Like the salty fermented yeast spread called Vegemite, zaatar is a love-it-or-hate-it food.
Vegemite is the very essence of Australian cuisine. Walk into a kitchen in Sydney, and you’ll see not just the small jars of Vegemite that tourists often take home as a souvenir, telling the kids “They eat this stuff like we do peanut butter. And yes, you can spit it out if you want; it’s kinda gross!”
Over there, people buy Vegemite by the bucketful. They consume it by the bucketful. It’s a hard taste to acquire. Vegemite is something you’ve got to have grown up with.
If you’ve grown up sprinkling zaatar on everything, you expect the salty, herby, crunchy essence of the stuff. If you come to it later in life, there’s no middle ground — at least not at Zaatar N’ More. It’s hard to believe there’s another restaurant in the world that makes more dishes using zaatar as this cheery café. And they do it within the bounds of culinary rationalism. There’s no zaatar-flavored ice cream, for instance. And no sushi topped with zaatar. But dang — there’s zaatar pizza that just kills!
I guess a few words of explanation are called for. Zaatar is an ancient herb and spice mix, with a non-doctrinaire list of ingredients built around toasted sesame seeds, dried sumac, salt, oregano, basil and thyme.
Since it’s often made in-house, it leaves a lot of room for the chef to riff, adding dried peppers, garlic, onion — whatever is preferred. And, in the case of the zaatar at Zaatar N’ More, the dominant quality is … lots of herbs. The mix is dark enough to obscure whatever is underneath. At first bite, it may seem to overwhelm. But then, it becomes irresistible.
This is a joyous food served in a happy setting, by a staff that’s having fun feeding people. You place your order at the front counter, after spending a lot of time studying the overhead menu. (A lot of the customers are regulars. They know what they want. Though I didn’t hear anyone say it, I suspect a lot just tell the counter, “I’ll have the usual.”)
The menu begins with mannaish, a classic breakfast dish. The basic is a flatbread topped with zaatar and olive oil — simple and delicious.
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But at Zaatar N’ More, there’s a lot … more. Seventeen variations, in fact. It comes topped, variously, with mozzarella, with a white brined cheese called akawi, with a trio of cheeses, stuffed with cheese, with cheese and the spicy sausage called soujouk, with spinach, with an egg and soujouk, with the sliced dried beef called basturma, with labneh and lahmajoun — and even more. This is a Middle Eastern pizza on steroids.
The mannaish is followed by eight wraps, and six mini breads — silver dollar pancake sized flatbreads, with lots of toppings, as there is with everything. The five pizzas are perfect creations in terms of the sheer crunchiness of the crust — so crisp that when I reheated a few slices the next day, the crackle was undiminished. (I always take dishes home; you learn so much more in the light of day in your kitchen when you look objectively, without the distractions of the restaurant.)
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Zaatar N’ More is an homage to the joys of things on bread. You can think of it as a Middle Eastern pizzeria. Between the 17 mannaish, the eight wraps, the six mini-breads, the five pizzas, and the three specialties of the house called khachapuri — a Georgian cheese bread stuffed variously with cheese and eggs; soujouk, cheese and eggs; and basturma, cheese and eggs — that’s a lot of pizza adjacent dishes.
Which makes it even more curious to find a section of the menu with potato skins, chicken tenders and chicken wings — strangers from a strange land of finger food.
If there is one other dish I can’t do without, it’s the yogurt cucumber salad. The Persian cucumbers are roughly cut, the yogurt is sour and so not Dannon. The flavoring is dry mint. Oh … and the rice pudding is pretty great, too.
Zaatar N’ More is a doorway into a culinary world filled with spice and crunch. Which may be the “More” of the name. Chicken tenders just don’t make the cut.
Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Email mreats@aol.com.
Zaatar N’ More
Rating: 3 stars
Address: 9545 Reseda Blvd., Northridge
Information: 818-260-3358, www.zaatarnmore.com
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
When: Breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day
Details: Coffee and tea; reservations not needed
Atmosphere: Cozy neighborhood café, hugely popular with the local Lebanese community, and also with a sizable following across the ethnic spectrum — fans who show up for some of the tastiest Middle Eastern food around. In my case, one bite and I was hooked.
Prices: About $25 per person
On the menu: 3 Appetizers ($6.99-$12.99), 2 Salads ($5-$14), 17 Mamaish Pastries ($4.99-$12.99), 8 Wraps ($5.99-$15.99), 6 Mini-Breads ($6-$11), 5 Pizzas ($14-$37.99), 3 Katchapuri ($10.99-$14.99), 4 Desserts ($4 .99-$27.99)
Credit cards: MC, V
What the stars mean: 4 (World class! Worth a trip from anywhere!), 3 (Most excellent, even exceptional. Worth a trip from anywhere in Southern California.), 2 (A good place to go for a meal. Worth a trip from anywhere in the neighborhood.) 1 (If you’re hungry, and it’s nearby, but don’t get stuck in traffic going.) 0 (Honestly, not worth writing about.)
