Modest Cafe Offers Big Array of Mideast Dishes

“You don’t look Armenian,” said Nanik Kopalian when I asked for soujouk (pronounced sue-JUKE). It’s a heartily spiced homemade sausage, and I suppose Mrs. Kopalian doesn’t get many orders for it from non-Armenian customers.

But after tasting this soujouk, I have to wonder why. The sizzling, lean, reddish-brown beef sausage is a killer, redolent of garlic and perhaps sumac berries, wonderfully pungent and begging to be sandwiched between pieces of pita bread.

Too bad that Araz, a modest little Studio City cafe, has no beer and wine license. I’d love to wash down a plate of soujouk with an ice-cold lager. But I guess I’ll have to settle for tahn, the Armenian yogurt soda.

The last time I dined here was during a driving rainstorm, and my friend and I were the only people in the establishment. But Nanik’s Syrian-born husband, Chahe, was busy at his grill all evening, because people kept trickling in to pick up huge bags of takeout.

We did our best to keep him busy as well, ordering a table full of the Middle Eastern appetizers known as mezzeh, a few grilled meats and an order of stuffed vegetables. We didn’t do what you’d call legendary fressing that night, but both of us left contented. Eat at Araz, and that is a given.

Kopalian’s food isn’t light, but all of it is delicious. I’d start a meal by ordering a lot of small plates of mezzeh. By the way, you don’t have to order the sour, crunchy Middle Eastern pickles made from cucumbers and turnips--they’re already on the table, complimentary with everything here.

Start with the cold mezzeh. First, dip your pita into some mutabbal, a remarkable puree of smoky eggplant. It’s creamy, almost like a French pate, with a tiny pool of olive oil floating in the center. Then try some tart lebneh (condensed yogurt) with cucumber and olives and a plate of fattush, Kopalian’s 12-ingredient salad. The first round could end with muhammara, a savory paste of bread crumbs and olive oil flavored with red peppers and ground walnuts.

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Now you’re ready for hot appetizers. You already know about soujouk. There’s also kibbeh, deep-fried torpedoes of bulgur wheat with an aromatic filling of ground meat and pine nuts. Fulmudammas is a favorite Mideast breakfast dish of fava beans in a rich, lemony broth. If you’re absolutely ravenous, have some stuffed grape leaves with a dense rice stuffing. They come eight to an order and are all too filling.

Kopalian is a first-rate grill man and all his kebabs are flawless. They are served atop mounds of fluffy rice and accompanied with vinegary salads. Probably the best of them is chicken kebab (shish tavuk), chunks of blackened chicken that fall apart when prodded with a fork.

Luleh kebab is a tempting combination of ground lamb and beef, making it twice as interesting as the ground beef version you get in our local Persian restaurants. Kopalian’s standard shish kebab is made of filet mignon. A lamb kebab is paired with grilled eggplant, skin on.

The topper to all of this is marinated barbecued quail, Kopalian’s chef-d’oeuvre. Sure, you can go down to the Boulevard for quail at Pinot Bistro or Bistro Garden, for instance. But neither of those places can compete with Araz, where you get two of the most perfectly grilled birds I’ve ever tasted for only $9.95. These quail, tasting of fruit and spice, are all charred skin, moist meat and crunchy little bones--so full of flavor you’ll want to chew on them.

The other must at Araz is the mixed stuffed vegetables, a giant platter of zucchini, tomato and green pepper that is a Middle Eastern version of the petites farcies you eat in Nice. The vegetables are served bursting with a meat and rice stuffing, bigger and more roughhewn than stuffed vegetables in France.

It’s no wonder that Araz doesn’t often bother to serve dessert, though occasionally there is baklava. You can get a cup of soorj, which is Armenian (don’t call it Turkish) coffee, but that’s about it. What, you’re still hungry?

DETAILS

* WHAT: Araz

* WHERE: 11717 Moorpark St., Studio City.

* WHEN: Open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday; closed Monday.

* HOW MUCH: Dinner for two, $16-$33. Suggested dishes: soujouk, $3.95; muhammara, $3.95; chicken kebab, $8.50; stuffed vegetables, $6.95; quails, $9.95. No alcohol.

* FYI: Parking lot. American Express, MasterCard and Visa.

* Call: (818) 766-1336.