Foods from all over the globe are featured in a new Auburn restaurant.
AUBURN – It’s kind of what you’d expect from a man who was born in Pakistan, has a Sri Lankan father, a Saudi grandfather and wears an Irish claddagh ring as a wedding band.
Ahmed Zahid Hussein is opening Zahly’s International Kitchen Feb. 9. The casual dining restaurant offers a menu that takes a customer all over the world – from Pakistan’s chicken Karahi (chicken breast pieces stir-fried with Pakistani spices, tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, cilantro, lime served with rice) to Mexico’s carne asada breakfast rolls (eggs, cheese, pico-de-gallo and seasoned ground beef rolled in tortillas) to Italy’s linguine (served with clams and tomatoes in a light spiced white wine sauce served with garlic toast) and back again to Maine (three-egg omelet folded with homemade corned beef hash, served with hash brown casserole and toast.)
“I wanted to open a restaurant offering different foods, something unlike anything else in the area,” said Hussein. “I do cook pretty good. Friends have been telling me for 25 years that I should open a restaurant.
“And now I am.”
The recipes are all his own creations, refined over years of feeding friends and family at various functions. The marinade he uses for the Teriyaki beef he serves at Zahly’s is a concoction he perfected over years of Fourth of July outings. The Swedish pancakes (sweet batter folded with fried green apples, sprinkled with confectionery sugar served with maple syrup) are a favorite of his daughter.
In fact, putting together the menu was the easiest part of establishing his business.
A retired builder, Hussein said the idea of opening a restaurant had been noodling around in his brain for about a year when he heard the space occupied by South of the Border on Center Street was available. Already retrofitted as a 40-seat casual dining restaurant and located on the heavily traveled Route 4, the space seemed ideal.
Using his own money, Hussein was able to ready the restaurant for opening in about six weeks. But first he needed to get myriad permits and some of those came with unexpected costs. For instance, he installed a commercial-grade deep fryer and grill to accommodate his menu, but then had to put in a new hood and fire suppression system to the tune of an extra $10,000.
But the annoyances seem to roll off Hussein’s back. It’s clear he’s excited about Zahly’s (a combination of his middle name and his wife, Holly’s, name.)
“The fun part is, I enjoy cooking,” he said.
And he’ll be doing a lot of it. The restaurant will be open seven days a week, serving lunch and breakfast. Hussein said he knows the business will take off once people try his food; when that happens, he’ll consider offering a dinner menu.
But for now, lunch and breakfast will suffice. The prices are modest, ranging from $2.25 for a breakfast roll (eggs cooked with onions, peppers and tomatoes rolled in Pakistani flat fried bread) to $6.95 for mixed grill (a combination of seasoned beef and chicken kebabs served with specialty rice, a Pakistani flat bread and cucumber yogurt sauce.)
Hussein said it’s important to make customers feel they are getting great food for a fair price.
“My wife and I have gone to expensive restaurants and not been satisfied,” he said. “And you spend $80 or $100. Last time it happened, my wife says to me ‘We should have stayed home and you could have cooked.'”
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