friend Mel and I first walked in, and we were essentially walking through empty terminals. It was strange. But then I saw a flashing sign reading "Ali Baba's," and suddenly this building was re-energized.


The large dining room is draping in beautiful reds, golds and greens. Some interesting lighting fixtures and draping make this a warm, inviting environment. Our server came over, menus in tow, to welcome us. I had a good idea of what I wanted from looking at their website, but I continued to narrow down my choices. I was immediately drawn to the Ali Baba specialties, of course. One of which was spinach lasagna. Interesting - lasagna at a Mediterranean restaurant? But it was a specialty. I was too curious to not try it. It came with a salad - a Mediterranean salad: hummus, baba ghannouj, tabbouleh, or tahini. I opted for the hummus. But I needed some more Mediterranean flavor, so I ordered an appetizer of samboosas, too.

After a few minutes, we were greeted with two small plates - hummus for me and baba ghannouj for Mel. I'm pretty picky with my hummus, as I feel like it's just usually bland and strong. But I really enjoyed this hummus - the flavors were more subtle. The little kalmata olive on the top was also a nice touch. The texture of the mashed chickpeas was like whipped or pureed, and it's blended with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic. Served with pita bread, I ate my entire serving.


Shortly thereafter came our entrees. Mel got a kabob, and I got my lasagna - layers of pasta stuffed with spinach, onions and ricotta cheese, topped with marinara sauce and provolone cheese for $12.95. It tasted straight-up Italian, but I did love it. It was a large chunk, creamy, with a pretty flavorful sauce. I was impressed. I also tasted Mel's kabob - which was grilled chicken. I love that grilled, slightly smokey taste. Yum.

I asked our server where the samboosas were, and he went to check on them. Apparently there was some miscommunication, but they came out a few minutes later. I didn't mind eating them alongside my entree anyway. The samboosas were mega greasy (I soaked them in my napkin), but after that, the crispy fried thin pastry was delicious, stuffed full of the spicy meat and onion mixture. It came with a yogurt dipping sauce. Delicious!

For dessert, it was knafa - shredded dough stuffed with a mixture of sweetened ricotta cheese. Baked. Goodness. I love ricotta, so I was probably already sold on this one. But I like the depth of this dish. It was creamy, warm, gooey, creamy .. all those other words that make you say "mmm." Our waiter even gave us dessert on the house - most likely because the samboosas came out late. So I only paid around $20 for my meal.

If it's not along your main route, take a detour one evening. It'll be worth it. Oh, and we got to see airplanes taking off and landing right from our table. How awesome! I can't wait to get home and have my leftovers after this.

Grade: A

Arts Alive on the River Festival was last weekend, and I went with a couple friends to check it out. They had everything from live shows to jewelry vendors to wineries and - of course - food. I purchased a small "tweezer" from Allegheny Treenware, which I plan to use as chopsticks. And of course I got some food.

I didn't buy a glass because I didn't really have the time, but the wineries were:

• Vu  Ja De Vinyards
• Heston Farms Winery
• Kirkwood Winery
• West-Whitehill Winery
• Kenco Farms Meadery

Breweries:

• Yuengling
• Morgantown Brewing Company
• Mountain State Brewing Company
• Bridge Brew Works
• North End Tavern and Brewery

Lots of other great vendors were there - especially the local food places: Zul's Lemonade, 123 Pleasant Street (I didn't even know they did food - I need to stop there whenever they're cooking again), Chico's Fat Burritos, Richwood Grill, Yellow Submarine Sandwich Corp., and Jersey's Subs.

I got a lemonade from Zul's, a lemonade truck. I got a strawberry-flavored one. It was sticky sweet in the hot sun and huge. Yum!

I looked around at all the vendors - I actually need to review Chico's and Jersey's, but my first thought was to try the Yellow Submarine Sandwich because 1) it was in a bus and 2) the other places I can get year-round. However, looking at their menu was like looking in my refrigerator - just bunches of sandwiches alternating meats and toppings. Nothing too exciting here. Lunch meat, cheese, bread, check.


So I looked around. Richwood Grill looked to have some awesome stuff, but I had just been there. 123 also looked like they had a cool burger, and I'm not sure when I'll get to eat there because I don't believe they serve food all the time. But, they only had one or two items. Jersey's just had their cheesesteak, which I'll get at some point. But Chico's had the most expansive menu. I need to review them, as well. But their menu was amazing - things like chips and guacamole or queso, of course. But also things like their quesadilla - sweet/spicy marinated roast pork, jack cheese, green onions, served with guac and sour cream. Deep fried Mexican Mac & Cheese with smokey chipotle tomato sauce. It took some willpower to ignore that one. And their fish tacos - panko encrusted tilapia, baja slaw, jalapeno creme fraiche. The last one sold me. It was so tasty, too. Yes, the fish was like deep fried, and the slaw lacked some depth, but the combo of the crispy panko breading and the creme fraiche was great. It was tiny, and I was still starving. I should've gotten more than one. If this is any indication of what their restaurant is like, I can't wait to review it.


