Return of the Hubby!

To commemorate our triumphant return to Freedom Friday, Mr. C and I celebrated with ceremonial trips to Target and Costco. After our shopping revelry, I led Stan off our beaten path to a little hole-in-the-wall deep in North Hollywood, called Brami's Kosher Pizza. I had read about some amazing creation they had there, though I could not remember the name. My confidence was momentarily shaken when we pulled into a dingy little strip mall and I saw cheesy posters in the window of Brami's, advertising "two slices and a drink, $3.99!" It looked like your average generic pizza slice joint, no frills, nothing that promised to be earth-shattering.

Appearances can be deceiving.

We wandered in, throwing caution to the wind (though we didn't throw too much caution; we did, indeed, take all our valuables out of the car). There was no ambience to be found within the confines of Brami's; in fact, this was pretty much a get-down-to-the business-of-eating place. We went to the register and said to the guy, "Okay, we read about you guys in the Times. What should we get?"

He humbly pointed to one of the items, entitled Malawach Pizza, saying, "This is pretty darn good.". It wasn't even prominent on the menu. But it sounded different enough to be promising. So we told him to bring us one of those, and a Greek salad.

Once we had ordered, we noticed the very article I had read from the Times, framed on the wall. Indeed, it was the Malawach pizza they had reviewed, and I was happy I had gotten my facts straight.

We were even more thankful when we got our pizza. WOW. Turns out Malawach is a kind of dough. I can't quite describe it except to say it is melt-in-your-mouth spectactular. Kind of a cross between puff pastry and phillo dough. The bottom gets a little crispier, the top is soft and pillowy, and stuffed in between is an exquisite melted mixture of mozzarella, feta, chopped tomatoes and green olives. Stan and I shamelessly inhaled this pizza in about five minutes, giddily laughing because it was that good. I could have used a little less green olive- I love them, but the tang was a bit overwhelming after two pieces. No matter; I simply peeled back my Malawach, picked a few out, and folded it back. If I ordered it next time (and there will be a next time), I would ask for what the menu says: green onion, not green olive. Big difference. I think the menu must be a misprint, but I'd like to try it! Stan loved the abundance of green olive, so it might have just been my delicate feminine palate.

Let it be said that the salad was also big, beautiful, and quite tasty. Lots of lettuce, feta, red onion, kalamata olives and tomato, with a huge side of ranch dressing. And if you're just not in the mood for kosher pizza or a salad, fear not... they have omelettes too.