Popular saj bread toppings include meat or chicken shawarma, yogurt, cheese and zaa’tar, kishik and ground meat. This then transforms the bread into a man’oushe al saj — a beloved Levantine breakfast ...

Or you could just trade off with each visit, since stopping at Saj Bakery probably won’t be a one-time thing. The Saj Bakery 11146 Balboa Blvd. Granada Hills, CA 818-368-4000 www.thesajbakery ...

There are many names for Saj bread, but its origin is the same. Known also as 'kamaj', 'sharak' and 'marqq', the loaf emerged during the Ottoman Empire in Islamic countries.

Saj is an ancient bread — it looks and tastes like the very first food — an uneven pizzaesque bread, cooking on a domed metal griddle known as a, of course, saj.