The saffron coast

IT’S punched-up barbecue, barbecue for the nose: smoky grilled meat swathed with heady scents of saffron, butter, onions and aromatic rice.

No wonder the shah of Iran wanted his chelo kebab.

About 150 years ago, Naser od-Din Shah was yearning for the kebabs he’d grown up on in Azerbaijan, so he ordered an Azerbaijani homeboy to open a chelo kebab stand just outside his palace in Tehran. That way he could send out for a fragrant skewer or two whenever he felt like it. (It’s good to be the shah.) As a result, chelo kebab fever spread through Tehran, then all of Iran.

Generations later, it was bound to reach Southern California because we have the largest Iranian colony in the country -- nearly half the Iranians in the U.S. live here. Today there are about 60 Persian restaurants in Los Angeles and Orange counties, ranging in stature from food court stalls to splashy supper clubs.

All those refugees from the Iran of the mullahs (and the oppressive Reza Shah, who ruled the country before them) have made us the national headquarters for one of the world’s great cuisines, one that has influenced cooks from India to Morocco. Chelo kebab -- literally pilaf (chelo) and roast meat -- is just the tip of the iceberg; this is a cuisine of fresh herbs and long-simmered stews, of walnuts and pomegranate juice, of rosewater and dried limes. Above all, of saffron -- Iranians are the most saffron-happy cooks in the world.

Whether you’re in a plain little spot such as Vanak in Tarzana, where the decor is basically a couple of prints of the old country and a wall menu written in Persian with a felt-tip pen, or a grand restaurant such as Darya in South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, with its marble floors, Corinthian columns, mirrored bar and grand piano, as soon as you’re seated you’ll get flatbread ... and a whole onion. Some people like to alternate their food with bites of onion, while others will eat the whole thing, just like an apple. Raw onion is considered good for the health.

On the appetizer list, you’ll find, along with Middle East cliches like stuffed grape leaves and cucumbers in yogurt, a few unique specialties: cold eggplant slices dressed with tart whey (kashk-o-bademjan) and a very rich warm dish of eggplant with yogurt and fried onions (borani). There are always pickled vegetables, because Iranians like very sharp vinegar pickles -- cucumbers, cauliflower, carrots, even pickled whole garlic cloves.

There may be a couple of salads, including olivieh, a sort of cross between potato salad and chicken salad, and a couple of thick, substantial soups (Iran has bitterly cold winters), such as ash-e jou: barley, lentils, kidney beans and rice, topped with fried mint.

But the most Persian starter of all is sabzi khordan, a plate of fresh raw herbs, always including basil, often with other herbs such as mint and tarragon. It’s a wonderfully light and refreshing way to begin a meal, and many diners keep the herbs on the table throughout the meal to alternate with bites of kebab, just as they do with the pickles and onion.

Then there are the kebabs, mostly beef or chicken, elegantly perfumed with onion and saffron. The most distinctive type of chelo kebab is barg (“leaf”), a chunk of filet carefully cut so that it unfolds into a long, thin strip, to be threaded onto a skewer for grilling.

The other classic chelo kebab is more familiar. Kubideh (koobideh) is ground meat molded into a sort of skinless sausage around a skewer with a relatively broad, flat blade that keeps the meat from slipping around. Outside chelo kebab places, this is what’s known as luleh (“tube”) kebab. In other Middle Eastern countries, it’s called kofta kebab, kofta and kubideh both being Persian words meaning “chopped.”

In Iran, the usual meat is lamb, but the American way of butchering lamb makes the proper cut for barg, the filet, prohibitively expensive. At chelo kebab places, beef filet nearly always replaces lamb in kebab barg, though more traditional, or upscale, places usually offer Turkish-style lamb shish kebab or baby lamb chops grilled on skewers. Chicken and fish are also grilled chelo kebab-style.

