Sholeh Zard and Philosophy

So, I am turning a year older this weekend. I don't particularly wish to be reminded of it, not so much because I care that I am older, but because the extra attention usually embarrasses me! All day today I had to stay home and prepare an important project for a deadline. My kids went to celebrate their youth and Mir Hossein (our cat) and I spent the evening together, where I worked and he took a nap! Just to take advantage of the time, and also to prepare a dessert to take to my friends' house tomorrow night, I started making Sholeh Zard.* Here's a picture of my work in progress as of 30 minutes ago.

My cousin, Azar, had called and left me a message yesterday. She said she had dreamt of my mother. She said my mother had been in a lavish party in my house, where everyone was very happy, celebrating something. All day today I remembered my mother and missed her, but was happy to know that she is with me. I'm not sure what my mother was celebrating, but I am sure of what I celebrate in my home tonight. I celebrate a life full of wonderful experiences, good friends, loving family, and hope. Yeah, I have noticed the double chin and the small wrinkles around my eyes, too! But hey, those are my medallions which remind me just how long I have been around with all the different chances I have had at a good life. For the new year in my life, as in the year past, I don't wish for things and money. I wish for health and peace on earth. I wish for freedom for Iran and for hope for America. Things which are priceless and which can make for more hopeful nations. Hopeful nations can achieve anything. That's my wish.

*I looked for Sholeh Zard recipes in English. There were tens of options available, but none of them seemed to quite prepare it like I do. This one is the least different from how I prepare it.

Dinner, Art, And Friendship

O.K. I am going to keep my promise and slowly start to tell you what I have been up to over the past few months! To start, I am going to look at my millions of photographs and share the interesting ones with you. These are pictures from dinner preparations at my artist friends Faranak and Kourosh's home in San Jose. I had the good fortune of being invited to their lovely home in September, along with a very small group. Kourosh was the chef and I want to show you what artistic dinner he served us!

First he prepared the plates with endive leaves, filled with seafood. He and Faranak had made a very delicious mashed potatoes, too. String beans were added to enhance the presentation color and taste. An art project was unfolding before our eager eyes in the kitchen! Grilled salmon was added last, and the plates were painted with a balsamic vinegar sauce. Watch Kourosh add the parsley garnish, too!

We sat around and enjoyed the delicious and beautiful food and the wonderful company, talking about politics and life, telling jokes, and chilling. It was really a wonderful evening. A big blessing in life is having good friends and finding opportunities to to build new friendships. The art and the delicious food are only an added bonus! And of course, knowing a man who can cook like this is not to be underestimated as a personal treasure! I am so lucky!

Sunshine and Onions

Picture of food prepared at Alborz Restaurant in Austin, Texas. I wonder what Tameshk and Hossein think of this restaurant's food! It looks great, don't you think?

It's a cold, dark, and rainy Sunday. One might take such a day to be gloomy and melancholic. It isn't such a day for me! My son came home for the holidays yesterday. He will be around for several weeks now. I am actually caught up on most of my outstanding writing commitments, and for the first time in a few weeks I feel a little more in control of what's happening around me! I may have worried a few of my good friends by the disappearing act of the past few days, and for that I apologize! Heeh! I am chipping away at a very large photo essay I am writing about my life in the San Francisco Bay Area. The project is complicated, because hundreds of photographs have to be numbered and sequenced to match the chronology of the text I am writing. When I get caught in that maze, I can't find my way out to do other things!

In celebration of our first weekend together, my kids and I and their friend Ardavan will be having Chelo Kabab in a few minutes! I'm so excited to be eating my favorite food with my kids on a Sunday. Simple joys of life always impress me the most! I think I will have a big fresh onion with my lunch, too! We will go to see a movie together tonight. It's a beautiful and bright day for me, despite the weather. I hope you all are enjoying yourselves wherever you are, near and shoulder by shoulder of those you love most in life. I hope you reach out and kiss them if the urge hits you. As for me, I'll do that just before I eat my onion! Be good y'all!

A Cat In My Lap

Fresh barberries, zereshk, in Karaj, Iran. Photo by Faranak Ravon, Iranian.com, October 22, 2008.

