10 of L.A.’s best Persian dishes, from kebabs and sandwiches to ice cream and spiced cookies

On an early night in mid-March, I relaxed right into a dinner that has develop into an annual custom.

The meal — celebrating Nowruz, the traditional ceremony of the vernal equinox, rooted in Zoroastrianism and noticed as a very powerful occasion on the Persian calendar — started with sabzi khordan, a platter organized with halved walnuts, sprigs of herbs, radishes and a small rectangle of feta alongside heat barbari, the flatbread that’s equal elements crunch and plushness.

Triangles of baked kuku sabzi, one of many consummate Persian egg dishes, popped with their forests of greens. The perfume of dill, parsley and cilantro preceded every chew. Dishes of maast-o-mousir (the yogurt dip with dried wild shallots), shiny pickles, chunky Shirazi salad and herbed rice surrounded the centerpiece, roasted branzino stained with saffron.

It was the third spring I’d savored a standard Nowruz unfold ready by the arms of Cody Ma and Misha Sesar by way of their Azizam undertaking. In 2022 I ate at house once they packed the meals as a takeout feast. Final yr Ma and Sesar served the dinner from the kitchen of the not too long ago closed Konbi in Echo Park.

The third time notably charmed, as a result of the setting was the restaurant that the couple had opened in Silver Lake days earlier than.

What makes Azizam notably particular

From the kofteh Tabrizi — a.k.a. the giant meatball — that mixes the household recipes Ma and Sesar each consulted for his or her model, to the comforts of turmeric-braised rooster over rice dotted with fava beans, to the usage of produce that bridges the Californian and Iranian rising seasons, the cooking at Azizam has at all times honored the Persian house repertoire. “Homey” can generally be coded derogation when appraising somebody’s ability in knowledgeable kitchen. That is assuredly the other.

The Azizam expertise is especially distinctive in a metropolis ample with Persian restaurant choices, at which menus have a purposeful sameness targeted round fire-singed kebabs and cloudbanks of seasoned rice. “We’re nonetheless a reasonably younger immigrant neighborhood — round 40 years — and many people have been pressured to relocate in misery,” Naz Deravian, the Los Angeles-based meals author and writer of “Bottom of the Pot,” advised me in 2019.

“Nearly all of the inhabitants got here to flee or to arrange a greater life,” Deravian mentioned. “They began companies to earn money. Restaurant homeowners designed their menus for common enchantment.” She added {that a} sure homogeneity helps attune expectations. “Everybody may have their very own opinions about how a dish needs to be made, particularly when you’re Persian.”

I all however say on this week’s evaluation that Azizam, in its transition from pop-up, has immediately develop into my favourite Persian restaurant in Los Angeles.

Additionally, as Deravian references, Southern California has the biggest Iranian inhabitants exterior Iran. Community estimates rely 400,000 to 620,000 Iranian American residents all through the area, together with 138,000 folks of Iranian heritage who make Los Angeles their house. Unquestionably there are culinary depths. I’ve a few go-to kebab homes, and I’m at all times looking (and taking options) for less-seen specialties that illuminate the huge facets of Persian delicacies. Listed here are some favorites.

10 of Invoice’s favourite Persian dishes throughout Los Angeles

Herb-filled kelaneh from Kouzeh Bakery

Late final decade, pastry chef Sahar Shomali launched into a private undertaking: making barbari that tasted just like the chewy-crackery model she ate with meals rising up in Tehran. Her preliminary quest led her to analysis regional bread kinds throughout Iran. Her pop-up bakery Kouzeh turned Shomali’s full-time focus: Her lineup contains 16 or so candy and savory flatbreads, stuffed breads and pastries. She units up at Melrose Place Farmers Market on Sunday mornings, Beverly Hills Market & Deli on Fridays and, with discover and a small price, delivers on different days throughout the metro space. Browse her online store for what most appeals to you. I at all times come again to kelaneh, a round variation beloved within the mountainous western Kurdistan province that’s rolled so skinny it’s translucent. Uncooked herbs usually comprise the filling, however Shomali prefers sautéing a mixture of scallions, garlic, cilantro and parsley earlier than layering them into the dough. kouzehbakery.com

