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Lunch of the Week: Farsi Cafe

The gorgeous dish above is one of the most interesting things I've eaten recently, light, fresh and presented with such artistry. 

It's kashk o bademjhan, a Persian eggplant dish at Farsi Cafe in Westwood. The sauteed eggplant is soft, like a puree. The white topping is whey with a yogurt base, decorated with sautéed mint, crunchy fried garlic and a splash of saffron. I spooned it onto very light Persian bread.

 

I saw a lot of yellow at the cafe, mainly the brilliant yellow grains garnishing heaps of feathery rice. I would love to know how Persians cook their rice. It's so perfect--flaky and tender.

 

I had it three ways--plain white rice decorated with yellow grains; white rice mixed with dill and fava beans, and rice with sweet cherries that was just this side of being a dessert. The rice is basmati, and the grains are amazingly long. 

 

Persians prize the crust that forms at the bottom of the pot as the rice cooks. Called saffron tahdig on the menu, it's mixed with yogurt and eggs as well as saffron. You can order it as an accompaniment or buy it to go from a takeout section.

 

An Iranian friend ordered lunch, thank heavens, because I know very little about Persian cuisine. She chose chicken kabobs (above), knowing we all would like them, including the two kids in the group. 

 

These are beef kabobs. Those on the left are made with sliced meat. On the right are ground beef kabobs. I liked the spicing, which was light but made the meat very tasty. Eating these with nothing more than grilled vegetables and rice would be a perfect meal.

 

But we ate other things too, such as these stews, each of which included beans. And fesenjan, chicken in a sweet sauce of ground walnuts and pomegranate paste. 

 

Even the salad was beautiful (above). It included Persian cucumbers, of course, along with cherry tomatoes, corn, carrots pickled beets, red cabbage and lettuce.

 

The Persian counterpart of Indian raita was quite different--very thick, with finely shredded cucumber, mint and made with yogurt that was creamy and less tart than I am accustomed to.

 

For dessert, we had zoolbia, the Persian equivalent of the Indian jalebi, made with far finer strands than I have seen in any Indian shop, and little nuggets of syrup-soaked fried dough called bamieh. Persian tea was strong and soothing with these rich sweets. 

 

The restaurant was crowded for a weekend lunch (above). After we left, loaded with baxes of leftovers, our table was quickly occupied.

 

Farsi Cafe, 1916 Westwood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025. Tel: (310) 475-4500.

 

Observing Ramadan at the Olive Tree

This sumptuous spread of food at the Olive Tree in Anaheim looks like a holiday extravaganza that takes days, even weeks, to prepare and happens just once a year.

Only it happens every night during Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month. Once the sun goes down, Olive Tree's iftar buffet opens, often to a sell-out crowd. What you see above are appetizers, salads and side dishes.  Meat, chicken and fish dishes fill six hot trays in another section. 

Up to 160 can attend, sitting at tables that line the sidewalk outside and under a tent (above) that is set up just for this observance because the restaurant is too small to accommodate so many.

The dishes vary slightly each day, because some customers come every night. Staples are  dates, which are always on hand at Ramadan dinners, and pita breads (above).

Fried zucchini with yogurt is at the bottom center of this display. Behind are hummus and baba ghanoush.

This is fattoush, a salad laced with crisp bits of fried pita bread.

Still more dishes were stuffed grape leaves, golden brown fried corn fritters, spicy chicken wings, cauliflower with eggs, falafel and labneh (drained yogurt) combined with walnuts.

There were meat pies, spinach buns, fried tomatoes with mozzarella and cheese rolls, so much food that it took two platters to hold even a small taste of everything. The soup of the day was lentil. 

This beautifully cooked rice was enriched with crunchy golden brown almonds. Rice with lentils was topped with glistening, dark brown fried onions. 

Fried tilapia and shrimp  (above) were placed on a bed of rice. There were also lamb shanks, an Olive Tree specialty; roast chicken and boiled whole potatoes stuffed with meat and onions. 

Observant Muslim women cover their heads, like these lined up at the buffet.  Some of them found a quiet corner for prayers during the meal.

Traditional Ramadan beverages include the apricot drink at the right. The dark drink is jallab, made from a syrup flavored with dates, grape molasses and rose water.

The dessert for this dinner was syrup-glazed fried pancakes with mild cheese inside (above).

