Like many hungry locals, I’ve tried to find cheer during this Summer of Quarantine and Isolation with the joy of dishes that make me a happy camper — and a well-fed one, too.
Some of those dishes, well-suited for takeout, are served by restaurants with a commitment to a singular dish. In some cases, it’s the only dish they make. In others, it’s the dish for which they’re most famous. And justly so!
If you’ve ever been to Singapore, a place every good eater should visit at least once in their lifetime, then you know of the wonders of the hawker markets — massive food halls, many of them, in which the purveyors prepare just a single dish at their stands. Thus, one stand may specialize in sublime shrimp dumplings, another in supremely messy chili crab, a third in complex spider webs of noodles. By concentrating on a single dish, they manage — in some cases, perhaps even many — to achieve the Platonic ideal of that dish. What they make, they make as well as it can be made. It’s rather brilliant. And it’s found in markets throughout Asia. But not often here.
Which is why I was properly jazzed to come upon a pleasant café on Broadway in Glendale named for the single, and singular dish in which they specialize. It’s Zhengyalov Hatz, in which the dish is, yes, zhengyalov hatz — a flatbread that may not be familiar to you. But I’m willing to posit it as the next big thing. Though it might need a name that doesn’t give my spellcheck conniption fits.
Zhengyalov hatz (which is often spelled “jingalov hats”), can be simply described as Armenian stuffed flatbread. Which doesn’t sound a lot like something around which to build an entire restaurant. And yet the dish, which apparently originated in the Republic of Artsakh, which is also known as the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, is described by Wikipedia as “a breakaway state in the South Caucasus that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan…its capital is Stepanakert…”
The full description is considerably longer than that. But as the little known names start flying off the page, it’s hard not to think that what I know about geography, isn’t much more than what my dog knows about quantum mechanics. By comparison, the name of this dish is reasonably simple. It only consists of two words.
But this flatbread consists of a lot more than two ingredients. A postcard handed out by the restaurant declares “15 types of herbs.” Some online recipes list coriander, mint and spinach. Others detail parsley, leeks and scallions. Certainly, there’s pepper and salt. The NY Times suggests chard, chervil, dill, radish greens and sorrel. Plus paprika. Which comes close. Though I’m not sure if many of those are right.
I’ve eaten a lot of zhengyalov hatz here. Sadly, my taste buds aren’t up to the task. It’s a bit like guessing all the ingredients in KFC’s chicken. Or Coca-Cola. Many guess. But really, who knows?
Whatever the herbs are, this is a wonderful dish. It’s served in a comfortably modern space, with an open patio in front, and a friendly staff who patiently explain that, yes, zhengyalov hatz is all there is. I think this comes as a shock to those who have eaten in the many local Armenian restaurants, with their extensive menus of dips and salads and skewers.
Here, it’s zhengyalov hatz, and that’s it — a terrific treat for $6.99, surprisingly filling, made with a flatbread that’s uniquely delicious. This is not just carbo filler. And inside, there are greens galore. Trying to figure them all out is a happy parlor trick, a culinary Rubik’s Cube that befuddles me. And a reminder that if you know how a magic trick is done, it tends to take away from the magic.
I’m happy to sit here, and dine, watching the shoppers of downtown Glendale marching by. I may never pronounce the dish quite right. But that doesn’t keep me from eating every bite. And then, ordering another. Artsakh is far. Glendale, not so much.
Encino’s Versailles Cuban is, of course, not a one-dish restaurant — far from it. The menu is rich with pork, seafood, beef, vegetables, soups, salads, sandwiches — the whole colorful panoply of Cuban cooking, one of the tastiest of the many Caribbean cuisines. And yet…I’ve eaten at the various branches of Versailles many times over the years. I’ve tried many dishes. And it always boils down to the one dish that my family and I love more than any other. A dish so good, it’s turned Versailles into a simulacrum of a one-dish restaurant for me.
Which is, of course, No. 6 on the menu — the “Famoso Pollo Versailles…Versailles Famous Garlic Chicken.” It’s not so much a dish, as it is an experience, consisting of a very large half chicken cooked to a consistent level of perfection I could never achieve at home; I’ve never had a clinker at Versailles. The garlic sauce is sharp. But not so garlicky that you’ll taste it for the rest of your natural life. (They sell bottles of it at the restaurant. It’s good. But not as good as when it emerges from their kitchen.)
There are onions that have been cooked down to their barest elemental state — molecular cooking that’s actually about molecules. You can get it all dark or all white. Tempting, especially the all dark. But then, I’d be missing the pleasure of the mix of parts and pieces. And of course, the chicken comes with some of the best white rice and black beans in town. The garlic chicken makes Versailles a one-dish restaurant for me.
Someday, I may discover the barbecue chicken on the menu is even better. But I don’t want to tempt fate. The garlic chicken is my idea of a religious experience. One thigh, and my sins feel washed away.
Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Email mreats@aol.com.
Zhengyalov Hatz
- Rating: 3 stars
- Address: 318 E. Broadway, Glendale
- Information: 818-696-9339, zhengyalov-hatz.business.site
- Cuisine: Armenian Bakery
- When: Lunch and dinner, every day
- Details: Soft drinks; no reservations
- Atmosphere: Casual Glendale café, with dining inside and out, offering a single dish — the fabulous zhengyalov hatz, a crepe/flatbread/pastry packed with herbs and more herbs — along with a lot of flavor.
- Prices: About $12 per person
- Suggested dishes: Zhengyalov Hatz ($6.99)
- Cards: MC, V
Versailles Cuban
- Rating: 3 stars
- Address: 17410 Ventura Blvd., Encino
- Information: 818-906-0756, www.versaillescubanfood.com
- Cuisine: Cuban
- When: Lunch and dinner, every day
- Details: Full bar; no reservations
- Atmosphere: Rollicking Cuban café with a long history in SoCal, and a long menu — though for many of us, there’s really just one dish: Garlic Chicken, a sublime accomplishment which I’ll never grow tired of inhaling.
- Prices: About $20 per person
- Suggested dishes: So much. But mostly…No. 6: Famoso Pollo Versailles (Versailles Famous Garlic Chicken) ($15.50-$17.99)
- Cards: MC, V
