I wanted to spend this time trashing Rick Bayless’ Frontera Grill in Chicago, which I had the pleasure of sampling with D.C. Sorry, not to be racist, but a white guy from the midwest importing Mexican food to southern California (see Red O) is um…suspect. To me, it would be like importing Texan kimchi to Seoul. Why do it?
However, my pictures turned out super blurry so instead I want to devote a couple paragraphs to Persian people and their food. First off, I would like to point out similarities in Persian and Korean stereotypes. One, Koreans and Persians are often thought of as driving flashy cars in the Wilshire corridor or Beverly Hills. That is not true. This is Los Angeles - everyone drives a flashy car. Its what makes us Los Angelinos specially douchetastic. I love it.
Secondly, Koreans and Persians are often thought of as being elaborately and spiritually in touch with the culture of their food. This is undoubtedly true. In the spirit of culinary kinship, I went to Raffi’s in Glendale with a few colleagues (one of whom was a very good tour guide through the menu).
Okay, okay. Maybe Raffi’s is technically owned by Armenians, but bear with me here. We ordered a feast, including abghoost, which is lamb, chickpeas, onion, tomatoes, turmeric and dried lime mashed together and served with strained broth and an incredible flatbread. The kashk o’bademjan (fried eggplant on kashk) is incredible as is the tadig and pinto beans. I don’t view Raffi’s as a kabob place per se, but the koobideh and kabobs are supposedly very, very good. We had the mahi mahi kabob, which was really nicely cooked.
Raffi’s is simply the best Persian food I’ve had in a very long time. Unfortunately, it is in Glendale, which is hard for me to get to on the weekends. If anybody finds something on the west side of equal quality, let me know. But don’t tell me its run by a white guy from Des Moines.
Raffi’s Place Restaurant, 211 E Broadway, Glendale, CA 91205, (818) 240-7411.
