Lamb spleen, anyone?

Being vegan-friendly doesn't mean Masada is meat-free. It's plentiful and served in a nose-to-tail fashion with dishes featuring lamb spleen, liver and heart. "We grew up poor. All we had was four walls, a ceiling and a floor drain. My mom was a genius at making food out of nothing, like most moms are," said Ramli, who was born in Amman, Jordan and named Masada after his mother. "Chickens only had one gizzard and we'd all fight for that. It was a gift." For those not so organ-inclined, there is an incredible array of kebabs made of seafood and halal-butchered meat. (Halal is Arabic for "permissible," and in the case of halal butchery, the meat is raised humanely, fed a natural diet and slaughtered according to a set of strict rules.) The best meat value at Masada is the combination kebab ($39) plate featuring two pounds of grilled meat, including rare charred bits of lamb, juicy hunks of kefta (an Arabic sausage) and chicken, purple tangles of squid and scallops. It's enough to feed two, and the meats were brined and beautifully seasoned; the only shortcoming was that the scallops were a touch bland.