Chelo kebab became the staple of Iranian restaurants because it’s short-order food. Classic Persian home cooking, though, is very much slow food, based on khoresh, a long-simmered cross between a stew and a sauce, which is served on rice. Generally speaking, the grander the restaurant, the more khoreshes it offers.

The commonest are ghormeh sabzi (a hearty but relatively plain stew with beans, parsley and perhaps other herbs such as fenugreek) and gheimeh (with split peas and tomato sauce). Ferdussi in Santa Ana is one place that serves a gheimeh memorably scented with pickled lime. The most spectacular khoresh is fesenjan, based on the inspired combination of pomegranate juice and ground walnuts.

Often these flavorings are cooked separately from the meat and treated as a sauce that can appear with more than one meat -- the usual fesenjan comes with stewed chicken, but the Shamshiri chain has a particularly appealing lamb shank version. Some places serve khoreshes without meat at all, as rich, aromatic vegetarian entrees.

Of course, every entree comes with rice pilaf. The Iranians invented pilaf, and they are still the masters of it, every grain fragrant and perfectly cooked. Often you can order a special pilaf (polo) mixed with fruits or other ingredients.

Rice is treated with reverence in the Middle East. Mothers sometimes warn their children that on Judgment Day they’ll be obliged to seek out every grain of rice they’ve ever wasted -- and pick it up with their eyelashes. Persian-style pilaf is so fragrant and attractive, it’s hard to imagine wasting any.

On the other hand, the tradition of lavishing the guest with hospitality means that chelo kebab restaurants traditionally give you a real mountain of rice. (In general, portions are very large and meant for sharing, and Persian restaurants presume that you’ll be taking home a doggie bag.) But recognizing that not everybody wants so much rice in this low-carbohydrate age, some places now offer the option of half rice, half salad.

That’s not the only sign that chelo kebab is encountering the American mainstream. There’s an old Persian custom of making a little well in your rice and mixing melted butter and a raw egg yolk in it, making an ultra-rich sauce for dipping your kebab into. This has totally gone out of fashion, because Iranians now worry about cholesterol too. For that matter, traditional chelo rice is doused with melted butter, but these days a lot of Persian places just offer diners a pat or two of butter on the side, to use at their discretion.

Another custom that may be declining is sprinkling everything with a tart purplish powder called somagh, which is ground sumac berries. It’s the Iranian equivalent of squeezing a lemon on your food, but quartered lemons seem to be replacing it. Still, there’s usually a somagh shaker on every table.

Persian restaurants congregate where there’s a high concentration of Iranians, such as the Westside; you can find a dozen in the Beverly Hills-Santa Monica corridor. There are another dozen in Orange County, and even more -- 16 -- in the west end of the San Fernando Valley. About nine are hidden away in downtown Los Angeles, serving the fashion and jewelry districts.

Most Persian restaurants also cater, and for a lot of them that’s their main business, because Iranians are inveterate party-throwers. While apartment-hunting in Tehran, L.A.-based filmmaker Aryana Farshad recently found to her dismay that all the bedrooms, bathrooms and closets were intolerably small to her now-Americanized tastes. They were built that way to leave as much room as possible for living and dining rooms.

Most of the Iranians who’ve come to this country since the 1970s are professionals, and they’ve done very well here. In upscale neighborhoods such as Irvine or the West Valley, restaurants compete for customers with extravagant decor. They may look almost like private clubs, but they’re very welcoming to strangers, because of the Persian love of hospitality.

Javan, located at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Butler Avenue in West L.A., has a particularly sophisticated bar, with windows looking onto both streets. The grandest place has to be the huge Caspian Restaurant in Irvine, full of Corinthian columns, marble floors and trompe l’oeil murals. You can’t miss it because of the carvings of bulls out front, done in the style of old Persia -- very old Persia, 2,500 years ago. But even many a little strip mall place can surprise you with sumptuous features, such as the Art Moderne disk in the ceiling at Shoomal in Tarzana.