Ray the cat, and I are getting along well. I think he has come to like me! I am looking for a chance to photograph him during the day and show you his picture. He is a sweet cat, a lap cat, which means he loves hanging out on my lap! This could be a challenge as I work on the computer a lot, and his sitting on my lap means that my access to the keyboard gets somewhat restricted! Sometimes he touches the keyboard, too, typing something! All things considered, we are doing well together. Today I completed my second week living with him. With just one more week to go, I was thinking how I might miss having a cat around when I'm back at my house again! I miss my cat, Asghar. He lives in Karaj now, where the above photograph was taken by Farah.

I could use your good vibes for a professional project I am undertaking. I really need this project to go well. Please send good thoughts my way you guys! I'll give you a good shirini if it goes well! Have a good Friday you all!

In A University Town

Tea Harvest, Gilan, Iran, May 13, 2008. Flavorful, red, and a little bitter, Lahijan tea is the most delicious tea in the world. Too bad the Iranian tea industry is now an endangered species. I wrote of a memory about this last year.

Berkeley is going through the annual tradition of graduations this week. Everywhere I go, I run into happy young people, clad in their caps and gowns, courted by family and friends, with armloads of flowers and gifts. It is really a moving and energizing sight. All their hard work, their ambitions, and their hopes are evident in that scene. I am reminded yet again of why I love working for a university and spending most of my waking hours in a university town.

In our office we bid farewell to our three student employees this week. They have each worked for close to two years in our office, giving us the benefit of Berkeley students' intelligence, while costing our budget close to nothing. They are off to making real money now! By popular demand, I made a huge pot of Baghali Polo Ba Morgh for the potluck event very early yesterday morning and took it to work. My co-workers can't get enough of this dish, it seems, so they had kindly "volunteered" me for brining it! They ate most of it and took the rest home for dinner, each of them thanking me again today! Ha Ha, if only another Iranian was around, they would be told that my rice was overcooked, shefteh, and that the tahdig was missing, too! I had left the tahdig for my kids and myself at home--I think we deserved it infinitely more!

I love Berkeley.

A Memory in the Palm of My Hand

Roasted nuts (Ajeel) factory in Tabriz, Iran, March 31, 2008.

When I was a child, my father would sometimes take us to purchase party and entertainment staples. We would go to Shahreza Avenue (Enghelab), and buy pastries and sweets from Shahreza Bakery (Ghannadi-e-Shahreza). This shop later moved to Kakh Avenue (Felesteen), and Mr. Azarba's daughter, Shireen Khanoom, moved it to Jordan Boulevard first and then to Elahieh's Agha Bozorgi Street. Next to Shahreza bakery, there was a nut shop, called Ajeel-e-Fard-e-Shahreza. It was one of the most amazing places I have ever seen in my life. At any given hour of the day, when you went to the shop, they were roasting different kinds of nuts. I remember the bright lights hanging over basket after basket of dried fruit and nuts, lining the storefront. The shop's owners and help would greet you by dropping a handful of piping hot roasted pistachio nuts into the palm of your hand. They knew my father and treated him really well there, I guess, but I have a feeling they were equally generous to all their patrons.

It is rather strange. My childhood memories are full of loving and generous people, friends, neighbors, and shopkeepers. Heeh, the only people who continue to appear as utterly mean in my childhood memories are my teachers and school principles, especially the ones from elementary school! No amount of time seems to help me get over their poor and abusive treatment of their young charges! Anyhow, seeing this picture reminded me of so many of my good childhood memories. I know I'm divulging my age by the by, but I can't help it--nostalgia has a firm grip on me today!

Nostalgic About A Cat

A Ghorabieh Bakeshop in Tabriz. This is probably one of my most favorite Iranian confections! I remember Haj Jalil Tavazo offering me Ghorabieh in his shop one time, telling me in his sweet Azari accent: "een shirini kheili ghashangeh!" Too bad it can't endure time and travel very well!

