Dinner Tonight! : GOOD TO GO : An Eggplant Heavyweight

Gerlach’s stuffed eggplant dinner is a hefty plate of food. The eggplant, filled with beef and seasoned so that it tastes vaguely like stuffed grape leaves, comes with Basmati rice, soup or salad and pita bread. The soup--chicken vegetable the day I was there--is very good, but the salad goes better with the eggplant. A modest takeout stand next to a liquor store, Gerlach’s offers hummus, falafel, tabbouleh and other Middle Eastern fare. But the big seller at lunchtime is the large assortment of tacos.

Stuffed eggplant dinner, $8.95 at Gerlach’s Pasadena Grille, 1075 S. Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena. (626) 799-7575.