Most of the fancier restaurants have live entertainment: Persian crooners, Persian pop tunes, the Persian version of the belly dance (very big on graceful hand movements) and familiar American hits. I once heard a singer segue from a warbling Persian love ballad to the ‘50s classic “Rock Around the Clock.”

Outside the major Persian areas, chelo kebab often takes on a local coloring. Tajrish Persian Kabob House in health-conscious Marina del Rey advertises low-carb food. In largely Latino Van Nuys, there’s a place named Paraiso Kabab. In remoter neighborhoods, chelo kebab cafes may hedge their bets by adding pizza or gyro sandwiches to their menus.

A few of the restaurants advertise that they use halal meat, but most are not ostentatiously Muslim. In fact, the high-end places all serve wine and liquor, no matter what the mullahs may say. A number of Javan’s cosmopolitan regulars order Scotch or Cognac by the bottle. Generally the wine lists are pretty basic.

Because of the large numbers of Iranian Jews who have immigrated here, we have several kosher Persian restaurants in our area. You’re not likely to see anything like them elsewhere in the country. At Kolah Farangi in Santa Monica, one side of the menu (written in Persian) is all chelo kebab and the other is kosher Chinese food. In Encino, Ravak serves kosher kebabs -- and also provides hookahs and backgammon boards for your Old World enjoyment.

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A rocky path to popularity

AS a result of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the hostage crisis that followed, Iranian immigrants had one of the rockier roads to acceptance in this country’s history. Ironically, it was just as the situation was going to pieces in Iran that they had started opening fancy places here that could show us the Iranian idea of high life. Cabaret Tehran in Studio City, for instance, was spectacularly decorated with ornamental plasterwork done by a traditional craftsman using nothing, the owner boasted, but “a trowel and a Handi Wipe.”

Despite the hostility Iranian Americans had to endure for the next few years -- unjustly, since the vast majority opposed the Islamic Revolution -- Cabaret Tehran survived till recently.

Other places were not so fortunate. Golestan, a sleek showcase restaurant the last shah had opened in Beverly Hills in 1978, became the property of the revolutionary government after he was deposed. In a spasm of religious zeal, the new owners sold off Golestan’s liquor license, virtually guaranteeing that it would go out of business, as it soon did.

Throughout the 1980s, many chelo kebab restaurants around here had a melancholy, defensive air, but that’s gone now -- the Iranian love of parties and entertaining has triumphed.

And the royal legacy of the kebab-loving Naser od-Din Shah lives on.

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Reigning favorites: a distinctive top 10

Canary Restaurant, 1942 Westwood Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 470-1312. Notable for down-home dishes such as dizi (meat and grain stew) and kalleh pacheh (lamb tongue and trotters) along with the usual kebabs and an excellent olivieh sandwich.

Caspian Restaurant, Heritage Square Plaza, 14100 Culver Drive, Irvine, (949) 651-8454. Probably our grandest-looking Iranian restaurant. It seats 400 and doesn’t skimp on the saffron -- you can smell it outside.

Darband Grill and Bar, 19337 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana, (818) 654-9918. The Valley’s Iranian party place; it jumps in the evenings, especially on weekends.

Ferdussi Restaurant, 3605 S. Bristol St., Santa Ana, (714) 545-9096. Named for a famous poet; a quiet, elegant place decorated with Persian art.

Javan Restaurant, 11500 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 207-5555. The leading Iranian restaurant on Santa Monica Boulevard, with excellent kebabs and a particularly suave-looking bar.

Shaherzad Restaurant, 1422 Westwood Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 470-3242, or (310) 470-9131. Favored by Iranian ladies who lunch; the only restaurant that serves you hot flatbread straight from the tandoor.

Shamshiri Restaurant, 1712 Westwood Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 474-1410; 122 W. Stocker St., Glendale, (818) 246-9541; 19249 Roscoe Blvd., Northridge, (818) 885-7846. A highly regarded mini-chain with the widest menu around, including the rare lamb barg kebab, seven fish kebabs and more than a dozen vegetarian entrees.