Heeh! I saw this videoclip of Makhmal the Cat, eating the samanoo on her family's haft seen table! So cute! It reminded me so much of our cat, Asghar (Oscar, Oskie), today. I remember the day when he was still a kitten and had jumped from the fourth floor into the third floor apartment's balcony, and kept begging us to go get him, which of course we couldn't, because the neighbor was away for the weekend. I remember that in my desperation and with my children's growing anguish, I called the Tehran Fire Department, asking them whether they did animal rescue, as might be expected in these parts of the world. I explained that we might need a tall ladder to get the rescuer to the third floor balcony. Well, you might already know their answer to that question! They laughed at me and hung up! Later, I called again and tried to appeal to the dispatcher's heart. After I talked to him and begged him to help me, he and I reached an "understanding," whereby he said he or one of his colleagues might come to see about the cat after their shift was over that night, but that wasn't going to happen for a few more hours yet. So, while my kids and I waited for the firefighter, we had an idea. We had one of those plastic picnic baskets with a lid, which we sent down to third floor balcony through a rope, leaving a piece of meat inside the basket for good measure. Once the basket landed, Asghar jumped inside and got busy eating his little treat, we pulled the rope, closing the lid and started pulling him up! Mission accomplished, I called the dispatcher and thanked him, telling him that the cat was already rescued! Asghar went on to do many more naughty things in the coming years, the stories of which I might tell at another time.

Time To Diet

Afternoon Tea at Pleasanton Hotel, Celebrating my friend, Kathleen's Birthday, December 8th

This is ridiculous! For a grown woman, I have shown no willpower over the past month, eating anything offered to me by anyone at any occasion! This is just a small sample of the things I have been eating in December. That's it. I am going on a diet starting immediately.

Breaking Barbari Bread*

I went to Ehsan and Maryam's house for dinner last night. They had invited us a while back and I had been looking forward to going to their home. Leva and Vahid came and took me there. I was not a very good guest, I'm afraid, as I was talking to my son on the phone all night, helping him to submit his university application by midnight last night. My hosts and their other guests were understanding and gracious, but it didn't feel right. The young Iranian couple had such a lovely and warm home, and were so good to us. I know I promised not to post food pictures for a while, but this couldn't be helped, as I saw food items at their house I hadn't had in years! First, take a look at these amazing home-made barbari's! Ehsan made them himself! They were fresh out of the oven when we got there! It took Ehsan 2 days to make these barbarai's and Bayramali, Leva, Vahid, and I ate them all in about five minutes!

Maybe eating those Barbari's so quickly was a mistake, because the spread Maryam had prepared was out of this world, we would soon find out. Ehsan had also helped by making a Southern Iran favorite, ghelyeh-mahi. Just look at this:

Can you see the koofteh, khorak-e-zaboon, zershk-polo-ba morgh, sabzi polo, tahdig, and gheliyeh-mahi? It was out of this world!

And this is my first helping, with more to follow! Please note that home-made baby bademjoon torshi, shoor, salad shirazi, and tahdig next to my gorgeous koofteh! Outdone, absolutely!

Once we ate the fabulous food and the phone calls stopped (yes, he is done for now, so we wait and see how things develop), we sat around and chatted companionably for a few more hours, my absolute most favorite part of a dinner party, even if the food is as heavenly as Maryam's. Those relaxed hours after the food is served and the host and hostess can join their guests, sit down, relax, and enjoy their party. We were all full of stories to tell and it was hard to wait our turns to tell them! Some of our other friends had missed the party because of illness and emergencies, and we missed them. I am glad to report that I took their share of kooftehs and now they wait in my freezer to be my dinner on a cold winter's eve soon! No, I won't give them away to anyone, sorry!

Somedays I think the best part of my life in its newest iteration has been the possibility of making the friendships I enjoy these days. I consider myself one of the most fortunate people in the world to have come to know some of the brightest Iranians who live outside Iran, and then many inside Iran.

*Breaking Bread is an expression as old as biblical times. It means sharing food with others, and in colloquial English it means developing friendships with others through eating together.

Progress Report

I am preparing for a dinner at my house tonight. My good friend, Mersedeh, is here from Southern California this weekend. Poor baby, she has been chopping and mincing and cutting things for me all evening! She is working on the pomegranates now, as this is a very popular dessert item. I thought this picture would make for a good progress report. Well, to be fair, it is "Mersedeh's Progress Report!" Of course, someone has to take pictures and write blog entries, so I take that part on! I just love the excitement of a house waiting for dear guests. Life is good.

Family, Friends, and Food

Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's house. Jaye hame khali bood.

Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving Day in the US today. The original British pilgrims who arrived America in search of religious freedom were not very lucky in securing themselves food the first year they arrived. Many of them perished in the cold weather of US East Coast, and they all suffered much. The next winter, American Indians came to their aid, gave them agricultural produce such as corn and fruits, and turkey. Americans celebrate this day as a day of national prosperity, familial traditions, and to a very small degree as a religious gathering to thank God and count their blessings.

