Marouch
4905 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles

We visited Marouch ^[1] Saturday @ 2:30 pm
Dish we will try to cook – Mahalabieh, $6.99

Restaurant Visit
Aiming to enjoy lunch at Marouch ^[1], we ended up enjoying a very late lunch due to underestimating just how long it took to get to Hollywood from the west side. Surprisingly, we weren’t even the only table there at that time in the afternoon and the food made the drive seem well worth it. Marouch has been the mainstay Lebanese-Armenian restaurant in Los Angeles practically since we’ve both been alive and the husband-wife team of owners/chef is still active in the restaurant and kitchen. The husband, Serge was extremely friendly and once he heard we were visiting for our food blog he informed us on the history of the restaurant and the food. It was sweet to see hear how much praise he has for his wife, Chef Sossy Brady, who makes many of the dishes herself and, rightfully so, won’t even share some of the recipes.

As usual, we decided to try a sampling of many of their dishes to truly get a feel for the food and the place. We started with the baba ghanouge (dip made of smoked eggplant seasoned with garlic, lemon juice and sesame seed paste) $7.99, followed by the yogurt kabob (generous cut, seasoned and charbroiled beef topped with yogurt sauce and pine nuts) $15.99, and shawarma combination (beef, chicken and gyros) $15.99 for our entrees. For dessert, we were hoping to order the asha-al-saraya but were informed they were out of it for the day. So, we opted for the mahalabieh (rice pudding topped with pistachios and rose water) $6.99).

The baba ghanouge was probably the best we’ve ever eaten. Serge mentioned that it is a secret recipe of Chef Sossy and she will only use one particular type of eggplant for the dish. Whatever it is she does to create the dip, we hope she keeps it up. We were equally charmed by both our entrées. The yogurt kabob is a house specialty and comes with your choice of beef, chicken or lamb. One unique quality of the dish was that the beef was served two ways – ground with spices and chunks of sirloin. It was impossible to decide which method we enjoyed more. At first, we skipped using the pita bread to scoop up the beef and yogurt, assuming it was nothing special. Boy, were we wrong. Serge made sure we tried the dish as intended to be eaten. Our taste buds were blown away by the delicate yet rich, garlic flavor of the pita, which only served to enhance the spices of the meat and creaminess of the yogurt even more. Since we had opted for the combination plate of shawarma, we had our choice of meats with the lamb being our favorite. A tahini sauce was served as a side to the lamb, with a garlic sauce accompanying the chicken. All three meats were full of flavors and tender enough to cut with a fork. Rice also accompanied both dishes.

For dessert, we ended up ordering a dish that we were the most ignorant about. Which made the experience even more intriguing. Serge said we couldn’t go wrong with the mahalabieh and we’re always up for trying something that we don’t even know how to pronounce. The presentation of the pudding alone is enough to make you want to dig in. Sitting delicately in the middle of a small, round plate is an unassuming mold of white pudding. However, emerald green pistachios, almond slivers and golden raisins dot the surface and surrounding plate. It’s the clear rose water pooled on the plate that really gives the entire dish its flavor. We didn’t have much room left in our stomachs for dessert, but we somehow managed to finish the whole thing. The rice pudding was silky smooth and all the flavors combined to create a sweet yet mild dessert.

Marouch will soon be celebrating its 30-year anniversary and we hope to be enjoying their flavors for 30 more years to come. Even if you aren’t in the area, or get freaked out about eating at restaurants tucked away in a strip of storefronts, make it a point to visit Marouch for either lunch or dinner. According to Jonathan Gold ^[2], “year after year, Marouch becomes nothing but better.”

Shopping
(prices reflect the cost of the package, not the portion we used.) The rest of the ingredients we already had in the kitchen.

Whole Foods ^[3]
Whole Milk $1.99
Slivered Almonds $2.49
Golden Raisins $4.49
Pistachios $5.99
White Rice Flour $2.99

Tehran Market ^[4]
Orange Blossom Water $2.39
Rose Water $2.39

Recipe
Below is our take on Lebanese-Armenian Mahalabieh. While we have no idea exactly how they prepare theirs, we looked around online for recipes then combined that knowledge with the flavors we tasted in the original dish and went from there.

Makes 3 desserts.

Mahalabieh

Pudding
2 cups whole milk
1/4 cup rice flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 TBSP orange blossom water
One handful pistachios, roasted and chopped
One handful slivered almonds
One handful golden raisins

Hardware: Jumbo muffin pan (holds 6 molds)

Add milk, rice flour, cornstarch and sugar to a medium pot. Mix together until rice flour and cornstarch have dissolved. Turn on heat to medium-high and constantly whisk. Once mixture begins boiling, lower heat to low and cook for an additional minute, or until mixture has thickened. Once thickened, remove from heat and add orange blossom water. Transfer mixture to muffin pan. Place in refrigerator and allow to cool for 3 hours, or up to overnight.

Syrup
2 TBSP water
1 TBSP rose water
2 TBSP sugar
1 TBSP honey

Bring water to a boil. Add sugar, rosewater and honey and whisk until sugar has completely dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

Plating
Remove pudding from mold by placing dish on top of pan and then flipping pan and plate over. Place one pudding mold on the center of 8″ dish. Top with pistachios, followed by golden raisins and a few almond slivers. Drizzle syrup around pudding and finish with more almonds and raisins around the dish.

Rating- We give our dish 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Having never made rice pudding before, we were a little nervous to attempt this recipe. The ingredients seemed so easy that we knew there had to be a trick we were missing. Surprisingly though, it really wasn’t too bad. We hit two of the main criteria we look for when rating ourselves – flavor and appearance. The one thing that seems to get us quite often is texture. It barely eluded us this time around, but since we want to be honest, it seems theirs was somewhat smoother. Our syrup also had a thicker consistency to it even though the sweet flavor of the honey with the rose water was spot on.

We certainly recommend keeping this recipe for when you want to really impress your dinner guest with dessert without having to spend all day baking. The plating alone entices your eyes while the exotic flavor of rose water will capture your taste buds. And if you really want to impress someone, take them for dinner at Marouch ^[5].

How would you rate our recipe? We look forward to hearing feedback from you guys. If you love Armenian food as much as we do, be sure to let us know your favorite restaurant for the cuisine. Feel free to email us if you have any questions on the recipe and don’t forget to vote for next week’s restaurant!

^[5]