HUMMUS? IT CAN BE SUBLIME
By Charles Perry, Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times, CA
Sept 6 2006
PROPERLY served, hummus is a grand thing to see. A cook scoops pale
yellow paste into a shallow brick-colored bowl and then stirs it madly
with a mortar, forcing it up against the sides of the bowl in a thick,
luxurious coil.
Ostensibly, this is for your convenience, because you can scoop
genteelly from the wall of hummus erected for you. But it also
shows off the quality. If the paste is too thick, it won’t form that
glamorous coil. Too slack, and it slumps shamefully.
ADVERTISEMENT There’s a lot of hummus in our town, particularly in
the San Fernando Valley, which has seen wave after wave of immigrant
nationalities.
How does Valley hummus stack up, as it were? I recently checked out
30 restaurants and cafes to find out.
The Valley’s hummus scene is based on three main Middle Eastern ethnic
clusters. A lot of Armenians live in Glendale and Burbank.
Many are from the Republic of Armenia, where hummus is scarcely known,
but others are from western Armenia, often by way of Syria or Lebanon,
and they have clear-cut hummus tastes. There are a few Lebanese places
in North Hollywood and Valley Village. Israeli restaurants cluster on
Ventura Boulevard in Encino and Tarzana. Half a dozen more Armenian
places are scattered through the mid-Valley, from North Hollywood to
Sherman Oaks, along with two Lebanese places, and there’s an Israeli
nightclub in Studio City.
Here’s where I’m coming from as a hummusivore. I first tasted it
back in the ’60s when I was studying in Lebanon, a very quiet place
at the time. In principle, none of the ingredients was exotic –
I’d certainly tasted chickpeas (though not pureed), sesame seeds
(though not ground to a paste called tahini), lemon juice and garlic –
but the combination seemed original and gratifying.
Different garnishes
AND there was more to hummus than those pureed ingredients. When the
cook was done stirring it around, the bottom of the serving bowl was
nearly bare, leaving room for a garnish. Different Middle Eastern
cities, I found, had different tastes in the garnish department.
Beirut had a rather classical preference, just a couple of whole
chickpeas and a spoonful or two of good local olive oil (I understand
that Beirutis are tending to finish if off with a sprinkle of
paprika these days), or maybe toasted pine nuts. In Tripoli, they
would substitute toasted walnuts and melted butter. Some restaurants
(too pricey for the student’s budget I was on) were reputed to top
hummus with richer things such as roast meat.
A few years later, health foodies discovered hummus and popularized
it far and wide, just as they did with falafel and tabbouleh. Its
attractions for them were obvious. Hummus was a vegetarian source of
protein, it had a rich flavor, it was exotic.
As a result of their efforts, you can now get hummus – or something
like it – at lots of restaurants and snack stands, even in
supermarkets. But it’s still hard to find good hummus.
The problem, I think, is that health foodies were dazzled by the
nutritional value of chickpeas and sesame seeds and went overboard
on those two ingredients, doing violence to the aesthetic of the dish.
Health-food hummus has nearly always been too thick with chickpeas,
with far too much tahini flavoring and nowhere near enough lemon
juice. It tends to scant the garlic flavor too, though there’s
difference of opinion about how much garlic to use even in the
Middle East.
Hummus really needs a sharp note of lemon juice to counteract the
flat, faintly bitter effect of the chickpeas. And too much tahini not
only overwhelms the other flavors, but also makes the hummus heavy
and gummy.
Crossover hummus ignores the garnish aspect of the Middle Eastern
dish while the culinary avant-garde seems to feel unfairly constrained
by the traditional recipe. Now some fusion restaurants are giving us
edamame hummus or sun-dried tomato hummus – undermining the whole idea
because hummus is the Arabic word for chickpea – while commercial
producers are adding flavors such as horseradish and kalamata
olive. Some of these experiments are interesting, but I suspect if
they ever tasted the real thing, most chefs would reconsider messing
with the fine balance of flavors and texture that is the classic
hummus recipe.
On my hummus quest in the Valley, I was looking for rich-textured
hummus with a good balance of chickpea, lemon and sesame flavors,
preferably with a subtle note of garlic, though I was OK with
variations if the cooks seemed to know what they were doing. I didn’t
bother with many Greek or Iranian places, because in my experience
they tend to be unclear on the hummus concept (one prominent exception:
Raffi’s Place in Glendale).
To tell the truth, though, Middle Eastern ancestry doesn’t necessarily
mean you make good hummus. According to its website, the Zankou
Chicken chain, which was founded in Beirut, puts no lemon in its
boring hummus. Maybe it’s afraid of upstaging its roast chicken.
A distinct geographical pattern emerged. Lemon juice is more likely to
be underplayed in the west end of the Valley (though not everywhere;
Sassi, for one, does a good job). But in Burbank and Glendale,
nearly every hummus is distinctly tart – in fact, Kotayk Kabob Deli
in Burbank and Elena’s Greek and Armenian Food in Glendale may even
take the tartness thing a little too far.
I didn’t find the hummus of my dreams, but I did come across some
very good ones, a nicely rounded Top 10 worth seeking out.