Tehran Plate Particular at Style of Tehran

Among the many kebab homes that line the streets of Westwood, I favor tiny Style of Tehran. Chef and proprietor Saghar Fanisalek’s mixture of dishes — marinated meats ringed in flames and served with rice, yogurt and eggplant dips as tart as they’re wealthy — emerge from her kitchen cooked with surgical finesse. A super quantity of grated onion sharpens the meat koobideh, which is expertly formed in undulating patterns on the skewer; the rooster kebab has deeply absorbed its lemony marinade. The Tehran Plate Particular bundles these with an ever-pleasing filet mignon kebab for a satisfying trio of flavors and textures. It simply feeds two. Bonus suggestion: Among the many quick record of stews that rotates by the week, the standout is Fanisalek’s silky fesenjoon, compellingly taut in its contrasts of pomegranate molasses and walnuts. 1915 Westwood Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 470-0022, tasteoftehran.com

Lunchtime tahchin at Shamshiri Grill

Among the many bigger, older-guard Westwood kebab homes, I gravitate to Shamshiri Grill, the place cooks have a tendency skewers over flames behind a glassed-in grill. The menu sprawls, as does the eating room, so I wish to zero in on the a number of specials obtainable just a few days every week. The very best of them: tahchin (additionally generally spelled tachin), a savory rice cake stained with saffron, blended with yogurt and egg, layered with rooster or lamb, baked and topped with crimson barberries. It’s obtainable on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to three:30 p.m., In its piercing perfume and frank richness, tahchin doesn’t want rather more than a lemony Shirazi salad alongside to make a considerable lunch. 1712 Westwood Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 474-1410, shamshiri.com

Beef tongue sandwich at Attari Sandwich Store

The sandwich store based by Parvin Sadaghiani is greater than a Westwood mainstay. It’s a marker of neighborhood. He opened the store initially as a comfort retailer in 1978. Tehrangeles, as the encircling stretch of Westwood has lengthy been nicknamed, started to take form within the Nineteen Sixties; it was cemented by the newcomers who fled Iran in response to the nation’s scarring 1979 revolution. The block on which Attari resides acquired an official designation as “Persian Sq.” by Los Angeles in 2010, an acknowledgment of how deep the native Iranian American roots are entrenched.

Accept lunch within the restaurant’s courtyard, a nostalgic retreat for some Iranian Individuals with its balconied buildings and wrought-iron fence, for sandwiches made in additional than a dozen variations. Amongst them: eggy rooster salad, fried potato cutlet, rooster kebab and Persian chilly cuts. Beef tongue is a longtime specialty, the meat simmered in saffron and different aromatics, sliced skinny and paired with extra-vinegary pickles for bracing distinction. 1388 Westwood Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 441-5488, attarisandwiches.com

Khaleh pacheh at Vanak

Kaleh pacheh — a scrumptious, bolstering soup that includes different cuts from a lamb’s head, and sometimes the trotters, historically served for breakfast in Iran — may be discovered at a number of Persian eating places all through the San Fernando Valley. Vanak in Reseda is the one I like to recommend. Include a gaggle to deal with the platter of meltingly tender meat, delicate in its fragrance of garlic and candy spices, that arrives with a separate bowl of broth and sides of lemon and onion. Customise to your style, and compose ideally suited bites cradled in shards of sangak (crackling, handsomely pocked flatbread). The menu additionally features a typical array of kebabs and sandwiches, however I’m right here most for a morning meal, close to the hour when the restaurant opens on weekends at 9 a.m. 6740 Reseda Blvd. East, Reseda, (818) 342-4956, facebook.com/vanakrestaurantandbakery

Ab-goosht at Nersses Vanak

The marquee dish at this Iranian Armenian restaurant in Glendale begins with a query, usually from co-owners Robert Abediyan or Romik Abediyan: “Do you need to mash the ab-goosht, or would you want us to do it?” The tomato-laced lamb and chickpea stew additionally may be referred to as dizi, named for the standard vessel wherein to serve the meal. There may be ritual: Begin by draining the stew’s broth right into a bowl, after which mixing in torn items of accompanying flatbread. Then, with a masher made to suit the scale of the dizi, smash the lamb and beans right into a texture someplace between coarse and easy. There’s nobody right consistency, however the course of and the flavors are uniform of their pleasure. They won’t at all times have it, however ask the homeowners for a aspect of seer torshi — small complete heads of pickled garlic, a specialty of coastal Gilan province in northern Iran. Its depth will cleave straight by the stew’s heartiness. 6524 San Fernando Street, Glendale, (818) 550-7800, nersses.com

