This Cooking Can't Be Pinned Down

Theodora's menu is all over the map. That's what makes it great.

- MATTHEW SCHNEIER

Theodora

7 Greene Ave., at Fulton St., Fort Greene theodoranyc.com

ACCORDING TO A NEIGHBOR, wafts of fenugreek hang over a stretch of Fort Greene's Dekalb Avenue, courtesy of the local favorite Miss Ada. "You can smell it a mile away," he said. Fenugreek's seeds and seed paste, licorice-y and lightly bitter, crop up in Armenian, Moroccan, Iraqi, Ethiopian, and Turkish cuisine and sometimes as part of a za'atar blend. That neighbor, nose piqued, recognized it in an instant at Theodora, Miss Ada's new sister restaurant on Greene Avenue, lost somewhere in a tuna crudo on brick-colored lavash, by flavor if not by name. It took some sleuthing, and a friendly server, to finally identify it. Was it the faint sourdough tang of the lavash itself, the wasabi spiking the garnish of Japanese tobiko, the creamy brushstroke of crème fraîche, the tropical bloom of mango-actually mango pickled in amba, an Iraqi condiment (now also popular in India), made from green mangoes, vinegar, chile, and... well, there it is.