Ramadan continues through the evening of July 17. If you want to attend one of the dinners at the Olive Tree, be sure to make reservations, because they are quickly sold out. The price for more food than you could humanly eat in one sitting is just $23.

Olive Tree Restaurant,  512 S Brookhurst Street #3, Anaheim, CA 92804. Tel: (714) 535-2878.

Get to Know Lugana's Cool Turbiana

There's nothing so nice as a cool glass of crisp, fresh white wine when the weather heats up. One that you ought to try is Turbiana. 

Never heard of it? It's the local name for the grape Trebbiano in the wine region Lugana in northern Italy. Lugana's Trebbiano isn't the same as other Trebbianos in Italy. The region's climate and soils make the grape so distinctive that it is known as Trebbiano di Lugana.

Tasting more than 20 Lugana wines last week, I noticed how much they varied, even though made from the same grape. Usually, Lugana wines are 100% Trebbiano, although local regulations allow blending with up to 10 % of another white wine grape, such as Chardonnay.

The tasting took place outdoors on a hot day at the Peninsula Beverly Hills, and this showed how suitable these wines are for warm weather drinking. The hour-long sampling was the prelude to a lunch with seven more wines, accompanied by comments from Lugana winemakers, who were visiting Los Angeles for the first time.

Luca Formentini, president of the Consorzio di Lugana, said the gentle landscape and low hills of Lugana are influenced in soil and climate by proximity to Lake Garda, Italy's largest lake. You can see its location on the map above. 

The region is small, just 15 kilometers from west to east and north to south, Formentini said, and tempered by cold winds from the lake in the north and warm winds from the south. Production is between 13 and 14 million bottles a year, or under 2 million cases.

Although the wines poured at the tasting may not be in stores yet, they indicate the good drinking you'll have if you can locate Lugana wines. 

A few that I starred at the tasting before lunch included the 2014 Pilandro "TereCrea" (above), lively with lots of acidity. The 2014 Malavasi was rich and floral.

I especially liked both the 2014 Fratelli Zeni "Vigne Alte" and 2014 Fratelli Zeni  "Marogne."  They made me think of Sauvignon Blanc. They're the two bottles at the right in the photo above. 

Gianluigi Chiodin of Tenuta Roveglia holds a bottle of the dry 2014 "Limne" from that winery (above). 

The mineral notes of these wines make them excellent companions to seafood. I almost caught the aroma of shrimp shells when tasting the 2014 Antica Casa Visconti.

Lunch showed how well Lugana wines combine with food. Five were set out to taste with a menu that began with a white asparagus radicchio salad with preserved lemon. Next, house-made gnocchi with pesto, pine nuts and Parmigiano Reggiano (above) gave them a chance to shine. 

The lunch wines were more mature than those at the reception, starting with the 2012 Gerardo Cesari "Cento Filari" (above), which I liked for its floral notes, coupled with bright acidity.

The 2013 Pratello, from an organic property, was lean, fresh and pretty, made without wood contact. 

The next wine, 2013 Pasini San Giovanni, felt prickly on my tongue as if it were sparkling, only it wasn't. 

What makes the 2013 Perla del Garda stand out is its tulip-shaped bottle (above). The grapes were hand-picked, hand-sorted and fermented in stainless steel.

The wine inside that pretty bottle held its own with the bitter rapini that accompanied loup de mer, heirloom potato confit and wilted tomatoes (above). 

The 2013 Ca' Lojera, which means home of the wolf (above), came from vines averaging 40 years of age. Geologically, the land was once part of Lake Garda, leaving it with mineral-rich clay soil. This gave a pleasing minerality to the wine.

Lunch ended with a cheese plate composed of Taleggio, Gorgonzola and Grana Padano, accompanied by brilliant orange mostarda di Cremona--candied fruits in mustard-flavored syrup (above).

The oldest wine of the tasting came with the cheese course. It was the 2007 Cà dei Frati Brolettino, clean tasting and very fresh despite its age.

The other wine with the cheese was the 2011 Marangona "Il Rintocco," a riserva, which means the wine had to age at least 24 months, six of them in the bottle. It tasted a little like a late harvest wine to me, although not sweet.

Lugana wineries also make late harvest and spumante wines, but we didn't taste these. Maybe we'll be able to do that the next time the Lugana winemakers come to town.