Khoresht at Azizam

This record, I’m conscious, has loads of meaty dishes, befitting the strengths of Persian eating places all through the metro space. A part of what separates Azizam’s concise menu is the seasonality of its khoresht, a reputation for a broad class of simmered meats and greens or fruits, designed to stream with the seasons, that may transcend the fundamental Western notion of “stew.” Cookbook writer Andy Baraghani as soon as superbly summarized the strategy to them for me. “There are stews made with cardoons and with apples or quinces within the fall, and with peaches within the late summer season. The house-cooked dishes have much more variation to them than most restaurant dishes; some stews will likely be made sweeter or extra bitter, or richer and fattier, or lighter and leaner. There’s an excessive amount of room for error for many eating places to observe these subtleties. It takes time to prep a stew made from recent artichokes and tons of recent herbs. Contemporary bitter cherries, a Persian favourite when in season, should be pitted. In fact there are quick cuts, however the labor of those dishes tends to not work within the restaurant medium.”

In Azizam’s pop-up type, I’ve had a minted celery khoresht that Ma and Sesar served with both saffron-marinated rooster or fried artichokes, rooster braised in candy spices with butternut squash and plums, and a variation of fesenjoon with a dense, virtually fudgy sauce heady with pomegranate. The opening menu has centered a simple vegetarian khoresht of eggplant and cut up peas cooked down with tomato. However I’m coaching my Instagram algorithm to maintain me knowledgeable: I’ll be mad if, like not too long ago, I miss of-the-moment specials like a latest apricot khoresht paired with the pot roast-y goodness of lamb’s neck meat. 2943 Sundown Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 928-2286, azizamla.com

White Moustache yogurt at Eataly

Homa Dashtaki, who grew up in Southern California after she immigrated along with her household from Tehran, based my favourite yogurt model in America in 2011.I’ve written earlier than about my love of White Moustache yogurt — and about “Yogurt & Whey,” Dashtaki’s cookbook stuffed with heartfelt tales printed final yr. Eataly in Culver Metropolis stays the one place to purchase her Persian-style merchandise regionally. Attempt the bitter cherry taste to know my obsession.

Orange blossom ice cream at Saffron & Rose

That is one other Westwood staple — founder Haji Ali Kashani-Rafye arrived in America in 1974 — that has maintained its requirements for many years. I’ve at all times revered how the store teams its flavors, by fruit (bitter cherry, date and pomegranate, and a refreshing cucumber will get lumped in right here), floral (jasmine, lavender and seasonal rose flavors that change between potent and delicate) and chocolate and nutty (inexperienced pistachio, the ever present cookies and cream). Saffron-pistachio or faloodeh, threaded with skinny noodles and scented extravagantly with rose water, arguably hew most intently to Iranian custom. I’m a fan of the orange blossom variation: When you wander by flowering orange bushes you always remember the enveloping scent. A couple of bites of this ice cream revives my reminiscences. 1387 Westwood Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 477-5533, saffronroseicecream.com

Saffron kolompeh from Zozo Baking

Almost a decade in the past Fariba Nafissi, who had been an govt at Ikea in Burbank, started on-line gross sales of a candy specialty she’d grown up loving in Kerman, a metropolis in southeast Iran on the sting of the Lut desert the place dates are a serious native crop. The sweet is called kolompeh, a tender, golden cookie crammed with dates, nuts and spices; bakers use particular stamps to create geometric patterns within the dough. Nafissi’s early efforts discovered such a quick viewers that she established Zozo Baking, which operates out of an area in Simi Valley City Middle. Her on-line web site contains different delicately crafted cookies, desserts and candies from conventional recipes, however nothing makes me as completely satisfied like her kolompeh. A field makes an excellent reward. 1555 Simi City Middle Means, (818) 900-6644, zozobaking.com

Additionally …

• Jenn Harris had at all times meant to swing by the well-known location of Arby’s in Hollywood. When it closed earlier this month after 55 years, “A way of nostalgia for a restaurant I’d by no means visited led me to the placement in Huntington Seashore,” she writes. Right here’s what she considered her first meal at an Arby’s.
• Awan, the extremely good plant-based ice cream debuted by Dayglow espresso’s Tohm Ifergan and chef Zen Ong in West Hollywood in 2021, has a brand new location in Larchmont. Stephanie Breijo has the small print.
• Stephanie additionally stories on the emergency measure, unanimously handed by the California State Senate on Thursday, that might permit eating places, bars and different meals sellers to proceed to cost service charges, days earlier than the observe was scheduled to be outlawed.
• Rendang is among the culinary masterpieces of Indonesia. Tiffany Tse names 11 locations to dive into the intricately spiced dish.