Shekarchi Downtown, 914 S. Hill St., (213) 892-8535. The best-known Iranian businessman’s lunch place downtown, open only on weekdays; excellent kebabs, particularly good rice. Far more fashionable decor than you’d suspect from the outside.

Shiraz, 15472 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 789-7788; 211 S. Glendale Ave., Glendale, (818) 500-4948. A fine old-timer; its distinctive specialty is fish pilaf, a traditional dish for Iranian New Year.

Shoomal, 19550 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana, (818) 609-9988. This is the only restaurant around here specializing in dishes from the Caspian Sea region, many of them distinctively flavored with pomegranate and walnuts. It serves chelo kebab too, of course.

-- Charles Perry

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The unique Persian menu

This is what you find on a typical Persian menu. Spellings vary; watch for “a” becoming “oo” before “n,” so that, for example, the familiar word nan (bread) might be spelled noon.

Appetizers

Sabzi khordan: a plate of raw herbs (always including basil). If there’s a chunk of feta-type white cheese, it’s called panir-o-sabzi.

Torshi: various kinds of very sharp vinegar pickles

Mast-o-khiyar: cucumbers in yogurt

Mast-o-musir: shallots in yogurt

Kashk-o-bademjan: fried eggplant topped with yogurt-like sour whey

Borani: rich dish of eggplant puree, fried onions and yogurt, served warm

Tahdig: a crust of browned rice from the bottom of the pilaf pot, traditionally offered to honored guests. In restaurants, it’s served as an appetizer with a choice of stew sauces .

Kebabs

Barg: flat strip of beef filet on a skewer

Kubideh: ground beef or chicken skewer

Soltani: combo of barg and kubideh

Jujeh: chunks of chicken, with or without bone

Shish kebab: Turkish-style kebab of chunks of meat alternating with onion, bell pepper and tomato

Chenjeh: an all-meat shish kebab

Breads

Ordinary table bread is a thin flatbread called taftoon, served folded up. You automatically get a raw onion with your bread. Sandwiches are often wrapped in sangak, a flatbread baked on a bed of hot pebbles. In areas without an Iranian bakery, restaurants may substitute pita bread.

Stew sauces

Stew sauces (khoresh), served on rice, are made with traditional flavorings. These are the commonest:

Ghormeh sabzi: beef or lamb with kidney beans and herbs

Gheimeh: beef or lamb with yellow split peas and tomato sauce. Some places add eggplant to make gheimeh bademjan.

Fesenjan: chicken with pomegranate juice and ground walnuts

Pilafs

Zereshk polo: rice with tart dried barberries

Albalu polo: rice with sour cherries

Baghala (or baghali) polo: rice with dill weed and fava or baby lima beans

Sabzi polo: rice with a mixture of herbs, such as mint and fenugreek

Shirin polo: rice with almonds and candied orange peel

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Zereshk polo

Time: 40 minutes, plus 3 hours soaking time

Serves: 4 to 6

Note: Dried zereshk (barberries) are sold at Iranian markets. This recipe comes from Shekarchi restaurant in downtown Los Angeles. Traditionally, the barberries are layered with the rice before it steams. Shekarchi puts them in afterward for a handsomer presentation. The garnish may be prepared as the rice is cooking.

1 pound basmati rice (2 1/4 cups)

6 tablespoons salt, divided

8 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided

1/2 cup finely minced onion

2 cups dried barberries (zereshk), picked over, washed and patted dry

30 threads saffron, ground in a mortar, divided

2 teaspoons sugar

1. Rinse the rice thoroughly in 5 or 6 changes of water. Place in a large bowl, cover with water by 1 inch, stir in 3 tablespoons salt and set aside for 3 hours.

