Best place to taste the Levant in Springfield

Shalosh Levantine Cuisine in Public House 418 A Street, Springfield. Find on Instagram.

All it takes is one bite of the chicken flatbread wrap at Shalosh Levantine Cuisine’s food cart to become a believer. The mix of chilled vegetables with juicy chicken can remind someone of the importance of the Levant region’s culinary contribution to the world. And it’s a lesson you can get right from Springfield’s Public House.

The mind behind Shalosh is chef and owner Corey Wisun. And the food cart isn’t the first time he’s been inspired by his ancestry. He says he channeled his Eastern European Jewish ancestry when he created some of the recipes for Falling Sky. This time, he says he’s honoring the whole Levantine region and the countries within it, including Palestine, Israel, Syria, Iraq and Jordan.

As for that chicken flatbread wrap that’s kept me hooked on Shalosh, Wisun offers some insight into what makes it so memorable. It starts with chicken thighs, a cut of meat that maintains juiciness and gets marinated. Then Shalosh adds an in-house-made shawarma spice blend, skewers it and grills it to order. And the final touch is adding three sauces: a tahini-based sauce, Greek yogurt and a green spicy sauce called schug.

What drives Shalosh’s menu is seasonal changes and what’s available locally. That might mean cucumber and tomatoes in summer and kale in the fall and winter. Or Wisun will sub in green tomatoes for mangos when making an Iraqi amba pickled sauce. And with cold months ahead, Shalosh plans to lean into his Ashkenazi Jewish roots with a matzo ball soup.

“It’s fun and forces me to think outside and take traditional dishes that use the local ingredients,” he says.

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