We Love Persians

This beautiful Armenian woman here was one of my doula clients.  Look at that gorgeous boy!  He is adorable and sweet as can be ... and he and his mom had a beautiful, smooth birth.  I am so very honored to have taken part in it.

Her husband's family owns a restaurant.  It started as a little sandwich shop, and then grew and grew until they bought out six or so stores around them and became a gourmet Persian restaurant!  The place is so nice, you can see where they expanded; the outdoor part of the restaurant is the alley between the two buildings they bought out.  It was so fun to hear the family describe to us how they got started and built up into something that has won awards and draws in all sorts of people.  Her husband said:  "This is what I eat every day.  We just make food that we would eat, and people appreciate a good meal."  Amen!

We did not quite know what to expect, however.  All we had been told was that Persian food consists of grilling and hummus.  The first thing they brought out was this:

 Followed by this:

 I asked what to do with it, and the owner said he likes to see what people come up with.  "There's no right way to do it," he said. 

We decided to look for hints, and spied on people sitting around us.  We settled with rolling the herbs, onions, and raddish in the bread, and then dipping it in the hummus (the yellow stuff), the greek yogurt (with shallots ... it was such a great flavor!), and the eggplant ... salsa?  I'm not sure what you would call that.  I loved to mix the eggplant with the yogurt.  So very good!  And the salad was amazing.  All it had on it was oil and lemon; all the flavor came from the olives and feta.  Delicious!

I forgot to take a picture of the entree when it first came out.  But this is what it looked like after I was bloated beyond reason.  Picture at least twice the amount of food on there. 

 Mark got the Chicken Koobideh and I got the Beef Soltani.  We split and shared, and absolutely loved it.  Very simple, very fresh, and very delicious.  Also, a massive amount.  (We just finished it for lunch today, I was sad to see it go.)

We polished off our meal with this fantastic little dessert.  Simple ice cream sandwich, right?  Wrong!  This is Rosewater ice cream. I have no idea how they make it, we were just told they use rose water.  And it really tastes like you're munching on a sugary rose.  It was very a very unique, fun treat.

So next time you visit us, or if ever you are in Glendale, check out Raffi's Place.  It is delicious and the owners are incredible, good people.  You will love it.  (Especially you, Chris Gunn!  Come try it.)