Meze

I don't know if this picture comes across well but it was hard to get a good one since I was in SUCH A RUSH to eat it.

There's an Israeli restaurant in Encino called Itzik Hagadol that I love to go to. It's like the Israeli version of going to a Korean restaurant. You sit down, you order the salads, pronounced like "SAH-LAHHDS", and they bring you 10 little dishes of the most delicious salads. By salads, they're really saying things to dip your giant, fresh baked, lavash into while stuffing your fat face. That means tahini, hummus, egg salad, matbucha (tomato-y mush of yum), beets, eggplant, falafel, israeli salad, etc., etc.

So I made it at home because Encino is far:

1. Grilled portobellos and grilled green onions
2. Israeli salad: diced cucumbers, diced red bell peppers, parsley, red onions lemon, salt, pepper
3. White beans cooked with veg stock, fresh thyme, garlic, s/p
4. Matbucha: diced tomatoes cooked for a while with garlic, bell peppers, s/p, paprika, and then drizzled with olive oil after cooking.
5. The pita were fresh made and purchased at the Larchmont Farmer's Market