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OUTDOOR GRILLING GOES UP IN SMOKE
- Martin Booe
epicurious
Feb 6 2007
Food tastes different when it's cooked outdoors. Just ask Vrej
Sarkissian, who in Glendale, California, is known as the kings of
kabobs. His are simply seasoned with salt, pepper, and extra virgin
olive oil, just enough to bring out the natural flavors of the meat,
which is all the more savory when cooked over mesquite charcoal.
"People can always tell the difference," says Sarkissian, who owns
Anoush Banquet and Catering. "They want the original flavor of home."
"Home," in this case, refers to Armenia. Glendale is home to 85,000
Armenians. Here, as in the old country, outdoor grilling is fundamental
to hospitality, a fact that banquet-hall owners have seized on in
the past few years as an important selling point.
However, complaints from residents about the smoke from these barbecues
have led to new enforcement of the city's long-standing but largely
ignored ban on outdoor grilling, passed years ago out of concern for
air quality. And that enforcement has Armenian banquet-hall owners
burned up. The politics of grilling has erupted into what Glendale
city councilman Ara Najarian characterized as a "gourmet war."
"It's a really emotional issue for a lot of people," says Najarian,
adding that the enforcement has been seen by many as an insult to
Armenian traditions. "In Armenian culture, one of the ways to honor
your guests is by providing them food hot off the grill. A lot of
Armenian banquet owners feel picked on." He says that opponents of the
banquet halls' cookouts didn't target other commercial establishments
and that moving grills indoors would only mean the same smoke would
spew out through ventilation, so it would still end up in the air.
Last year, voters elected an Armenian majority of three to the
five-member city council, but overturning the ban requires four votes,
and the pro-grillers have so far come up short.
Meanwhile, Sarkissian is reluctantly planning to move his grill
indoors from the restaurant's parking lot. He estimates it will cost
him about $80,000. "We're going to try and figure out a way to use
mesquite indoors," said Sarkissian. "We're going to do whatever we
can to keep the flavor going."
http://www.epicurious.com/features/n ews/dailydish/020607
- Martin Booe
epicurious
Feb 6 2007
Food tastes different when it's cooked outdoors. Just ask Vrej
Sarkissian, who in Glendale, California, is known as the kings of
kabobs. His are simply seasoned with salt, pepper, and extra virgin
olive oil, just enough to bring out the natural flavors of the meat,
which is all the more savory when cooked over mesquite charcoal.
"People can always tell the difference," says Sarkissian, who owns
Anoush Banquet and Catering. "They want the original flavor of home."
"Home," in this case, refers to Armenia. Glendale is home to 85,000
Armenians. Here, as in the old country, outdoor grilling is fundamental
to hospitality, a fact that banquet-hall owners have seized on in
the past few years as an important selling point.
However, complaints from residents about the smoke from these barbecues
have led to new enforcement of the city's long-standing but largely
ignored ban on outdoor grilling, passed years ago out of concern for
air quality. And that enforcement has Armenian banquet-hall owners
burned up. The politics of grilling has erupted into what Glendale
city councilman Ara Najarian characterized as a "gourmet war."
"It's a really emotional issue for a lot of people," says Najarian,
adding that the enforcement has been seen by many as an insult to
Armenian traditions. "In Armenian culture, one of the ways to honor
your guests is by providing them food hot off the grill. A lot of
Armenian banquet owners feel picked on." He says that opponents of the
banquet halls' cookouts didn't target other commercial establishments
and that moving grills indoors would only mean the same smoke would
spew out through ventilation, so it would still end up in the air.
Last year, voters elected an Armenian majority of three to the
five-member city council, but overturning the ban requires four votes,
and the pro-grillers have so far come up short.
Meanwhile, Sarkissian is reluctantly planning to move his grill
indoors from the restaurant's parking lot. He estimates it will cost
him about $80,000. "We're going to try and figure out a way to use
mesquite indoors," said Sarkissian. "We're going to do whatever we
can to keep the flavor going."
http://www.epicurious.com/features/n ews/dailydish/020607