Momed: modern Mediterranean
On the surface, Momed is a stylish spot where you order at the counter and servers bring you your dishes. But the menu is full of Turkish, Greek and Lebanese influences that you don’t often see at your regular grab-and-go.
The pides—chewy wood-fired flatbreads with toppings like buttery haloumi cheese, spicy soujuk sausage and piquillo peppers (pictured; $14)—are great pizza alternatives. With the wraps, house-made pita envelops tender roast duck and fig confit ($14) or juicy ground lamb koefte and sweet blistered tomatoes ($10). Get a crisp Keo lager (from Cyprus) to go with either one.
Choose any of the colorful salads from the case as a side, like chunky cinnamon-scented carrots, cucumbers with a sweet poppy-seed dressing or artichokes and fava beans with tangy lemon vinaigrette. A trio of these ($12) makes an excellent light lunch.
The mezze are particularly delicious, especially baleela (aka balila)—soft, spiced chickpeas swimming in brown butter sprinkled with toasted pine nuts ($8). The chef went all the way to Lebanon to find this dish, and for that, we’re eternally grateful.
Momed / 233 S. Beverly Dr. / Beverly Hills, CA 90212 / 310-270-4444 / www.atmomed.com
Middle Eastern Bakeries & Flatbreads
The Best Middle Eastern Flatbreads in L.A.
HOLLYWOOD
Arax Bakery – Hollywood, CA
4871 Santa Monica Boulevard
, 323 666 7313
Sasoun Bakery – Hollywood, CA
- 5114 Santa Monica Boulevard , 323 661 1868
- 625 East Colorado Boulevard, Glendale, 818 502 5059
- 18135 Sherman Way , Reseda, 818 881 9988 (Inside Jons)
PASADENA
Glendale may be better known for Middle Eastern food, but Northeast Pasadena features a treasure trove of Armenian, Lebanese and Syrian options, including sit-down restaurants, delis and two stellar bakeries: Koko’s and Old Sasoon.
Koko’s Bakery – Pasadena, CA
1674 East Washington Boulevard,
626 798 2543
Old Sasoon Bakery - Pasadena
1132 North Allen Avenue
, 626 791 3280
…one flatbread at Old Sassoon outdoes them all: khachapuri, a Georgian breakfast staple. The foot-long, boat-shaped flatbread ($5) comes topped with molten white cheese (a “secret” blend) and a cracked egg—or two, if you’re sharing.
Hot out of the oven, it’s the perfect meal: Rip off a piece of soft, steaming bread, run it through the pepper-dusted yolk and snatch a gob of sweet-salty cheese. For a dollar more, you can add slices of ham, house-made beef sausage (soujouk), or sheets of Armenian cured beef (basturma) from Garo’s, a nearby deli.
Marouch | Lebanese-Armenian Restaurant
Marouch
Marouch has been Hollywood’s Lebanese-Armenian mainstay for so long that it is sometimes possible to forget just how good it can be, how succulent the grilled quail, how zataar-fragrant the toasted-bread salad fattoush, how reliable the kebabs, which sing with spice and juice and char. I can’t count the times I’ve crushed out on some Middle Eastern dish I’d tasted in Glendale or Michigan only to find out that Marouch chef Sosy Brady had it on her menu all the time, whether fried fish with tahini; the pungent aged-cheese salad shanklish; the walnut-pomegranate dip muhammara; or the Lebanese melted-cheese dessert knafeh. If you wanted to imagine you were in Beirut, you could stop by this place a few times a day — midmornings for a piece of baklava and a thimbleful of Armenian coffee; lunch for a plate of makanek sausages and a bottle of Lebanese beer; late afternoons for the falafel, house-made from scratch, and a bowl of dense lentil soup; and dinner for one of the home-style daily specials, real Armenian mom stuff. Year after year, Marouch becomes nothing but better. 4905 Santa Monica Blvd., L.A., (323) 662-9325, www.marouchrestaurant.com, Tues.-Sat., 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Sun., 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Beer, wine. Lot parking. All major credit cards accepted.
