Photos: Critics Choice: Flatbread

Spicy soujuk flatbread at Momed, a Mediterranean restaurant with locations in Atwater Village and Beverly Hills. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Oct. 17, 2014 10:45 AM PT

For as long as humans have been cultivating grains, cooks have been baking flatbreads in the embers or on primitive wood-fired ovens. But it’s the wonderful toppings -- lamb or sausage, fresh or aged cheeses, vegetables or wild greens and herbs -- that make these flatbreads the stuff of dreams.

The summer squash flatbread at Momed is topped with squash, sun gold tomatoes, pine nuts and parsley tahini. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Momed serves pides, long and slender flatbreads topped with melting cheese or vegetables. Pictured, a shrimp lamajoun variety. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Monday night is pide night at Momed when all the pides are $10 and wines are half off. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Actress Alana Dietze pauses next to a graphic art wall decoration after getting her lunch at Momed in Atwater Village. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

The bondiga flatbread at Baco Mercat is topped with three cheeses, lamb meatballs and smoked jalapeno. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

Though Baco Mercat, lcoated on Main Street in Downtown Los Angeles, is known for its taco/pizza hybrids, the restaurant also serves Barcelona-style coca, thin, crisp rounds of dough come with half a dozen toppings. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

If you’re planning a trip to the Santa Ynez Valley, make sure to stop at Full of Life Flatbread in Los Alamos. Pictured here, the restaurant’s broccoli calabrese flatbread pizza with burrata, black olives and garden cherry tomatoes. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Full of Life Flatbread functions as an organic frozen pizza maker by day, but four nights a week (Thursday-Sunday) it transforms into a sprawling restaurant that draws chefs and foodies from all over the state. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Fresh fig and prosciutto flatbread pizza with smoked blue cheese at Full of Life Flatbread. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Three generations from Lompoc and Sacramento dine outdoors at Full of Life Flatbread, where waits can be as long as two hours on weekends. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Fire roasted tomato salsa flatbread. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)