1 mersedeh 3

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Introduction 9

What she loves to cook 14 of

What she made her own 16

What her family loved 20 contents

What reminds her of her parents 22

What reminds her of 24

Tahchin 29

CANDICE NAVI, 2018 7

“I looked behind me and knew I’m not coming back.”

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I once asked my mom if, while growing up in Iran, she ever imagined sitting in the United States speaking fuently in English with her daughter. She had not. At 17, she fed Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution as a political refugee. She is now one of thousands of Jewish Iranians contributing to the vibrant Persian diaspora community in Los Angeles.

I asked her to recount the moment she knew she had to leave Iran.

It was the last day that I attended high school back home, the revolution was growing. I went to a private school—me and my siblings were one of very few Jews and all of my friends were Muslim. So when the revolution started happening, the teachers started preaching to the kids, so I stood up in the class and said, “If you guys go this way, and you want the revolution to actually happen, we’re all going to go under chador and lose our rights as women. You’re not going to have any rights, you’re gonna go back so many years.” And my best friend all throughout school stood up and said, “You dirty Jew, you can’t tell us what to do.” That was the moment that I knew this is not where I belong anymore. I remember walking out of the high school to the street, and that was the longest walk. I still remember—I looked behind me and knew I’m not coming back. And when I went home and told my dad what had happened, he said, “You’re not going back to that school no matter what, I’m sending you out.” I knew in that moment, that day, when I walked on the street crying. That feeling I had—I knew.

That day marked the beginning of a long journey out of Iran for my mother, her parents, and her three siblings. A year later, she found herself completing her senior year of high school in Orange County, getting through her classes with what little English she had learned at school in Iran.

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The political and emotional turmoil of nearly 40 years ago is as relevant as ever; Iran continues to make headlines as both a political and religious leader and as a threat in the region. All of this tumult fuels her appreciation for the life she’s built in this country, her adoptive home. Mersedeh’s life in the United States, and the family she has built, exemplifes the immigrant ideal of the American Dream. With a degree in electrical engineering, my mother works full-time as an accountant with her husband Fereidoon, who often goes by his American name Frank. 12 15

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My mother embodies transition; she is my bridge between past, present, and future. I’ve grown up hearing countless stories about her life in Iran, all of which feel distant yet familiar—summers on the Caspian Sea eating fresh seafood, artisan ice cream at Cafe Ladan with her late father, Fatollah, and her beautiful home in Shemran, north of Tehran. Her life in Orange County was marked by the harsh realities of immigration—making ends meet, working her way through college while acting as a second mother to her other siblings, feeling out of place as one of the only black curly haired Jewish Iranians in a sea of blonde affuence and homogeneity.

Nowadays, I hear about the current little details of life Mersedeh shares with me everyday, including her hopes for the future and wishes for my brother Ryan’s and my health, happiness, and success. Sometimes these wishes are discussed at the dinner table, other times they are silently said in prayer over the Shabbat candles.

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Mersedeh’s cooking is known among our friends and family as truly exceptional; her gondi—meatballs with chickpeas—and tadigh—the crunchy fried at the bottom of the pot—are legendary. She brushes off the compliments with humility and quiet confdence.

For Mersedeh, her success in the kitchen is more a result of circumstance than skill. She would always help Mahboobeh in the kitchen and started cooking at 13 for fun with her middle school classmates, continuing to perfect her cooking as the eldest of four children until she had a family of her own.

Certain characteristics of Persian culture are deeply infused in my mother’s approach to cooking: food in Iran was always freshly prepared in absurd abundance. Mersedeh still remembers how her grandfather and mother always stocked their kitchens with newly cooked food, fresh fruit, and hot tea on the stove in case friends or family decided to drop by. A good Iranian host is inclusive and makes their guests their top priority: the plenitude is meant to be comforting and welcoming. 16 19

Today, every Friday night Shabbat meal at our house is guaranteed to be a feast, even when it’s just my parents, my brother and me. Food is the centerpiece of every social gathering, regardless of size or occasion.

M It’s a cultural thing I think also; the Persian culture is all about being good to your guests and having something to offer—nobody should go hungry from your home. I don’t like to make small amounts. For the party we had a few months ago, the amount of food I got, I could’ve had another 200 people just for the fruit and with the dinner I could’ve had another100 people. We still have the fruit! C That’s just how Persian culture is, but especially how you are—you’re a very generous, warm person, so I think it’s kind of second nature for you. You don’t do it because you have to, you do it because you want to. M If I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t do it.

