In Glendale, tastes from the Balkans & Buenos Aries

Elena's

One hidden away gem is a little place on Glendale Avenue called Elena’s. Run by a couple of Armenian ladies, this little place serves what my Bulgarian friend Boiko says is real Balkan soul food. The style is a mix of Greek, Turkish & Armenia staples that is not dumbed down for American taste. A great favorite with the LAPD from the near by Northeast Station and the local Glendale cops too, Elena's offers wonderful simple healthy food in a combination of Greek, Armenian, Turkish and Lebanese styles. All the dinner plates come with either a bowl of soul filling lentil soup or a very nice salad of lettuce tomatoes, onion, herbs and a vinegar lemon juice dressing that is just sharp and zesty enough to set off the vegetables. The following dinner plates are a large serving of rice pilaf with a grilled Anaheim pepper and a grilled tomato with onions and a side dish of pickled cabbage and other vegetables that is sort of mild Balkan take on kimchi. On this generous plate you can get various kabobs: chicken, lula, beef, lamb or a combination of them plus felafel, stuffed egg plant, stuffed grape leaves and a few other meatless dishes. The meats are well seasoned in the tangy Balkan Levantine way and full of zest without hiding or distorting their natural flavor. For myself, I almost always get a combo plate with one stick of lamb kabobs and the other of herb dusted chicken. While there is no beer or wine, a wide variety of soft drinks are available including the house made yogurt drink which is the prefect drink to go with the food. Finally some more good news about Elena’s is that almost all the dinners are less than ten dollars. They also have take out and also make pita sandwiches.

El Morfi

Another little place that I enjoy for its honest ethnic focus and direct simplicity is El Morfi, a block south of Porto’s Bakery on Brand across the street from the Alex Theater. An Argentine place, El Morfi (BA slang for a snack or quick bite) serves food in the unique Italo-Latino style of Buenos Aries. For example on the menu you will see “ñque” which really puzzled me until the young waiter explained it was how you spelled “Gnocchi” in Spanish. "¡ñque, ñque, ñque!" It is that kind of place.

What I particularly like there is their salad, an Argentine version of a chopped salad in a clean vinaigrette, papas Provenzale -- great french fries salted then tossed with garlic and parsley and their milanesas. The Neopalitana is a wide thin breaded beef cutlet topped with a herby marinara sauce and melted provolone and a few strips of roasted red pepper. (You can get chicken milanesas if you prefer.) There are many other dishes including pasta, pizza, empanadas and other Argentine specialties. They carry a good selection of wine and beer from “BA” and make a very flavorful house made Sangria that is not too sweet but very full of red wine character. Prices are quite fair, cheap by those used to the West Side and Santa Monica. It is a simple little place popular with both English and Spanish speakers.

And then there is the real reason to enjoy El Morfi, their home made Chimichurri. This condiment is addictive, it sings with herbs, teases with the smoothness of olive oil, it enchants with herbal complexity, and pinches your tongue with a tang and a zing. I dip bread in it, and spoon the green and golden elixir over the papas provenzale. I think I could eat cardboard dipped in. It is made in house and can be bought in mason jars and taken home. Don't miss it.

There is a story the the name Chimichurri comes from the name of Irish soldier who fought with Argentine rebel army in their war of Independence from Spain, Jimmy McCurry. Who knows? I suppose you could even say El Morfi is Irish too, a phonetic spelling of Murphy. I had an old nun when I was a child who said whenever you have a good story, there usually was an Irishman as the bottom of it.

Other places you should know about in Glendale are Damon’s, which has been there since the 1930’s. It looks like a local take on the Trader Vic’s, Don the Beachcomber school of Tiki restaurant. While it serves a wide variety of Tiki Room rum and fruit juice drinks in the grand Dorothy Lamour, Hope & Crosby “Road” pictures style, the menu is very much old time LA steakhouse. Near by is Jax’s, a bit more up scale but also long time LA steak house.

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A few words about Glendale.

Glendale does not make it that often into the food blogs, however occasionally a local place gets attention. For example, not long ago the food writer of the LA Weekly discovered Billy’s Deli on Orange Street. He liked it and was surprised it had slipped his attention since it has been there for over 50 years and has been used in movies and TV series as the interior for a New York deli or old fashioned Italian restaurant depending on what ethnic decorations replace the photo murals of pre-WW II Glendale. Billy’s makes all the New York Jewish Deli standards and have well priced daily specials. When many deli’s are drifting farther and father away from their traditions Billy’s stay close to the old ways. On the hottest day of summer the year at an outlet of the Jerry’s Deli’s chain, a Latino waitress tells me that don’t served cold beet borscht because nobody but a few old guys ever ordered it. That was as shocking as finding an Irish saloon that didn’t served Jameson’s or an English pub that didn’t have Fuller’s London Pride. What is the world coming to?

Billy's, how authentic is it? One example, they serve a breakfast special of fried baloney & eggs. It is quarter inch thick slices of Hebrew National Baloney fried until there is a scorched crust. You can't get much more old time authentic than that. My daughter says it is too disgusting to even think about. Hey, but does she know about real food. I have it on good authority that President Obama likes Spam Fried Rice just like everybody who grew up in Honolulu.

Another place that I feel is unfairly omitted from most food blogs is Mario’s Italian Market on Broadway. Mario’s is an old fashioned Italian market like there used to be all over San Francisco, San Jose and the rest of the Bay Area and many other parts of the country. My daughter last year had a problem with her foot and went to see a specialist recently moved to the San Fernando Valley from New Jersey. During one appointment the Doctor said that he had not been able to find a real old time Italian Market. Mara told him he should try Mario’s in Glendale. The next time she saw him he told her, “Thanks for telling me about Mario’s. Ya’ know, I opened the door and it smelled just like I was back in New Jersey.”

At Mario’s they make dozens of Italian hero sandwiches with a wide variety of salami’s, sausages, and other cured meats on their own torpedo shaped rolls. I always ask for no mustard or mayonnaise but extra olive oil and vinegar dressing. Mario’s carries a wide range of Italian and other Mediterranean imports, anchovies, canned fish, dozens and dozens kinds of pasta, cookies, candy, olive oil, vinegar's, spices, olives, etc., etc. Personally I would rate their hero sandwiches as good or better than those at Bay Cities in Santa Monica, but that is just me and doesn’t mean that I don’t think Bay Cities is a fine place.

Billy’s Deli & Café

216 N. Orange Street, Glendale, CA 91203

Phone: (818) 246-1689 | Fax: (818) 246-3210

Mario's Italian Deli & Catering

740 East Broadway

Glendale, CA (818) 242-4114

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