Apparently the LA Times just figured out that there’s TONS of amazing Persian food all over LA. But nevertheless, for the uninitiated, here it is.
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.
