Today I visited Leila for the first time at her apartment, and she cooked like this humongous feast of Iranian food for me, my mum, and her friend, Hamsa, from Iraq. It was just brilliant -- we laughed and laughed and ate and ate and ATE from 3pm until like 7pm!! o_O
The Iranian-style rice was cooked with Brasmathi rice (a.k.a. beras mati) and butter and many complicated steps - it was a very different experience from our usual soft Chinese rice! :]
The ghormeh sabzi was my mum's absolute favourite - it's made from several different types of vegetables and kidney beans: it's a traditional Iranian dish. A must-try for all you global-tongued samplers out there!!
The olovieh was my personal favourite! It can be eaten by itself or on toast, spread like jam or tuna - I ate it on toast, and wolfed down THREE pieces of toast with this delicious dish before I could say, "uh-oh. what diet?" The olovieh is like a fusion of egg mayo and potatoes, carrots, pickles and mayonnaise -- it's like all my favourite food combined into one fantastic, mouth-watering serving. AND (apparently) it's easy to make! :]
The pickled vege was sweet-sour and "wakes you up" very efficiently. I liked it, too. :]
The coleslaw was my next favourite dish, because it's like Nando's coleslaw! Super fantastic! :D Very refreshing, not too rich in dressing and I had many helpings of this! :]
There was also another dish, which I forgot to take a photo of because ... as you can see, there were TOO MANY DISHES! Hahahaha. It was a soup-like dish but you cannot slurp it up. It was cold cucumber and yoghurt mixed into some sort of paste - pretty interesting fusion, eaten with the rice or by itself. :]
I'm so pleased that I made a new friend today! :] Hamsa is an Iraqi whose family currently lives in Syria. She's absolutely hilarious! And very expressive. And very beautiful - she has the loveliest eyes! She's doing her Masters at TCPJ now, training to become a travel agent. Guess we know who I'll be booking my holidays with next time!! :D
Who here has heard of "Cameron Apples" before? Hahaha! You see the green fruit with brown stripes? Apparently they're "Cameron Apples" - sold in Cameron Highlands and your local TESCO. HAHAHA. They're pretty delicious, if I say so myself! When you take a bite, you'll think you're tasting many different fruits: honeydew, kiwi, pineapple, .... but not apple! Hahaha! :]
Another thing more than worthy of mention is the tea - Iranian tea. We got to see and smell the leaves in the box after that, and it smelled goooooood. I'm not an avid tea-drinker, but even I liked this tea! :D And for once, when drinking tea, I didn't scald my tongue. Phew! :P
I'm actually not much of a sweet tooth, but this candy was pretty nice! :] It tasted almost like 100% pure sugary goodness, hahaha - but it was nice. Like toffee-coffee-sugar-kuih-dodol, but not too much of either. Pretty cool, eh?
Iranian food is such a fantastic experience - the next time you're walking past an Iranian restaurant, give it a try! :D
A hearty thanks to Leila for being an excellent hostess and an amazing cook! :]
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