Here’s where to find the best kebabs in Pasadena

Let us consider how much we love — both wisely and well — the seemingly simple dish called, variously, a kebab, a kabob, a kabab and even (in Turkish) a kebap. Spell it as you will, it’s still essentially the same thing — meat, seafood or vegetables, cut or ground, more often than not skewered and cooked over fire.

I’ve eaten kebabs of beef, lamb, pork, fish and chicken, usually generously spiced, with aggressive grill marks on the skewers. I never grow tired of kebabs. And neither has much of the Middle East, ever since kebabs were first codified in a 10th-century Baghdadi cookbook.

It’s a word that comes from the Aramaic term meaning to burn, to char, to roast. There’s evidence that the word is even older, dating back to a time before there was history. And it’s been a dish with holy strictures as well; Babylonians were instructed not to bring offerings that were kabbaba (“burnt”). Which seems wrong; surely the gods enjoyed kebabs as much as anyone.

I love them for the aroma, which perfumes every restaurant where kebabs are the central theme. I love them for the flavor, which mixes meat with spice to a degree that raises both to heavenly levels. I love them for the chewiness, the texture and the mouthfeel.

I even love the ritual of sliding them off their skewers — easier with the metal ones I use at home than with the wooden ones in restaurants. And I should add that the kebabs I make at home are never as good as the ones served in restaurants. This may be food that can’t be replicated in our tidy kitchens; the flavor floats through the air of the cafes where they’re served.

Let me offer two of my favorites:

Tasty Yerevan (1802 E. Washington Blvd., Pasadena; 626-990-9090) is the recently opened branch of a popular kebab shop in Glendale, where those of us who love their meat charred line up for a Styrofoam container of beef, pork and chicken.

The Pasadena location has a busy Mexican eatery next door, and a very busy laundromat sharing the same mini mall. It also has big screens overhead sharing videos of what I assume are Armenian singers, in music videos that bring me back to the great days of MTV and VH1. (Remember them?)

The menu is simpler than most, stripped down to that wonderful creation called shawarma — the ground pork and chicken combination shaped into an inverted cone, which rotates on an industrial-sized skewer, filling the air with a mouth-watering aroma that drives me mad with desire. It’s served here in hot bread pockets, and crunchy lavash bread, with lots of vegetables in the mix.

At Tasty Yerevan in Pasadena, the kebab options include beef, chicken and pork, along with filet mignon. (Photo by Merrill Shindler)

Kebabs are served over rice at Tasty Yerevan in Pasadena. (Photo by Merrill Shindler)

You want your kebabs in a wrap, the options expand to beef, chicken and pork, along with filet mignon. If I’m eating in-house, I get a plate with shawarma or kebabs, and a side of wonderfully crisp french fries. A charred tomato and a charred jalapeño don’t hurt either.

Be sure to wash it down with a cucumber yogurt drink, which is sour and so satisfying. It’s called okróshka — a word as much fun to pronounce as it is to drink.

Several miles south of Tasty Yerevan, there’s Heidar Baba (1511 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena; 626-844-7970, www.heidarbaba.com), which is also a wide distance away in style and substance. Heidar Baba serves the best Persian food this side of Westwood.

It refers to itself as the “House of halal Persian kabob.” Which, like the food served there, is something of a mouthful. And, at least one word in the moniker demands a spoonful of explanation.

“Halal” is often described as the Islamic equivalent of “kosher,” and the parallel is fair. Like kosher, halal forbids the use or consumption of pork products, of animals improperly slaughtered or dead before slaughter, of carnivorous animals and birds of prey, and of blood.

Unlike kosher, alcohol is also forbidden. Which means that, when dining at Heidar Baba, it’s not a good idea to BYOB. The beverage of choice here is tea, though soft drinks are also available, giving the place the sense of a fast-food operation in Tehran. Or, perhaps I should say, the best fast-food operation in Tehran.

The kebabs are both basic, and a bit Cal-Iranian; I suspect that salmon kebabs might be a bit exotic as well. Otherwise, they’re as familiar as old friends — chicken, lamb and beef chunks, along with ground beef koobideh. As at the Persian cafés of Westwood, kebabs are what most people seem to order, served with a choice of appetizers and salads.

I’m a big fan of the salad Olivieh, a sort of potato salad on steroids that varies a bit from chef to chef, from restaurant to restaurant; it’s the mee krob of Persian cooking.

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A fine plate of Iranian pickles is a good choice as well. They’re called torshi, and they have a pucker like no other pickled food — neither a dilled cuke nor kimchee have the kick of a good plate of torshi.

There’s a wealth of Persian stews as well. Khoresh is essentially a sauce for the butter-flavored rice called chelo. There’s also ghormeh sabzi, a long, slow cooked meat and vegetable stew — gedempte, in Eastern European terms — meaning it’s cooked until all the elements have melded into a whole new food; this is warm fusion in action.

There’s the elegantly named fesenjoon, which sounds like a character out of “Robin Hood,” a dish notable for its flavoring of walnuts and pomegranates.

Should you want neither tea nor soda, there’s a sour yogurt drink called doogh. It’s a cousin of the okróshka at Tasty Yerevan, but not as much fun to pronounce.

Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Email [email protected].

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