Just as with any other idea in the country, there are those who discredit the authenticity of that "First Winter" story, and those who view the story as a mockery of how native Americans were treated in the hands of the pilgrims. While research in the area makes for excellent reading and a good conversation piece, I find that Thanksgiving in the US is neither about history, nor about religion anymore. It is about families and friends getting together, and it's about food, food, and food! My family get together on Thanksgiving day at around 2:00 p.m. in my older sister's house and eat a big dinner together for several hours (pictures to follow). I will have my Thanksgiving turkey dinner on Saturday with my beloved friends and some family members. I have already started cooking for the event. Take a look at my Salad Olivieh preparation scene! I will show you more pictures of my cooking as the weekend progresses. Happy Thanksgiving you all. Remember, you don't have to be American or religious to feel contentment and joy in appreciating what you have. As I chop and mince this morning, I am grateful for all that I have.

White Mulberries (Toot)

Take a moment to look at my most favorite fruit in the world! These are white berries (toot sefid), grown on multi-branched leafy trees in Tehran, most notably in the suburb of Kan. They are quite possibly the sweetest fruits on earth, incomparable to anything else. Once a year in late spring and early summer, they are presented all over Tehran, heaped on huge round platters. Since I was a child, I never knew when to stop once I got started eating them one by one at an unbelievable pace and speed! Though it’s more practical to buy them in a shop, the best way to eat them is picking them fresh off the tree. I remember the ceremony of picking berries in Tehran. A big cloth was spread around the tree trunk, and someone would beat the tree with a large stick, helping the ripe berries fall onto the cloth, where waiting children would rush to have their pick! I miss the fruit, and I miss seeing them in shops, where bees would fly all over them, finding it hard to part with this, the sweetest fruit in the world.

Photo by Parviz Forghani, Iranian.com

Afternoon Tea At Work

Daydreaming

It's been a roller-coaster of a week, I'll say. I have gone through what probably is the widest range of emotions someone could have in just a week! You guys must be exhausted just reading about me (and you don't know some of the things I didn't report!). I feel overwhelmed. To add to the situation, whenever I get really sad, I start getting nostalgic and homesick for Tehran. Bia o dorostesh kon! I wander its streets and roads in my daydreams, and dream about being in Tehran in my sleep.

This is Modarres Freeway or Parkway in Tehran. It starts in Haft-e-Tir Square in Central Tehran and runs all the way to Northern Tehran. It is the second oldest freeway in Tehran, so the shrubbery and the trees lining it are mature and lush and gorgeous. It is a road I used to take home from work everyday. On smug-free days like the one in the picture, you can see the mountains located to the North of Tehran.

I miss my Tehran today, on top of all the other things going on around me. Right now, all I want to do is to take this freeway South and go down to Jomhouri Avenue, get lost in the crowds and the loud traffic of it, find my way to Pirashki Khosravi, have a pirashki (or two) with a bitter turkish coffee, the like of which no one else makes in the world. The store is now owned by an Armenian family, though there are pictures inside of the man named "Khosravi" and his Armenian staff in the 1950's and 1960's. There are no chairs for you to sit at Pirashki Khosravi. You must eat standing up and leave, though no one ever rushes you to leave. You can stay if you want and watch the hundreds of different people who come in every hour. I have done this so many times--just standing there in that small shop, watching people come and go. I miss it today, my city.

Short Dry Capuccino, Medium Latte, & a Croissant

This morning at 10:15, Au Coquelet Cafe, Berkeley.

A Funny Memory

On a Saturday in 1983, when we were still students, I was sitting at the table paying my bills, listening to the Iranian program on television. I heard them advertise a new Iranian restaurant, located in the Town and Country Village in Palo Alto, letting us know that they have the “Best Chelo Kabab In The Area.” I called my sister and a few other friends, and they all agreed to go there for lunch. Starving students on a tight budget, we were going to splurge and eat the “Best Chelo Kabab In The Area.” All nine of us piled into a beat-up Chevrolet Impala station wagon, and started the long journey from Berkeley to Palo Alto. On the way, we were singing “Sepideh dam oomad o vaghte raftan...” on top of our lungs, laughing and feeling generally happy. ...... Read the rest of this story here: http://www.iranian.com/Kaviani/2007/March/Dough/index.html