The photo you see here is of Mike Hawari, maker with his wife Nancy of the best falafels on Earth at their Kareem's Restaurant in Anaheim. Man had reason for his glorious grin: he was about to describe his restaurant's food on KNBC-TV Channel 4's wildly popular Today in LA Weekend show this past Saturday.
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Hawari appeared with local television legends Ted Chen and Carl Bell, and Chen's co-anchor whose name I missed, all who raved about Kareem's entrees before them: fattoush, tabbouleh, hummus, and babaghanoush. Surprisingly, there were no falafels in sight–as much as I like all the food at Kareem's, this is what people should get and what deserves attention.
Nevertheless, Chen and Bell plugged the restaurant throughout the segment, and even after the segment ended. We hope that the love sends hundreds of viewers to Kareem's, a restaurant I've longed patronized not just for its food but because the Hawaris are among the nicest restaurant owners I know–and I don't say this because Hawari showed off the plaque from the 2009 Best of OC issue where we called Kareem's the best Middle Eastern restaurant in the county. Congrats, Kareem's!
