LIFE DANCE: TRAVELING THROUGH FOOD: IRAN

I find hard to believe that until today I had never tried Iranian food before. When I lived in Los Angeles, there were many Iranians in West LA and I used to know quite a few. Apparently our socializing never involved eating their food.

Today dinner was at Habib’s Persian Cuisine, an Iranian restaurant located on 2579 S Decator/Sahara. The restaurant is very elegant on the classy side, impeccably clean, but it was empty. We were the only customers. We were told they moved and this is a new location that has not been advertised yet. They have a cute little Persian market in the back of the restaurant.

My first impression when I looked at the menu was that there were many Mediterranean dishes. While I love Mediterranean food, today I was there for the real thing: Iranian food, not fusion. As I looked at the menu, I remembered an article that I had read years ago saying that when you go to an Iranian restaurant it’s most about kabobs.

The only dish that I knew to be of the authentic Iranian cuisine was the khoresh and that was what I had in mind to order today. However, to my great disappointment, it was not listed on the menu. Another thing was that the Iranian dishes on the menu had no translation into English. After consulting with the Iranian owner, and having to listen to a lecture instead of a brief explanation, I ordered the Fesenjan, which he said would be the khoresh. By the way, the khoresh basically consists of chicken marinated in a pomegranate sauce. My khoresh was served with basmati rice on the side. While it was not bad, I found the khoresh or fesenjan's taste very flat. I could not taste the pomegranate, or anything else to be honest. I was expecting something more flavorful considering that they cook with spices and herbs.