While seated at the head of her long dining room table, Mersedeh sipped her morning coffee made with her usual two sugars and cream. The table is topped with an ornate white foral tablecloth, plastic covering, and fake red roses that are perpetually in bloom; they almost kiss the crystal chandelier hanging above the center of the room. An intricate, beautiful red Persian rug quietly lines the marble-tiled foors.

Our home, while foreign in decor to most of our guests and friends, is where I am most at ease. It is an amalgamation of the traditional Iranian love for antiques, gold fourishes, and feur-de-lis of French centuries’ past, all stuffed into a Spanish-style home typical of the Los Angeles area. The tension of styles and dissonance between old and new, plus the hundreds of family photos lining every surface, make the house feel like a home.

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20 23 what she loves to cook & Tahdig

Mersedeh enjoys cooking two of the most well-known Iranian dishes, but simply because she knows how much her family enjoys them. Both reward a chef’s patience—Ghormeh Sabzi calls for specifc ingredients, many of which did not exist in Los Angeles until years after she moved here.

M Ghormeh Sabzi is a beef stew that has a lot of herbs and greens. And that’s something that I like to cook. C Is it something about the favors, is it something about the prep you enjoy? M The favor of Ghormeh Sabzi is unique. It’s different, you don’t see it anywhere else. One of the herbs that’s in it is a Persian herb. C Which one? M I have to look up the name, I don’t know it in English—shanbalileh—and for the longest time they didn’t have that herb here when we moved to the US. So it wouldn’t taste the same without it. But now it’s all over the place. C How would you describe this herb? M It’s very bitter so you don’t put too much of it, and it has its own aroma. That’s what makes Ghormeh Sabzi: the way it smells and the way it tastes. I also like making tahdigh. It’s a challenge to make it the way I want it to. C Yeah you’re always frustrated with how it turns out. So tell me about tahdigh. I think that to me better refects you than the other two you said. M Tahdigh—you have to put the right amount of water and oil into the pot, it has to be the perfect timing and the perfect temperature for it not to burn and for it to come out thin and crispy, but not too oily. You have to be—I don’t want to call it an art—but, you have to pay attention to what you’re doing! I’ve burned tahdighs before, when I was in a rush, so you need to take time and you can’t just rush it if you want the right crispiness of the tahdigh to come out.

22 25 what she made her own Tahchin

Unlike most other dishes, Mersedeh did not grow up watching her mother Mahboobeh prepare Tahchin—a savory . When she married Fereidoon, she asked her sister-in-law for tips but mostly taught herself to prepare his favorite dish.

M I remember growing up I never saw my mom make taachin. I ate it at Forough’s house and I asked for the recipe and just winged it. I didn’t see anyone do it. So I’ve come to do it on my own. I’m still trying to fgure out the best way, and I have to try your challenge of adding chicken to the taachin. I have to fgure that out. C Well, that aside, what even made you want to learn how to make it in the frst place? M First of all, it’s a delicious dish. It’s really good. C It’s sweet and savory. M Yeah, it’s different. And it’s your dad’s favorite so I wanted to learn it. C It’s dad’s favorite, really? M He likes taachin, it’s one of his favorites! C So when did you ask Forough for that recipe? M We were married for two or three years. C Did Dad aske you to make it? M No, I had it at his sister’s house and I really liked how she made it, and she just verbally told me how she did it. But I make it differently than her. I add more raisin and more zereshk. C What’s zereshk? M Zereshk is the berries that are small and sour. I can tell you the name in English, I have the box here. So that’s why I did it. And it’s a good dish to know, it’s fun to make. C It’s one of those dishes where you’re not going to see that in any other culture. M Yeah, it’s very Persian. C Very Iranian. It’s regal. Leave it to us to fnd all the ways to cook rice, it’s like a rice cake.

24 M Yeah, like a rice cake. 27 what her family loved Khoresht Loubia Sabz & Khoresht Karafs

Mersedeh juggled the food preferences of her husband and two children. We discussed how in the early years, she mostly cooked pasta for my brother and I until our tastes caught up with her culinary prowess.