Ambience and flavor
IN terms of texture, the best was clearly the regular hummus at
Alcazar in Encino, though I thought it could have used a dash more
lemon. With its high ceilings, airy patio and handsome Lebanese decor,
Alcazar is probably the best hummus-eating location in the Valley –
it exudes that Mediterranean feeling that time ceases to exist when
you’re noshing with friends.
Cedar House Cafe in Valley Village, a lively Lebanese hangout with a
cheery belly dancer in the evenings, makes a slightly thinner hummus
with a better balance of flavors. Uniquely, it gives you chips of
crisp toasted lavash bread as well as pita, and it positively loads you
with condiments: tomatoes, pickled turnips, pickled peppers and olives.
The fairly new Van Nuys cafe Noah’s Ark also makes well-balanced hummus
with a creamy texture, emphasizing the sesame flavor but contriving
not to be heavy; it’s garnished with green olives as well as olive
oil. The cuisine is mostly a mixture of eastern and western Armenian
dishes, served in a room embellished with a wall-filling mural of
Noah descending from Mt. Ararat after the great flood.
Two smaller, humbler places show that you can have a very distinctive
flavor and still belong to the classic hummus tradition. Kilikia in
Glendale, located up a couple of steps from the street, feels like
some kind of secret clubhouse (I’ve never seen it full) and makes a
unique hummus, showing a good balance of chickpeas, lemon and garlic
with one additional flavor: a lot of cumin. Odd, but successful.
ADVERTISEMENT Chicken Al-Wazir, also in Glendale, is your basic
ethnic storefront, only more ambitious, with beaded lampshades and
a musical soundtrack.
Its hummus has a faintly smoky, chunky effect, but Larissa Bedrosyan,
who makes it, says the only ingredients are the usual chickpeas,
tahini, garlic and lemon, plus a little vegetable oil. Maybe the
secret is in the wrist.
"Everybody puts hummus together a little different," says owner Victor
Tahmazyan, who stresses the importance of fresh garlic.
For me, Alcazar, Carousel (in Glendale) and Cedar House are in
a category of their own because they offer those rich toppings of
shawarma or sausages or toasted pine nuts that I couldn’t afford when
I was a college kid. All these places are basically doing the right
thing. They’re pointing a direction – a direction that does not lead
down the path to sun-dried tomato hummus.
*
————————————– ——————————————
charles [email protected]
*
(INFOBOX BELOW)
Top 10, for hummus lovers
Here are 10 of the best places to get hummus in the San Fernando
Valley:
*
Alcazar, 17239 Ventura Blvd., Encino, (818) 789-0991. The best-textured
hummus in the area, piled up in a gleaming ridge around the edge
of the plate. Garnished Beirut-fashion with chickpeas and virgin
olive oil, it lacks garlic, but you could order a plainer-looking
"chef’s hummus" mixed with garlic and toasted pine nuts, or versions
flavored with herbs or red pepper or topped with grilled meat. $5.50
(other versions $6 to $8).
Carnival Restaurant, 4356 Woodman Ave., Sherman Oaks, (818) 784-3469.
Smooth texture, bright lemon note and rather little tahini make for
a light and attractive hummus, if not a very classical one. $3.75
to $5.50.
Carousel, 304 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale, (818) 246-7775. The texture
of this hummus is a little grainy and liquid, but the flavor shows
good understated lemon and garlic flavors. Lots of optional toppings
are available, such as pine nuts, lamb sausages and shawarma. $5.50
(with toppings, $7.50 to $8.50).
Cedar House Cafe, 4805 Whitsett Ave., Valley Village/North Hollywood,
(818) 769-9994. A well-balanced hummus with a touch of garlic. The
texture is nice and smooth, if a little slack. Available topped with
chicken shawarma or grilled meat and pine nuts. $5 (with toppings,
$8 to $9).
Chicken Al-Wazir, 1219 S. Glendale Ave., Glendale (818) 500-1578. A
unique hummus with an elusive smokiness and a non-classical texture –
slightly chunky, as if there were some kind of minced vegetable in
it. Very flavorful, though. $4.
Kilikia Grill, 627 S. Glendale Ave., Glendale, (818) 545- 7070. Nice
balance of chickpea, lemon and sesame flavor. Probably the only hummus
in Glendale that doesn’t have the usual Armenian garnish of paprika –
instead, it’s sprinkled with cumin. $5.
Noah’s Ark, 13641 Burbank Blvd., Van Nuys, (818) 786-1202. Smooth,
slightly tart, good sesame flavor; garnished with virgin olive oil and
(unusually) green olives. $5.
Papa Joe’s, 514 W. Colorado Blvd., Glendale, (818) 500-1785. This
awkwardly located place (you practically have to be exiting the north 5
Freeway to reach it) shows a rather Lebanese flavor, balancing lemon
with a good amount of tahini. $2.50.
Raffi’s Place, 211 E. Broadway, Glendale, (818) 240-7411. A smooth,
mild hummus with good balance of lemon, garlic and sesame, very light
sprinkle of paprika. $4.
Sassi Restaurant, 15622 Ventura Blvd., Encino, (818) 986-5345. Nice
lemon note, texture might be smoother; altogether quite good.
Generously garnished with toasted pine nuts, olive oil and paprika.
Certified kosher. $6.