The Unvegan » schwarma

A Late Night with Kosher Grill on Wheels

The Unvegan — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 17:00:53 +0000

Does this look Kosher to you?

On my way home from the bar one night, I was unsurprisingly jonesing for some grub. The trouble was that I was driving through the area of Pico and Robertson, which isn’t exactly known to be a late-night food hub. But just when I thought my snack options were going to be limited to whatever leftovers I could find in my fridge, I saw a shiny beacon of hope that seemed to be a food truck. When I pulled over to explore, I found that although not exactly a truck, I had stumbled upon some sort of mobile food purveyor. It was called Kosher Grill on Wheels and a schwarma sounded like heaven to me (and with any luck, eating Kosher would bring me one step closer to that heaven).

I’m not sure how much food they had to offer, because all I really saw was that spinning spool of schwarma meat. I ordered one and watched as the sliced off bits of chicken and tossed them on the griddle for further heating. While waiting for the griddle, they asked me what kind of wrap I wanted and what I wanted in it. The choice of wraps were pita for 7 bucks and laffa for 8. I was a bit surprised by the high prices, but that’s the price you pay for Kosher, so I figured at that point I may as well go with the laffa. As for inside the wrap, there were mostly vegetables, but there was also hummus, tahina sauce and a spicy sauce. I asked for all of these and the guy slathered them on the laffa as we waited for the chicken.

The inside looks good, but it's hiding something.

When it was done, he wrapped it all up, sliced it in half and threw it in a bag for me. I headed home ready to chow down on some Jewish meat.

I opened it up and it smelled great, but was a bit small for the 8 dollar price tag. Nonetheless, eight bucks would be a small price to pay for late-night pleasure. Unfortunately, pleasure wasn’t all I got from this schwarma. Although the chicken and sauces were delicious and well-seasoned, every few bites I would find some bit of chicken I couldn’t bit through. It wasn’t hard enough to be bone, but whatever it was, it was unwelcome in my mouth. I would have to spit out these pieces for fear of busting a tooth or choking and that made me feel sad. I really thought Kosher Grill on Wheels could do better, especially for the price. It may have been Kosher, but if that’s the kind of meat they are slinging then treif sounds much better.

Going Mediterranean at Mezza

The Unvegan — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:00:01 +0000

Who thought onions were a good idea?

Since my buddy wanted to eat something healthy (foolish, I know), we thought we would try out some Mediterranean food nearby. Since I’ve already hit up a few of the local places, we looked to Yelp to find something new and discovered a place called Mezza Grill in Culver City. We sat down inside and were greeted by a mildly friendly waitress with bells hanging by her waist that must have some Mediterranean significance. But considering she was blond and likely of some sort of Germanic or Scandinavian descent, the bell thingies came off as somewhat gimmicky. Oh well, gimmick or not, I was ready to eat.

The menu was of typical Mediterranean fare and prices for platters of schwarma and such ran about 12-14 bucks. This wasn’t too out of the ordinary, but there was something missing. No sandwiches. I’ve never been to a Mediterranean place that didn’t at least offer or a doner or a wrap. Perhaps that sort of option exists for lunch, but I was kind of sad it wasn’t there for dinner. Instead, I just ordered the Chicken Schwarma platter. It came with a choice of hummus and then a choice between fatoush and tabouleh salad. Knowing that I wanted neither of those latter choices, I asked if I could get both spicy and regular hummus. The waitress said it was cool, but was quick to tell us that I was only getting that because the place wasn’t too crowded. Really, blonde waitress? Couldn’t just give it to me without a caveat? I guess I wouldn’t be too friendly if I had to walk around with bells all night either.

Don't expect to get two hummus choices on busy nights.

Before the platter arrived, we were given a little snack of pita chips and some sort of olive oil dip. It was quite tasty and a good lead-in to the real meal. The schwarma platter arrived and I was very upset to see onions laying upon the top of my chicken heap. What the hell is that? The menu had made no mention of the onions and I brushed them away disdainfully before getting down to the eating. The chicken had a great flavor, although a little mushy at times, and went really well with the garlic sauce. Both hummus flavors were surprisingly good and also tasted great with the chicken. I made myself mini-wraps with the toasted pita we were given, so it was kind of like eating a sandwich, but since I had to do all the work in making the sandwich, a bit of the fun was lost.