2. Bring 2 quarts of water to a rapid boil in a 6-quart saucepot and add the remaining 3 tablespoons of salt. Drain the soaked rice and pour it into the boiling water. After 2 minutes, start testing the rice for doneness. When the grains are soft on the outside but still firm in the center, drain the rice in a colander and rinse it with tepid water. Toss gently in the colander to make sure the grains are separate.

3. Rinse the saucepan and put 6 tablespoons of the oil in it along with 2 to 3 tablespoons water. Heat the saucepot over high heat until the liquid sizzles. Using a large spoon, sprinkle the rice into the saucepot, building it up into a cone shape. Using the handle of a wooden spoon, poke two or three holes through the rice down to the bottom of the saucepan. Cover and cook over high heat until the rice is steaming, 2 to 3 minutes.

4. Wrap the lid of the saucepot with a clean dish towel and cover the pan firmly. Reduce the heat to low and cook at least 30 minutes. (The rice can be kept warm on the very lowest heat at least 1 hour longer.)

5. To make the garnish, heat the remaining oil in a frying pan over medium heat, add the minced onion and cook over medium heat until the onion is soft and golden, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the barberries, two-thirds of the saffron and the sugar and saute 2 to 3 minutes. Set aside.

6. Mix the remaining saffron with 2 teaspoons water. Remove the saucepan from the heat, set it on a cold, wet surface and let stand for a minute or two. This helps to release the crust of browned rice (tahdig) from the bottom of the pan. (The tahdig can be broken up and served separately as a treat.)

7. In a small bowl, combine 2 to 3 tablespoons of the rice with the saffron water to color it yellow.

8. To serve, use a large spoon to sprinkle about one-fourth of the rice onto a serving dish. Scatter one-third of the barberry-onion garnish on the rice, then continue alternating rice and garnish, ending with rice. Top with the grains of saffron-colored rice.

Each of six servings: 625 calories; 8 grams protein; 102 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams fiber; 19 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 cholesterol; 584 mg. sodium

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Torsh kebab

Total time: 30 minutes plus overnight marinating

Servings: 6

Note: A variation on chelo kebab unique to the Caspian Sea region. The recipe is from Shoomal Restaurant in Tarzana. Bottled pomegranate juice is available in the refrigerated section of supermarkets. Middle Eastern markets sell the tangier pomegranate molasses (rob-e anar, dibs rumman).

1 onion

1 3-pound piece of beef fillet

1 cup pomegranate juice or

1/2 cup pomegranate molasses

1 cup walnuts, finely ground in a food processor to a paste

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Cut the onion into chunks and puree in a blender or food processor, adding 1 tablespoon of water if necessary to make a smooth puree. Strain the onion through a fine sieve. Discard the solids and reserve the onion juice.

2. Slice the beef horizontally into two long strips, then cut it crosswise into 12 roughly equal rectangles. Lay one rectangle on a cutting board that has been wetted so the meat will stick. Hold the meat down with the palm of one hand. Using a very sharp knife, make a cut parallel to the cutting board one third of the way from the top of the meat, going from one end nearly to the other but not cutting the meat into two pieces. Rotate the piece of meat and make a similar cut a third of the way up from the bottom of the meat. Unfold the meat into 1 long slice. Repeat with the rest of the meat.

3. In a medium nonreactive bowl combine the pomegranate juice or molasses, walnuts, salt, pepper and onion juice. Add the meat and rub in the marinade. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

4. Thirty minutes before cooking, remove the meat from the refrigerator. Wipe the excess marinade off the meat. Insert a skewer through one end of each strip and poke the skewer in and out of the meat so the strip will stay flattened out.

5. Grill 2 minutes on the first side, then turn and grill on the other side for a total of 4 to 5 minutes for medium rare. Serve with plain rice pilaf and quartered limes.

Each serving: 506 calories; 50 grams protein; 4 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 32 grams fat; 9 grams saturated fat; 142 mg. cholesterol; 872 mg. sodium