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| - Quartier Perse is a well established and deservedly popular restaurant that does amazing things to rice and kabobs.
This will come as a shock to some, but Persian rice is the penultimate way of preparing rice. It's fluffy and chewy and delicious in a way that no other culture has managed to surpass.
To start, we chose a few bowls of Zeytoon Parvardeh, an olive dish with pomegranate paste, walnuts, garlic and herbs. These were eye-crossingly yummy.
As a meat aficionado, you should probably order the Soltani #2 combo - a beautiful plate upon which there is a mountain of buttered rice and two kabobs. One, the "Barg", is a beef filet marinated to perfection and cooked to your preference. The other, the "Koubideh" is a minced beef that also is mouth-wateringly delicious. You can shake a little of the powdered Sumac spice on your meat and rice for an added touch of authenticity.
Being the Designated Driver I treated myself to a glass of Doogh - a drink that my Iranian friend assured me went well with the cuisine. He was right. Doogh is a savory yogurt based drink that was minty and salty and went perfectly with the meal. He said that Doogh is an acquired taste but really, it took me only two sips to appreciate the beverage and to welcome it into my inventory of "Exotic Things That I Tried That I Thought I Might Not Like But Liked Anyway". My table-mates had the wine that we brought with us. (Quartier Perse is also BYOB in addition to having a Wine and Beer license)
What I couldn't eat was loaded into a Styrofoam container and the inevitable discussion with the Missus was had. "Shall we feed the leftovers to the kittens or not?" I voted for my stomach, not theirs and happily savoured my leftover Koubideh and rice the next day.
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