Sunday, April 20, 2008

Beautiful, Boutiful Beoreks at Taron Bakery

Taron Bakery is an Armenian bakery on Hollywood Boulevard just behind the big Kaiser complex. They make a limited number of delicious Armenian pastries. Their specialty is beorek (alt. spelling boerek), meat and cheese pies popular in that intersection of Europe and the Middle East.

When you walk in, you will see two shelves of pies behind the counter and the hostess will tell you what they have that day.

They make four kinds of Beoreks: cheese, spicy cheese, beef and spinach. I tried all but the spinach and they were excellent. The beef is nicely spiced, the cheese is salty and oniony. The spicy cheese is flecked with red pepper bits, but only enough to add flavor, not any real heat. The crusts are salty, chewy, wonders, not quite the thickness or chewiness of pizza crust but close, with a nice browning on the oiled surface.

The other mainstay at Taron is the lahmajune, sometimes referred to as Armeninan Pizza. It consists of a layer of spiced, ground beef sandwiched between layers of flat-bread the consistency and thickness of a lavosh. It's somewhat more heavily spiced than the beef used in the beorek.

So, next time you're in the mood for some good meat and cheese pies, check it out in Hollywood or at their branch in Glendale.

Taron Bakery
4950 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 663-4809

1117 S. Glendale Ave., #D
Glendale, CA 91205
(818) 553-1883

No comments: