- And it's a big sheet of lavash. Huge. It's like three feet, right? - Yeah, easily. - It's crazy, right? It's like a little blanket. - It is a little blanket! I literally want to climb into it and have someone roll me up in it. What's up guys and gals. We are here outside of
Mini Kabob in Glendale, California where this family is making some of the most delicious grilled meats. The Lula Kabob is the
star of the show here at Mini Kabob. And I'm going to get a
one-on-one crash course with Armen himself. (upbeat music) - So let's start off the day with beef shish kabob. - Beef. - Yes the (speaks foreign language), we use flap meat. - [Nyesha] Okay. - The flap meat we get in whole. - Is this a pretty
traditional style cut of meat that is used? - But the thing, a lot of people like to use filet mignon, I don't like filet mignon. - I'm right there with you chef. - [Armen] It's just it's... - [Nyesha] Too lean. - [Armen] Yeah. - [Nyesha] Yep not enough depth of flavor. - [Armen] Exactly. - [Nyesha] Yep. - [Armen] And so with
the flap meat and you, as you could tell you know the ridges and you can see it kind of penetrate through and then... - [Nyesha] Wow. - [Armen] You know, you know, - [Nyesha] It breaks up the muscle tissue. - [Armen] Exactly. - [Nyesha] Yeah. - Okay. Starting off with the flap meat. - Okay. - So you want to kind of get the sharp end and then just skewer right in the middle kind of press and then
go all the way through. - [Nyesha] Down the center? - [Armen] Yeah exactly. - [Nyesha] Okay. - [Armen] So you want to center it and if you kind of miss it, it's okay you can go back and just like... - Okay. - And you're good. - [Nyesha] Yes. - And we go five to a
skewer at the restaurant. - [Nyesha] Five? - [Armen] Yes. - [Nyesha] So in this
marinade it looks sort of like peppery almost. - Yeah. The black pepper, I'm
having a battle with my dad 'cause he likes the fine black pepper, I despise it. - [Nyesha] Yes. - [Armen] I like it more
coarse so it's just... - [Nyesha] Same. - Alright quality control or check time. - Oh my gosh, nervous. - Not bad at all. So I, I always tend to look for a flop, it's solid 'cause, you really don't want it hanging. These are fine these
stragglers they're there. What I like to do is kind of like, chop 'em off at the end cause they char too much. - Mm hm. - But other than that this is, yeah you could jump on tomorrow and you'll be solid. - Sick! - Yeah. (Nyesha laughs) (sword sounds) (both laugh) - There's actually one
more step behind this before we finish, we gotta get our beautiful pink to-go bag that's the most LA thing you'll find. - [Nyesha] Amazing! - [Armen] So we get the bag, with this one we put it in there and then we have to pulverize it. - [Nyesha] Wow. - [Armen] Not too hard. Not too aggressive. So before we throw it on the grill we kind of break it down. So tenderizes it a little bit more, so I just kind of give it love taps. - Okay. - You want to try the last one? - Yes. - [Armen] Perfect. Feeling it out, sometimes I'll let it sit for five minutes and then, 'cause we
like beef at room temp. - [Nyesha] Yes. - So we have the chicken thigh here. Absolute crowd favorite. Everybody loves it. So we're going to use
a flat skewer like so, so it holds the chicken thigh better. - Okay. - So chicken thigh skewer up, and keep it flat as much as possible and it just, skewer out. So when you do get, it's
okay if it's dangling like so a little bit
but as long as it's flat it's perfect. - Is there a specific name for this type of skewer? - Shish or (speaking foreign language.) - Okay. - Multiple variations of ways but shish would be the more, I guess, American way of saying it. - [Nyesha] Okay. - [Armen] Can you actually guess what's in the marinade? - [Nyesha] Can I guess
what's in the marinade? - Yeah. - Okay yes. - [Armen] I always taste it. - [Nyesha] Yeah right? - [Armen] Yeah I taste it every morning. - [Nyesha] Okay we have garlic, potentially lemon juice. - Yeah. - Yogurt. Maybe some olive oil potentially. - Potentially. - [Nyesha] Potentially, allegedly, some cumin or some... - Maybe, depends on where you're from. - If you look with your left eye or your right eye it
could be cumin or not. - [Armen] It could be a variation. (Chef laughs) - [Nyesha] It could be
a variation of cumin. We have some red chile,
ground chile or paprika. - [Armen] Close. - Okay. - We like to keep it middle eastern. I'll give you that one it's Aleppo pepper. - Okay we have Aleppo pepper. We have black pepper. - On point so far you're clutch nobody's, nobody's come this far, chef. - Excellent. - Yeah. - I love that for me. (Armen laughs) Okay I'm going to leave the rest of the proprietary secrets to Mini Kabob. - [Armen] And the last thing before I like to drop the piece
of protein on the grill is what I like is a little separation. - Okay. - And ultimately what
the separation does is it distributes the heat
evenly to cook everything to normal temp. - Yes. - So when they're
collected like this you'll have raw chicken in return. - Makes sense. - And a lot of people like to clump it up and I don't understand
the reasoning behind it, but that's just my perspective. - And do we think that
the metal is heating up and cooking from the inside as well? - [Armen] Yeah. - [Nyesha] Is that really kind of a... - [Armen] Exactly. - [Nyesha] Cool. - So it's got like a slight sear but it also keeps the moisture. - Chef! - Yes? - I've been hearing about the crown jewel of this place our beloved
Mini Kabob de Lula. - Yeah perfect. - Lula. - Alright chef. - Yes. - This is where we get technical. - Okay technical I love it. - You want to start easy or hard? - I want to start hard. - Okay we're going to start with chicken. - Okay. - [Armen] So this is a, this is the thicker shish that we like to use for the Lula specific in the steak. Ultimately it will hold the Lula better. So I'm going to actually show you we'll do half a skewer
cause it's easier to skewer. - [Nyesha] Okay. - [Armen] So this is the way I like to approach it, it's way my dad taught me. - [Nyesha] Excellent. - [Armen] So we get the chicken, right? Make sure it's dry, dry hand. Initially we just put it on right? - Okay. - So you kind of like, - So what are you feeling for? - So right now you just
want to have it hold, right? - Okay. - So now it's holding. Wet your hand. It could be cold water it could be damp, whatever it is so, and now we start forming, kind of like slide, slide. This is a little too
chunky so I'm going to get rid of a little bit. What I'm doing right now just basically like forming like this long rectangle. - Yes. - And to ultimately form the shape that I want it to be. - Yes. - It's still a little too chunky, but what I'm going to do now is kind of cut that one off as well. And what you do as well when you cut is kind of like you tighten it up here, so it doesn't fall off. So kind of bring it down like so, and then I can start forming one, two, - [Nyesha] Oh wow. - [Armen] 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. So we could do that. Cut it off. It's not ready yet. Still not ready. - So right now we're forming... Are we pulling air out
as you're doing this? Not too much pressure? - Yeah not too much pressure. - Okay as you're dipping
your hand into the water what is that allowing you
to do in this process? - So it allows me to just shape it the way I want it to. We can try to do it dry but when it's dry, it's just your hands are going to stick. You're not going to be able to get the form you want. - [Nyesha] Yes. - And then it's just
not going to make sense. - Gotcha. - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. And you can just finish up and tuck it in. - Okay. - [Armen] Okay so now
you got the shape on, so ultimately people have
the problem initially. They're like, oh why doesn't it hold? So there's always ratios, right? - [Nyesha] Yes. - [Armen] You know fat content ratios to protein. - [Nyesha] Of course. - And there's salt levels. - Of course. - If your salt's also not enough it tends to fall off. - Yes. - So there needs to be
a good balance among everything. So now you have the form down. - [Nyesha] Yes. - [Armen] Which is perfect. Dry hand. Beautiful chef! - [Nyesha] Thank you chef. - [Armen] So hypothetically, if we want to do a butcher job no offense to the skewer but this would, this would literally sorry, I'm going to take that outta your hands. This would be the butcher
job because you know there's no equal distribution of you know, proteins and one's bigger than the other and it's just not going to cook the same. So we're at that level where, okay let's do the square guy, - [Nyesha] Square guy. - [Armen] Square guy. - [Nyesha] Okay. - [Armen] So we start squaring him up. So it's almost like flat in the bottom flat up top and then just, size just gentle. It's okay. - Okay. - Trust me you're doing
way better than I was the first time I did it. - Okay. - I couldn't even put
the mold on initially. - Okay chef. - [Armen] So, beautiful, okay great start, great. - [Nyesha] Okay. - [Armen] Okay so what I would do is cut like that much off. - [Nyesha] Okay. Here? - [Armen] Yeah cut it. - [Nyesha] Bye bye. - [Armen] There it is, beautiful. See, now it looks like they're cousins. - [Nyesha] Yeah. - [Armen] Okay. - Just press here? - Yeah slight plus, slight press. - Slight press. Here we go one, - [Armen] Two - [Nyesha] Two - [Armen] Three, - [Nyesha] Three, - Four, (both laugh) Six and seven. - [Nyesha] Okay. - [Armen] Okay. We'll figure it out. So kind of just reshape it. - Okay. (Nyesha laughs) - It's you know what it is? It's the forming of the hand, is pressing it 'cause
it's such a weird thing. - Totally I need to do like at least 10,000 of these. - In time. - In time. - The fact that you have it on is better than most of everybody that I've worked with. So now we start reaching the baby Os. So now it looks more presentable. - [Nyesha] More uniform totally. - [Armen] Yeah, yeah. - [Nyesha] Oh good! - [Armen] You know what I mean? - [Nyesha] Yeah I feel good about that. - [Armen] There you go. Chicken done, time for the easier one. - Okay great. - [Armen] Alright. - [Nyesha] Beef. - [Armen] Beef Lula. - [Nyesha] Lula! - Let me go get my dad. - Oh no okay. - The true master of this! - Dad's coming in. - Nice, nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you as well. - King of kabob for weeks. (Nyesha laughs) - My dad calls himself the king of kabob. - No, no, no some people they say, that's my customers. - And I'm going to let
my dad's true hand form come out of this and I'm going to have him actually teach you. - Oh excellent! - [Ovakim] Like some
people they do like this. - Yes. - [Ovakim] I do like this. - [Nyesha] Okay. - [Ovakim] I make it longer no anyway, you must be like watering
like this not too much. - Not too much. - You cutting after you starting, like this all the way. No he do. You learn it much better. That's it. You're going to do it. - I am going to try. And you're going to tell
me if I do it right. - Yeah. Don't worry do it, go ahead, go ahead, go
ahead, go ahead, go ahead all the way. Like that. Turn it the other way. Your fingerprint you know? - Yes. - [Ovakim] You must be...yeah okay. No, that's too much. - Okay. - Little bit. It's okay, it's okay. - [Nyesha] Okay so, - You, you nice, you're nice, you're nice, you're nice. That's it! - [Nyesha] That's it? - For first the damage very nice. - Excellent! Thank you chef. How is it like working as a chef, your own person but then
working as a family? It kind of seems like it
would be really fun but, - For me it's right now
it's spending the time, the quality time with my parents. - Invaluable. - Exactly. - However, (Nyesha laughs) - However working with my dad. - [Nyesha] Yeah. - This is where it comes, my mom is a sweetheart
you know me and my dad are just at each other's throats. - Yes. - My dad's got a delicate touch. Not a lot of people
could do what he's doing. And I think he's on
another level when it comes to his proteins. And like he's taught me
everything from skewing and to boil it down like, look how great of a job you've done. - That's coming from your dad. Him to you to me. - [Armen] Yeah. - That's legacy. (upbeat music plays) - [Armen] Let's get this baby going. - [Nyesha] Okay chef
here comes the fun part. - [Armen] Okay you hungry? - [Nyesha] I'm very hungry
it's kind of my gift and also curse that is
that I'm always starving. - [Armen] Nyesha, while you're roasting off the veg. - [Nyesha] Yes. - [Armen] I'm going to drop some falafels. - [Nyesha] Okay cool. - [Armen] So everything is about timing like with the falafels
it's okay if it like sits for a second and
when you got fries going, falafels going, protein
going, veggies going, rice going. - [Nyesha] It's such a dance. - [Armen] It's a big dance. - [Nyesha] Ballet. - [Armen] A little spot, big dance at Mini Kabob. It's like a Quentin Tarantino movie. You want to drop the meat chef? - [Nyesha] I would love to! - Let's go chicken first. So we go to the sides first obviously, - Sides first? - Yeah. The temperature is
obviously dramatically lower than it is going to be in the middle. And we could start
dropping like the steak, but with the steak I'll drop that in the middle immediately. The middle's the hottest point, the left hand size second hottest. The third hottest would
be the right hand side. - So I see there's a
technique that we're using as we're dropping these different cuts and styles of protein. Is there a methodology behind controlling the heats? Where we are placing the product? - Yeah for sure. - Yes. - With the chicken, got
the dairy-based marinade, - [Nyesha] Yes. - [Armen] The yogurt marinade. - [Nyesha] Yes. - [Armen] It'll get its color the way it needs to. - Okay. - With steak, I like to hit it fast and hit it quick. - Yes. - And get it to its temp. So now we're already kind of like getting closer right? You can already see the color changing. - [Nyesha] Yeah. - [Armen] So just take a look real quick. Hey buddy, how you doing? Okay, cool, go back. While that's happening
let's drop the Lulas. - [Nyesha] Okay. - [Armen] Beautiful. These are ceramic tiles. - [Nyesha] Okay. - [Armen] So ultimately what they do and the purpose of why we have it there, is to suppress any flareups. - Sure. This seems like a very sustainable way to not burn through a lot of fuel right? Or charcoal. I mean is that play
