Feast of Arabia: Azure’s pan-Arab cuisine promises to become a dining destination [RESTAURANT REVIEW]
The Azure Combo includes skewers of charbroiled chicken breast, top sirloin and kafta. Photo As little as twenty years ago most Americans had no idea that there was such thing as regional Italian cuisine. Now we are sophisticated enough to know that there are major variations based on different cultures, ecologies, access to historic trade routes, and other factors. However, some people are still surprised by regional differences of an area over fifty times the size of Italy – the Arab world. This extends from West Africa to the border of Persia, but for various reasons only a few of those cuisines have been available here. What we think of as Arabic food is usually Lebanese and Palestinian, closely related styles from one small region. There is much more to discover, and a recently opened restaurant in Redondo expands our options. Azure describes itself as a Mediterranean restaurant, a vague term usually used for any mix of Southern European and Arabic food. Europe is lightly represented on Azure’s menu; there are a few Greek dishes, but the focus is on a swathe of the Arab world stretching from Turkey to Egypt. The chef is from Cairo and has brought that city’s cosmopolitan…
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