M I remember your request was mostly spaghetti, growing up, and now that you guys are older, Ryan’s favorite is celery stew—Karafs—and your favorite is the green bean stew—Khoresht Loubia Sabz. Do you remember what was your most requested item from me? C I have really fond memories of being in the kitchen with you actually. But I would never be helpful, I would just be messing around. Like I remember one time we were making cookies. M You were a good baker, you used to make cookies all the time. From scratch, or the pre-made. You like to bake. But food wise, do you remember? I don’t remember. C It’s complicated. I remember not liking Persian food. M Yes, I remember that distinctly. C How was that for you, was that hard for you? M It limited a lot of the options of what I knew how to make. C But you didn’t take it personally? M No no. C You didn’t think “my children are rejecting my culture!”? M No, no, I never forced you guys to eat what you didn’t like, I would make it once in awhile so you’d be introduced to it, but I never forced you guys. I used to make two or three dishes sometimes and my friends thought I was crazy. I would make something you would like, something Ryan likes, something Dad likes so we had options to go around.

26 29 what reminds her of her parents Dolmeh & Chelokabob

amazing. I knew it was coffee but it was so rich, you could smell it walking in the small narrow streets. We didn’t have that back home—that smell—I still The foods that reminded Mersedeh most of her parents ended up invoking remember the feeling, it was amazing. many additional memories—of the frst time my mom woke up to the smell And you were like ‘oh, I like this!’ You’re drinking coffee right now! Interesting. of coffee in Italy while feeing Iran (which was also her frst time out of the I never told you about that before. country) of the fresh fsh she would eat when vacationing off the Caspian Sea, No. Was it weird to go back to Italy when we went? C and her memories of eating Chelokabob out with her late father, Fatollah. No, I have good memories of it. M No you don’t, you were miserable! C M Dolmeh reminds me of my mom, kabob reminds me of my dad, cheloh kabob. I was miserable because I didn’t know what the future was. There was so M Cheloh kabob, I told you we would go to that restaurant. So it just brings back much unknown. So I wasn’t enjoying Italy, but the time that I went with you C memories of childhood, of how my dad was excited to take us there, and it guys was amazing, I want to go back. M was a fun thing to do, not that he ever made kabob, he never cooked. I want to hear more about your food memories with your parents. So we C Your parents had a very traditional dynamic in some ways, at least with food. talked about how your dad infused you guys with an appreciation for food. Your mom would cook, he would eat it. One other memory I have with my parents is we used to take an annual C M But towards the end, he was a lot more hands on than before. He changed a vacation to the Caspian Sea, the north shores. He had a friend who worked lot in so many ways. So I know he would help in the kitchen, like he became in the ‘Sheelat,’ where they would catch fsh and provide fsh for the whole M my mom’s assistant in so many ways. country. So we used to go there and have the freshest fsh, and they would C Even though he didn’t cook, I feel like he was always a fan of food. He make fsh kabob over there—it was a treat to go there and go to his home appreciated food, really enjoyed it, derived a lot of joy from eating. and have caviar, the good stuff they would export. Another food thing with my M Ice cream, we say it’s a Bina trait to love ice cream and potato chips You family is when we used to go to the property that my grandfather owned in know something else, speaking of food, when we left Iran—how we left is a Karaj—my grandfather owned this huge plot of land that had big parts of it long story—but when we left, we went to Italy, they took us to Italy. We were were for grapes, different fruit trees, then they had these white berries that supposed to be there for three days and it ended up being two weeks. So they are very sweet and tasty. We used to climb the trees—can you believe I would took us to this orphanage place—have you seen Oliver Twist the movie? This climb a tree?—and they would put a big white sheet on the ground, and we’d was exactly the same. It was an orphanage, that was the only place that had shake the tree. All the ripe ones were on top because everyone else would space to hold all these kids, God bless them. This saved my life and so many grab the lower ones, so the good stuff was on the top. So you’d shake it and others. I remember the frst time they served us food. I remember waking up all the white berries would end up on the sheet. That was a fun thing to do, that morning and smelling coffee, we didn’t have that back home. one of the most fun things. I remember we’d put watermelons in the stream C Coffee isn’t a thing in Iran. to cool them off in the morning, so when we got them in the afternoon they M No, and I still remember the feeling I got from that aroma of coffee was were cool and crispy. Something you’d never see anywhere else.

