BIG time revelation

OK, I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited about a recent discovery that I HAVE to post about it and W4DD is THE place to do it.

One of my ALL time fav dining establishments is a little hole in the wall lebanese restaurant behind the railroad tracks and Waffle House on Hillsbourough St. in Raleigh, NC. It's called Neomonde and my mouth waters at the sound of it's name. I seriously could eat it for every meal and crave it ALL the time....when I'm sick, pregnant, healthy, basically any time. Sadly, I'm 3 hours away and haven't had my FAV combination platter of tuna, hummus, tabouleh, stuffed grape leaves and CHICK PEA SALAD in a coon's age.

For ten whole years I've tried to duplicate my fav Neomonde dishes at home but none of my attempts have sufficed. Tonight of all nights, I attempted a makeshift orzo (different than the one here that I posted a while back) because I was craving Dean and Deluca's orzo salad. Long story short, one of my new favorite blogs is The Musing Foodie and my girl posted a great sounding orzo salad that I've been wanting to try. I didn't have all of the ingredients, though, so I just threw together some orzo, red peppers, green onions, feta and cucumber and then the sauce in her orzo recipe (1/2 cup lemon juice, 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper). I took one bite and it hit me between my eyes....THAT IS NEOMONDE's CHICK PEA SALAD FLAVOR!!!! It's so simple. How could I have missed it all this time? I even think this would make their tuna also!!! My tastebuds were soooo excited that I drank every last drop of the juice with my spoon. Tomorrow, I'm getting out the tuna and chickpeas and giving it a whirl! Try it. You won't be disappointed!