Al Hamra, Redondo Beach

By Richard Foss Note: Written in 2006 – chef changed 2007, slightly smaller menu now. I remember when hummus was exotic, something I could only get in the South Bay at Joe’s Artesia Market. When I served it at a party, I had to explain what hummus was at least twice during the evening. Now you find it in restaurants of all kinds, and nobody’s refrigerator shelf is complete without a plastic tub of the stuff. This is progress of a sort, though some of that supermarket hummus is pretty awful, more useful for spackling holes in the bathroom wall than for actually eating. Many places try to fancy it up by adding spinach, red peppers, cheese, and whatever they have a lot of, sometimes with strange results. It’s worth going back to the roots of the cuisine, to chefs who grew up with hummus and demand that it be served at the peak of freshness. My favorite such place is Al Hamra on Artesia just west of Inglewood, where owner Nasim Siddiqui and chef Samar Atchaw serve an unusual variety of Arabic food. Nasim is from Pakistan, Samar from Lebanon, and though the two culinary traditions are distinctly different, both are served in this little strip mall restaurant. Of course almost all meals…

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