Toronto, there are many reasons to love this beautiful city, but perhaps the best reason is that it has a vibrant multicultural community. With a population rising over 2.7 million, it is known to be the most diverse city in the world. You can simply walk down the street and find numerous restaurants influenced by a variety of different countries. The same thing goes for Persian cuisine, there are so many places where you could dine such as the Persian Palace, Pars Grill, Kish Restaurant and so much more. 

The other day I went out to eat at The Persian Palace. The Persian Palace is a restaurant that’s able to celebrate the true spirit of Persian cuisine. They intoxicate your senses with the divine smells of Kabob and Joojeh (chicken) as soon as you walk in. You are then introduced to an atmosphere where you feel so comfortable and instantly hear the Persian music fill your ears. A variety of options are presented to you such as marinated beef, lamb, chicken, fish, and more. The music, food, entertainment and smell all tied together give you an experience that you’ll never forget. They serve the most common and well known dish in Iran, Kabab, which is enjoyed by thousands of people. 

Kabab is the national dish of Iran and has been around for many years. The dish is served almost anywhere in Iran today (the most famous restaurant beingNayeb), although it was traditionally associated with the northern part of the country. The oldest Kabob restaurant is in Tehran called Nayeb which has been around for 120 years.

The ingredients typically used to make Chelo-Kabab:

• 1 ½ pounds ground beef 
• 1 pound ground lamb
• 1 ½ medium yellow onions, quartered
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sumac
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• ½ tsp turmeric powder
• ¼ cup butter, melted (for brushing over the kabobs after grilling)
• 4 ripe but firm Roma tomatoes
• 1 large green bell pepper, quartered

Another restaurant I visited was the Shomal Restaurant (also known as the North Restaurant). The Shomal Restaurant goes back to the 60’s where the business first started in Tehran, a city in Iran. The family who owned it started off as a small business in different cities in Iran and served many tourists from around the world. They decided to immigrate to America and Canada in order to expand their business share their culture with others. 

Persians are a relatively new community to Canada, there weren’t many Persian immigrants until the 80’s came around. In Fact in the 1950’s there were less than 100 Iranian immigrants, and in the 60’s there were only around 600, but all of that changed as soon as the 80’s came by. Many Iranians began to immigrate to Canada in the 1980’s because of the Iranian Revolution and the creation of the Islamic Republic in 1979. This revolt against the Shah of Iran changed the country immediately and led to the fleeing of many Iranians to Canada (With the addition of the Iran-Iraq war from 1980-1988). 

Unfortunately, many Iranians were forced into exile during the revolution and tens of thousands of protesters were also killed. It was no longer a safe place to stay and more and more people began to immigrate to Canada and were able to bring their wonderful culture and ingredients alongside them. Unfortunately, today food insecurity is still an ongoing problem in Iran due to the terrible government.

A common spice used for Kabob in Iran, and now brought over to Canada, is Saffron. Saffron is used in almost every Persian dish and is known to be originated in Iran. It’s been known to be around since the 7th Century BC, and is used in most foods for colour and flavour such a rice, it’s even used in desserts for foods like Sholeh Zard. Although to Persians it’s more than just a spice, it goes all the way back to the 10th century BCwhere it was found to be interwoven into Persian carpets and used as medicine. Advieh (spices) play a significant role in Persian dishes, like my mother always told me “a meal cooked without advieh, is a meal cooked without a soul”.

Persians have inspired the cuisine in Canada significantly. Ingredients commonly used in Iran, and now in Canada are things like mint, rose petals, sumac, pomegranate, barberry, pistachios, almonds, and more. Persians have come such a long way throughout the years and were able to immigrate to Canada after the revolution, this not only brought them safety, but also the opportunity to share their amazing food and culture with us. We can learn so much about their immigrant experience through their food. You can eat something as simple as Kabob and each individual ingredient tells a story of its origin and how it ended up on your plate.

Works cited 

http://www.thepersianpalace.ca/about-us?#!/page/426736/about-us

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/iranians

https://www.unicornsinthekitchen.com/advieh-persian-spice-mix/

https://persianmama.com/kabob-koobideh-grilled-minced-meat-kabobs/

https://www.immigroup.com/news/iranian-immigration-canada-history-and-numbers

http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/Chelo-Kabab-The-National-Dish-of-Iran.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_saffron