Review: Hayat’s Kitchen, starring Lebanese meats and sweets, goes Hollywood

Samke harra means “spicy fish” in Lebanese Arabic, though the dish — usually flavored with some variation of garlic, cilantro and nuts — rarely smolders with anything more than a flicker of cayenne. Originally a staple of Tripoli, Lebanon’s...

Mona's Kitchen   

The man seated at the table next to me at lunch — born in Baghdad and now well into his 70s, I’d learned while waiting for our food — glanced at the bowl a server had just put down in front of me. He nodded in recognition. I’d ordered pacha, an...

The eggplant katsu sandwich at Konbi in Echo Park has the demure looks of a high society English tea sandwich: crustless slices of springy white bread, tidily filled with fried eggplant and finely shredded cabbage. One bite, however, and the...

Around Easter, my social media feeds began marching out a steady parade of images featuring maamoul, the small filled pastries much loved in Lebanon, Syria and other swaths of the Levant. The algorithms know me too well. A lightly yeasted dough is...

Mo Alam, owner of the Forn Al Hara restaurant and bakery in Anaheim, has a conspicuous talent for hospitality. He’s known to greet most customers by name (“I’ve been here 16 years,” he explains. “Everybody knows me and I know almost everyone”) and...