really into the reasoning behind the ceramic tile or, - If I, if I could I'd it. - Yeah. - I would do it because
it's just more flavor. Not too many restaurants in Glendale that are permitted to cook on charcoal. Our hood isn't permitted type two. I'd have to completely rearrange everything in the restaurant as well. Just because we are Grandfathered in. - So not having the type two hood. - Correct. - Is the reason why
you're using ceramic tile? - Ultimately, - Ultimately. But if you had your option, you'd cook over charcoal. - All day. - All day. - [Armen] This is a one of one. Nobody gets this anymore. - [Nyesha] One of one. - Get the lavash out. - Okay. - And it's a big sheet of lavash. Huge. It's like three feet, right? - Yeah, easily. - It's crazy right? It's like a little blanket. - It is a little blanket. I literally want to climb into it and have someone roll me up in it, - [Armen] You can wrap a baby in there and take photos of it in there. - That is the most cutest idea ever. - [Armen] Exactly. And I like to just usually
just drape the base of depends on how big it is you can, we typically cut it but
you can literally just drape it like so but
everything is going to ultimately lay on this. - [Nyesha] Wow. - [Armen] And the best part about this is, that it catches the
drippings of the proteins, the potatoes, everything just sits on it. - That's the money bite right there. - [Armen] Money, money, money. And we're going to build it at this point. Hot, hot, hot. Beautiful. Woo hell yeah! Okay so now we'll drop
this to the second level. So don't worry about it like charring off and I'll explain why in a second. - [Nyesha] Okay, cool. - [Armen] So what I do is like when I find stragglers yeah I'll chop it off. It's like a bonsai tree, but we call this a kabob bonsai. - [Nyesha] Lula! Your time to shine, baby. - Yeah so it's like you
want to not overcook. - That makes sense. The emulsified fat
might separate too much, too quickly. - [Armen] And it'll just break apart. I, I, I lose them sometimes. Drop it there, drop one here, and drop one here. Now they're hanging out, they're all getting colored. This one's going to go fastest but we want to keep an eye on these guys because of the way it's formed right? - [Nyesha] Wow. - You know, it's going to happen quick. - Very quick. - [Armen] The little one's yours. (Nyesha laughs) - That's the mini one. (Nyesha laughs) - That, that we call
that me and Nyesha Lula. (both laugh) The color, this is decent already. And let's take a look at the color now. Okay. - Off she goes. - [Armen] We always do that, just let the crust, - Loosen it up? - [Armen] Yeah if there's a crust formed it'll be more difficult. - [Nyesha] Right. - [Armen] Nice! - [Nyesha] Wow! My first Lula! - [Armen] Natural you're a natural. - [Nyesha] Yes! - [Armen] And now it's just like how we coordinate this platter. Beautiful. - [Nyesha] Voila! (speaks French) Alright! - [Armen] You're the kabob queen. - My first Lula, made all these kabobs. - [Armen] Let's break some bread. - Literally and figuratively. Thank you! - [Armen] Yeah! (Nyesha screams) - So I like to eat
everything with bread like, that's how it should be to be honest. - [Nyesha] Absolutely. - [Armen] Where to start damn so many. Lula I'd like to crush it like this. Throw some onions, parsley summa. Honestly, we're eating like, but what I like to do is, I'll crush one like this, hold a pepper in the other hand, right? - Oh yeah. - Spicy just a heads up. - Oh yeah. - No utensils, no napkins, this is it so, - Salud! - Salud! - So simple a roasted tomato with such depth of flavor. It's charred, it's sweet, smokey. It like makes its own sauce inside. - Yeah. - You know what I have to say is, this is the most amazing
way to consume meat in my opinion because you're actually grinding all of the protein. So the seasoning's not only on the outside it's all throughout the
entire protein itself like in Ratatouille when it eats it. And it's just like colors
and like little whips, something like that's how my brain feels right now just
pure joy and excitement. Chef I mean, I've learned so much today and I think that really it's about learning with your dad
and being able to see how you're interpreting Armenian cuisine. - Yeah I'm, I'm, you know I'm grateful to be doing this with my parents. Especially as we try to mark down our business as some form of you know, try to create a legacy behind our name and pay homage to not
just our Armenian culture but the whole middle
Eastern culture as well. Because ultimately what we want to do is highlight good food. Whether it you're
Armenian, Middle Eastern, just general good food. - Thank you chef. - Thank you chef. - Thank you to you and your family. I'm taking this, once it's ready to go. - Yeah let me, let me
set you over the platter. (Nyesha laughs)
