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A Taste of Persia
Tablet Magazine
Tablet Magazine
As Nowruz, the Persian new year celebrated on the vernal equinox, approaches on March 20, the traditions of Los Angeles’ Persian community are very much on display at the Persian Jewish markets of Pico-Robertson. Fleeing persecution, Jews left Iran en masse around the time of the fall of the shah in 1979 and over the years that followed. Large numbers of them—estimates vary wildly from 30,000 to 70,000—moved to LA. The community in LA has held onto its traditions extremely well, with many of the next generation’s members speaking Farsi and making Persian foods at home—with foods they buy at stores that cater to the community’s tastes.
Crowded with excellent produce, very fresh nuts, and people, these markets are the best places to buy necessities for Persian Jewish culinary staples like ferrous ghormeh sabzi (an herbed meat stew), springy baghali polo (dill rice with fava beans), and mellow, alliaceous gondi (meatballs made with chicken and chickpea flour, colored gold with turmeric). The main stores are Glatt Mart (the biggest and most ecumenical-feeling), Elat Market (the oldest and most Persian-feeling), and Pico Glatt (open since the early 1990s, moderately Persian feeling). Together, these markets evoke an Iran I’ve never been to, not to mention an Iran to which their Persian shoppers will never return.
Read the full article here.