Trojan Horse easy on the budget

Many people have the misconception that great food is expensive. This is honestly not the case. Some of Bloomington's best food is rather affordable. If you don't believe it, you should head over to Trojan Horse, a Greek restaurant on the corner of Kirkwood Avenue and Walnut Street. Trojan Horse offers up some of Bloomington's best food, sometimes priced under $5.\nRecently, I found that one of my friends had never tried Greek food. Seeing this as a tragedy, I dragged her to Trojan Horse for her first Greek eating experience.\nIf you are not familiar with Greek food, the predominate flavors usually come from lemon juice, garlic and olive oil.\nThe Trojan Horse's ambiance is exactly what you would want out of a restaurant of its type. In essence, eating there is fun. Even the entrance is fun, with an arched door opened by pulling on a heavy-looking chain. Once inside, you are greeted with a pleasantly lit room with dark wooden booths, which sets a pleasant atmosphere.\nWhile the room itself is nice, the thing that is truly fun is the flaming cheese. One of the more traditional Greek items on the menu, saganaki (fried cheese), is smothered in brandy and then lit on fire right in front of the patron's table. Any place with flaming cheese is alright with me.\nTo begin our meal, my companion and I split an order of hummus -- ground chickpeas mixed with tahini paste or ground sesame seeds ($3.55). Trojan Horse puts its own spin on hummus by mixing in what tastes like a little sweet red pepper. The hummus had a creamy consistency, with a pleasant earthy taste, and was served with warm pita bread. While the pita was warm and soft, it tasted somewhat like pancakes. But the hummus cut the sweetness, making the pita bread enjoyable.\nFor dinner, my companion had the Super G ($6.45), while I had two Pasko's skewers ($10.15).\nThe Super G is just a big gyro -- a beef and lamb sandwich served in a pita. The meat, a mix of beef and lamb, is combined with spices and roasted on a spit. The meat is then shaved off in long thin slices. This provides a unique texture to the meat; it is very soft and somewhat salty. If you like beef but not lamb, you will most likely still enjoy the gyro meat because the cooking style really changes its properties.\nAt the Trojan Horse, the sandwich is made with fresh onions and tomatoes. which helps to intensify the flavor. The freshness of the onions adds a nice sweetness and a little bit of a crunch to the sandwich. The tomatoes help mellow out some of the tastes, making the flavors interact.\nThe sandwich is also topped with yogurt-based tzatziki sauce. To make it, yogurt is combined with sour cream, cucumbers and garlic to create a tangy and somewhat sour sauce, which adds variety to the sandwich.\nPasko's Skewers are beef kabobs with peppers and mushrooms served on a bed of rice. The meat was of decent quality. Although it did not quite melt in your mouth, it was still enjoyable. If you are hungry, I advise you to order two -- one will just leave you wanting more.\nThe thing that made this dish worthwhile is the chimichuri sauce, a light sauce made from olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and a few other assorted spices. \nFor desert, we had ambrosia ($2.85). In Greek mythology ambrosia is the food of the gods. At the Trojan Horse, ambrosia is yogurt mixed with honey and walnuts. The yogurt provided a sour base that was cut by the sweet taste of honey. The nuts were somewhat lost in the other flavors and really did not affect the dish much. By calling this the food of the gods, I had high expectations for this dessert. Alas, I was left somewhat disappointed. While this was not to my taste, I can see the merits in this healthier dessert. Still, I think I will stick with the mouth-watering baklava from now on.\nOverall, Trojan Horse is one of the best values in Bloomington for a student's budget. Two people can easily eat here for well under $20. The only drawback to the Trojan Horse is that it can get pretty crowded, so the waiters may try to hurry you up. Other than that -- I highly recommend that you try it.