By the time I finished, I was stuffed beyond belief and slipped into a bit of a Mediterranean food coma. Mezza did a pretty good job of serving me dinner, but it still would have been nice to have had a sandwich option. After all, if you go there to eat healthy, you shouldn’t have to order a huge platter of dinner.

Not Quite the Best of Mediterranean

The Unvegan — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:41:59 +0000

Get that green stuff out of here.

It was a night for delivery and looking through LAbite, we found a good-looking Mediterranean place to order from it was called Best of Mediterranean (BOM), which is quite a boast to be put in a name, even for a place in West Hollywood. Obviously a place by that name had to be checked out. I was too hungry for a schwarma sandwich, so I ordered the chicken schwarma dinner plate. This came with hummos, tabouli, rice and garlic sauce. Knowing that tabouli is some strange mix of greens, I tried to order without it, but the website wouldn’t allow me. This was a big fail on the part of both LAbite and BOM, because many other restaurants allow you to customize dishes. Unfortunately, I knew that vegetables would be dying for my sake that night and wouldn’t even have the pleasure of being digested.

My food arrived and I opened it up in the hopes that somehow they had forgotten the tabouli. Unfortunately, this was not the case, but luckily they has relegated it to a corner of the styrofoam that ensured it didn’t make contact with my real food.

The real food tasted alright, but not great. The chicken was semi-rubbery and although the garlic cause was good, none of it really added up to the Best of Mediterranean that it boasted to be. I would recommend this place for a quick, easy delivery, but there are many better Mediterranean options to be explored in LA.

The Ultimate Shawarma at Sunnin Cafe

The Unvegan — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:10:46 +0000

Fit for a king. Or sheik. Or whatever.

In the quest to finally find some good schwarma in LA, I made my way to a little Lebanese place called Sunnin Cafe. I have fond memories of delicious Lebanese food back in Michigan, so I hoped that this place would be at least a little awesome. Getting there was a little confusing, though, as it appeared as though there were two Sunnins, right across the street from each other. On further inspection, it looked like the larger of the two is unopened and the small place will be moving in there soon.

The inside of the little cafe gave the appearance of a generic diner. There were seats

Mmm spinning meat.

at a counter and no more than ten small tables. The big difference, though, was the strong smell of the Middle East and the rotating spool of meat where a deep-fryer might typically belong. I also loved that they made no effort to hide the fact that the cooks were Hispanic. It’s a pretty widely known fact that kitchens of ethnic restaurants all over LA are filled with Hispanics, despite the fact that waiters and such fit into the ethnicity. It was refreshing to see that Sunnin didn’t hide that aspect of their business.

We ordered some “hommos” (love the spelling) to start things off. There were a lot of great-looking appetizers, but I find hummus to be a great gauge of how good a Middle-Eastern restaurant is going to be. Luckily, the hummus was awesome and made me excited for my main course. It was a tough choice between the chicken shawarma platter and chicken shawarma sandwich, but the sandwich eventually won out. To be safe, I asked our waiter, who also appeared to be the manager and maître d’, what came in the shawarma. He said it came with sauce, lettuce and other vegetative matter. I couldn’t let me meal be ruined by such veggies, so I ordered with only sauce and chicken and hoped it would turn out well.

Yellow means tasty.

When my shawarma sandwich arrived, it was fully free of veggies. The chicken looked a little yellowish, but I didn’t let that stop me from digging in. Every bite was delicious, greasy and garlicky. It was even better when I dipped it in hummus, but the dipping wasn’t necessary. If I’ve had better shawarma, I couldn’t tell you where. Sunnin is now officially my number one Middle-Eastern place. I only hope that when they move into their larger location, they hang on to at least some of their quaint little diner mentality.