28 31 what reminds her of iran Ghormeh Sabzi & Kabob

C So, my last question: what dish reminds you of Iran? M One dish? I would have to say Ghormeh Sabzi. It’s like a gourmet dish, my mom wouldn’t make it that often, and it has a lot of the stuff that brings back memories from Iran. Kabob also, I wanna say. Even though now they have kabob everywhere, the kabob is such a Persian thing, and I’m so glad there are so many Persian restaurants that serve it. C Yeah, kabob is not something you’d just make at your house. M No. C Like it’s a treat for a special occasion or for dinner. M In Iran, a backyard was really a backyard, an area to store things. The front of the house is the big yard. So you’d park your car in front in a big gated area then walk through the front yard, the pool area, then enter the home. C I think that’s something that’s just a refection of Persian culture, where you’re greeting your guests with this regal yard. M There might be pictures of my home in my mother’s house, I’d like for you to see it. C I’d love to see it. M I remember, now that I’m talking about it, where everything was, but I can’t even explain it to you. So we had a small backyard and they would have this thing to prepare kabob in the backyard, like professional kabob makers. So we’d buy the coal and make it ready in the yard. So kabob making and especially the ground beef kabob, that’s also a specialty. I never learned how to make it so the beef doesn’t fall off the metal skewer.

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I learned a lot of new things about my mother during our hour long conversation. Mersedeh kindly relived her memories with me, some of which I know are painful for her to recall, either because she is nostalgic for an Iran that seems to no longer exist, or because she still feels traumatized.

I loved hearing about her summers on the Caspian Sea, the frst time she smelled coffee while in refugee limbo in Italy, how she would climb trees for berries on her grandfather’s orchard, or the frst time she met her husband in Southern California over a customary pot of Persian tea.

M In the customs of Persian culture in the old days, and even when I was in the age of dating and getting married, one of the things was you had to at least be able to make tea and know how to serve tea. And you’d have to bring a tray of tea for the chastegars—I did that for your dad! C Are you kidding?! M No! On our frst date, when he frst came to my parents house. C On the frst date?! M For the frst blind date. Don’t put that in there! C I’m defnitely putting this in! That’s so good, really? M I remember where he was sitting. C That was the frst time you saw him! M The frst time I saw him, he came in— C —he had his moustache and afro— M —and I made tea. The tea is a reason to sit down and chit chat, fnd out more, to prolong the conversation.

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tahchin

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TAHCHIN(GOOD FOR 4 PEOPLE)

3 cups of Basmati rice 5 eggs ½ cup of oil 1 cup of lemon juice 1 cup of barberries 1 cup of small black raisins ½ cup sliced ½ cup sliced almond 1 teaspoon crushed 2-3 tablespoons of salt 2 tablespoons spoons of turmeric

RICE: TAHCHIN:

(1) Rinse the rice in a bowl (2) Boil 8 cups of water (1) Preheat oven to 350° (2) Add saffron to in a medium pot (3) Add rice, salt, and turmeric to a cup of boiling water (3) Oil a baking dish the boiling pot (4) Cook until it begins to rise to the approximately 9”x13” (4) Beat eggs, oil, lemon surface or for 10 minutes (5) Drain and rinse with juice, and saffron together and add to the oiled cold water. baking dish (5) Pour one layer of rice in the dish, then add a layer of mixed barberries and small raisins (6) Repeat till all rice and berries are used, or until dish is full (7) Pour remaining oil and saffron mix on top (8) Smooth the top and cover it with foil (9) Bake for about 2 hours or until golden-brown crust forms on bottom (10) Fry almonds and until slightly brown (11) Uncover and run a knife between rice and dish to loosen crust (12) Place a serving platter over the dish and invert (13) Decorate tachin with dried berries, fried almond, and fried pistachio (14) Cut rice into squares (15) Serve. 36 39

I asked Mersedeh if we could cook tahchin together because it is colorful, sweet and sour, and a distinctly Persian rice dish. She learned to cook tahchin once she got married because it is her husband Fereidoon’s favorite dish. She got a recipe from her sister-in-law Forough, and has since made modifcations to make it her own.

Well-dressed and done up, with bouquets of fower arrangements she made herself, my mother is meticulous about presentation. Tahchin in particular is a dish that really emphasizes appearances—saffron lends the dish a golden yellow, and the fnal product is generously decorated with nuts and berries.

When I would ask Mersedeh the measurements for each ingredient she added, she admitted that much of her cooking is done from memory and taste: “I just know how much salt to put, by heart.”

Even with a recipe, there are certain things one picks up from years of experience or from watching someone else in the kitchen. Mersedeh shared her tricks, like how rinsing cooked rice with cold water removes the starch so it won’t be sticky. She would only use a small portion of saffron and brew it in a separate cup before adding it to the tahchin. Typically, tahchin is prepared with chicken and , but Mersedeh uses lemon juice without meat so that the dish remains Kosher and does not mix meat and dairy. The combination of lemon juice and eggs allows the tahchin to keep its shape once it is cooked.

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