For dessert, we headed over to  Chocolate Occasions, based out of Virginia, to get our sweet fix. They had lots of little packaged up chocolates. But the chocolate-covered pretzel was first on my list. For only $1, I grabbed it up. It melted almost instantaneously, but I shoved it in my mouth and enjoyed the Belgian chocolately delight. Not too bad.

As you can see from the photos, lots of hippie types here. But it was awesome to see the local culture showcased. I loved seeing the local artisans, performers and all the vendors. It was fun. I wish we had events like that more often. I spent less than $20 overall, and I even had some left over. I call that a success.

I'm not going to review Sweet Frog, per se, because it is a chain with restaurants located across 15 states. However, I do want to touch on it just because it is new to town, and I went there for the first time recently.

It's located at the Univeristy Towne Centre between PetCo and Target. It's Fro-yo, just like Naticakes, and has about 20 flavors. The atmosphere is fun and bright. It's all self-serve, so I picked up a cup from the end, filled it with a combination of Milky Way and Dulche De Leche and moved toward the toppings bar. The toppings seem to be endless, with everything from fruit and gummy bears to Reese cups and hot caramel. I chose the latter, of course. The price is based on weight, which is probably less than $5 for the small cup.


I have to say, I really enjoyed my yogurt. Between the hot caramel, cookie dough bites, Butterfinger, Reese and M&Ms, it's hard to not like this. Had I given it a rating, it probably would've been an A, but I am not doing that for a place like this.

One thing that did leave a sour taste in my mouth was their religious associations. Not that I'm against religion, I just don't want it shoved down my throat along with my fro-yo. The workers had on "Forever Rely On God" shirts. Guess that's what FROG stands for. I did like my dessert I made, but I think my money will go toward the local economy.

Sweet Frog is open Monday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. and Sunday noon to 9 p.m. For more information on Sweet Frog, visit its website at www.sweetfrogyogurt.com.

I'm not a cooking maestro. We all know this. I have, however, been getting better. Some of the creations I make myself I even post on my Tumblr (which is rare), but something about making sushi just seemed too fun to pass up. My friends, Kaitlynn and Josh, make sushi regularly. I convinced them to let me in on their all-knowing ways and learn a little bit.

This may not be the most authentic or "correct" way to make sushi, but we sure had fun doing it. We bought a huge fillet of salmon and a huge package of crab meat at Sam's Club. Josh cut up the fish, and Kaitlynn and I started making our maki.

We had these bamboo mats that we put plastic wrap on top of. Then, we put a layer of seaweed and layered the rice (Which had been cooked with rice vinegar) then any ingredients we wanted. Most of mine contained crab meat, cream cheese and avocado.

My rolls weren't always the tightest, but it's an art to perfect.

I kept seeing Tanner's Tavern mentioned around town. I saw some people rating it fairly highly, and I also saw an ad in the Morgantown Menu Guide, but I never actually saw the physical building.

It's a little out of the way for me, as it's near the end of Sabraton. But once you turn onto Listravia Avenue, it's pretty much right there. There was a makeshift gravel parking lot across from the building. A few Harleys were parked out front, so I was excited to check this place out.

The place still smells of musty cigarette smoke, but it was nice and cool on this hot summer day. The bar was full with some middle-aged bikers. We took a seat at a booth and looked over the menus at our table. There were TVs all around, including at our own table, which were showing some sports.

I noticed the boasted their BBQ on the menu. It has typical pub fare, like sandwiches, fried appetizers and wings, but the BBQ definitely caught my eye. I ordered up the pulled pork and got onion rings on the side. The man working there was awesome - down-to-earth, honest, fun, helpful. He told us what he liked there and even talked a little bit about where they got the food.

I think we were the only ones eating, so our food was out very quickly. I was surprised at how huge these sandwiches were. Mine had a huge, steamed bun that housed a ton of juicy pulled pork. The BBQ was indeed fantabulous. It was tangy, but sweet and plentiful. Boy was there a ton. And it was all delicious, no bite was gritty or fatty. It was all perfect.

The slaw wasn't as crisp as I would have preferred, but the onion rings were fantastic. Crispy on the outside and smooth on the inside. I dipped mine in a side of ranch. And usually when you get onion rings, you get a handful. I had more than a dozen. And they were manageable - not like gigantic ones.

I was so pleasantly surprised by the food and service, and hey, I liked the atmosphere, too. I can get down with the bikers. Everyone was friendly, and the man working even waved by to me as I was leaving. This hidden gem will surprise you.

Grade: A