Spork on Penn Ave has been a favorite for many years, the kind of place where we celebrated anniversaries and proudly brought out-of-town guests. We were truly stunned by the quality of their new dinner concept, launched less than a month ago. Through a series of carefully orchestrated appetizer bites, multiple small entrées, and desserts, each paired with your choice of alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages, the entire Spork team delivered a unique, elegant and immersive dinner experience. We can hardly wait to see how the chef's tasting menu evolves, especially during the Spork garden season!
How many restaurants serve not only perfectly executed favorites, often with a creative twist, but also inspire you to fall in love with something new? Spork has done all of that. We discovered this chef-owned restaurant, tucked on the corner of Penn Ave. and S. Graham St., in 2018. We happily followed the evolution of the Spork menu, initially focused on charcuterie and shared large and small plates, to a more traditional appetizer, salad, entrée format -- punctuated with small complimentary bites to amuse the mouth (amuse-bouche).
Mosaic Stairway to Dish Osteria: A T&M Pittsburgh Steps & Dine Hike
February 28, 2024
Pittsburgh is known as the City of Bridges, but it also qualifies as the Steps Capital of North America with more than 800 public staircases. Over the past decade, Pittsburgh has become a foodie destination, with its many restaurants and pop-ups. My husband and dog (T&M) have been exploring and mapping out loop hikes of all different lengths and elevations, often walking past fantastic restaurants such as Dish Osteria. One sunny, winter afternoon, it all came together in a 3.3 mile Pittsburgh steps hike ending with amazing pasta, drinks and conversation.
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Melia leading the way up the Mosaic portion of Oakley on our summer explorations of South Side steps |
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Continuing up Oakley St. Steps on our winter Steps & Dine hike |
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Dish Osteria - Rigatoni alla Scamorza |
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Summer View from St. Thomas Steps |
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St. Josephat Church on Mission |
Discovering the joys of urban hikes
After we moved from the suburbs into the city of Pittsburgh, we were happy to ditch the car on a more regular basis due to our new proximity to walking, biking, shopping and kayaking routes. My husband and chow chow spent countless hours exploring new urban hikes to replace their forays through the mountains and woods around Seven Springs, and gradually I started to join them. He became especially fond of seeking out Pittsburgh City Steps, recognizable by their characteristic painted metal railings.
Basil Eggplant is the dish that changed my entire view of this purple fruit, also known as aubergine or brinjal. Eggplant has become one of my family's favorite dishes to enjoy in restaurants and to cook at home. Over the years, I have developed the easiest, most forgiving method for cooking chunks of eggplant until they are browned and softened, while retaining brilliant purple highlights. I call it wok-roasting. Wok-roasted eggplant can be gobbled up on its own, or serve as an easy starting point for a multitude of international dishes.
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Wok-roasted Basil Eggplant |
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Basil Eggplant with Szechuan-spiced ground pork |
Jump to the Love2Chow recipe.
A few minutes later, a glorious wreath of fragrant dough arrived at our table. Cutting its crispy crust revealed fluffy layers of bread cradling thin slices of tender beef. I suggested that they should give that scrumptious bread another name, or simply use the Uzbek words for meat-bread. Although food is a universal language, that delightful wreath deserves something more poetic. For example, the name Kavsar refers to a crystal clear, paradise river. According to their website, "Everyone who plunges into this river, will never thirst and will always be healthy."
Interestingly, the inside of the non or bread reminded me of steamed Chinese flower rolls, or Huā Juǎn 花卷, which are traditionally layered with sesame oil and scallions. Perhaps this should not be surprising given that the Silk Roads funneled right through Uzbekistan and neighboring Turkmenistan, linking northern China with Europe. Several types of dumplings also grace the menu -- chuchvara stuffed with ground beef and onion dipped in sour cream, manti stuffed with beef, pumpkin or spinach, vareniki with sweet cottage cheese or potato-onion fillings -- as well as golden samsas reminiscent of Indian samosas and Greek tiropitas (at least from the outside) and baked piroshkis. Given the time required to prepare manti, we opted for the chuchvara on this trip.
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Chuchvara dumplings |
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Spicy cucumber salad and Beef borsch soup |
If you are unsure of which items to select, or are deciding between options, it is easy to get enthusiastic advice from Lana. It was clear that she loves the food. Each dish came out piping hot and freshly prepared. According to their website and a Pittsburgh Magazine interview, the dishes are made from scratch when ordered, using ingredients garnered from daily shopping trips. While most items included Halal beef from Salem's Market and Grill in the Strip District, there were also many chicken and vegetarian dishes, including a new mushroom version of the traditional slow-cooked Uzbek Plov served over rice pilaf with carrots, cumin and chickpeas.
We sampled Russian dishes such as borsch soup and beef stroganoff, served over mashed potatoes. The Kavsar versions feature a scrumptious slightly sour gravy unmuted by excesses of sour cream more commonly encountered. We also enjoyed homemade noodles in an Asian spice broth topped with beef and vegetables. This dish called lagman is a traditional Uzbek dish influenced by the Uyghur people of northwest China. Finally, at the recommendation of Lana, we had the Kavsar Special Chicken. This was an extremely flavorful dish, although some of the breast pieces were a tad dry and it might be better with thighs. The chicken seems to have been marinated, stewed and cooked with paprika until the sauce was absorbed, and served with rice, pickled shredded carrots and a fresh garden salad.
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Beef stroganoff over mashed potatoes |
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Lagman - pulled noodles, beef (or chicken) and vegetables |
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Kavsar special chicken |
The three of us thoroughly enjoyed our first tastes of Uzbekistan cuisine, touched by Russian, Chinese, Indian and Middle Eastern influences. Although we each ordered an entree, the dishes are abundant enough to share family style. We ordered fried eggplant rolls stuffed with tomatoes and onions as takeout for my daughter with plans to bring friends and family back to experience the Uzbek tea service and more dishes, including Tahmina's own innovations.
16 Southern Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA USA 15211
412-488-9708
412-488-9708
Open Mon-Sun noon -10 pm.
🐾 Kavsar, on the corner of Southern Ave and Shiloh St, has its own parking lot one block down on Southern across from Natchez St.
🐾 Although not in the heart of the new Shiloh St shopping area off of Grandview Ave, it is definitely worth walking just one block farther down the street.
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Kavsar Uzbek Restaurant
Reviewed by Love2Chow on July 17, 2019