Esfand Aashena

Esfand jan,

Thai people should like Iranian food, it is not that different. Come to think of it, just as many Iranians like Thai food and Vietnamese food, they may be fine with our food too.

Anahid jaan South Koreans are not allowed to cook either!

Remember?!  Even when you find some ethnic restaurants the food ends up being Iranian!  All foreigners get used to eating Kabobs and Sandwiches and Pizzas.  Of course they like to have beer but can't have it in restaurants. 

One waiter who knew my cousin offered beer but I declined!  Of course in black market you can find anything and some foreigners get their stuff that way when they really want it and miss home!  When you don't have much choice you go with what is available and the food isn't really bad.

The link I provided from Symah Sayyeh had some specialty restaurants but they are few and again not necessarily the same taste and food you'd expect! 

Everything is sacred

Thanks Esfand jaan

For reminding us of Sekanjabeen and other goodies.

You would think that they would have some east Asian food in Iran since you always hear that there are people from that part of the world in Iran.  We know that there are South Koreans in Iran. So what do they do for food?

JD jaan the hiking outfits sounds misfitting!

I don't know if they're open for lunch, they probably are, but we went there at night and people were dressing very nice and I also saw several tables with foreign patrons.  Table next to us were Germans and were eating Delester and laughing! The other table were Japanese and were ching chang chunging louldy!

You are right the river running through is special,  our table was next to it.  They also have some nice walls having water come through it and such and also rooms where they'd close the walls with thick plastic to protect from rain and cold.  Some internal heaters too along with floor fireplaces.

Having said all of this about SPU, Khayyam in Saad Abad would be my choice.  Not as fancy but by far more pleasant and memorable.  Loved it! 

Everything is sacred

هنر (غذا) نزد ایرانیان است و بس!

Faramarz jaan thank you for your questions, they are thorough! You are observant the food is pretty much the same as it has always been!  Looks like Iranians don't want to "risk" anything when it comes to food!  They want to stay with what is safe! I have been to couple of Italian restaurants but the menu is not what you'd think.  Spagetti is steamed macaroni (like basmati polo) , Iranian style!  Delicious!

However, other than Kabobs, the other dishes can vary from place to place with some ethnicity twists, and also varies from home to home.  So you can actually tell the difference and each one in my opinion is unique.

When I go there I eat the home made meals like a bear!  From breakfast with hot barbari and feta to lunch with khoresht morgheh torsh to dinner with dolmeh and fresh basil, shahi, marzeh and other greens and timely goodies like romano lettuce and sekanjehbin in the afternoon!   Surprisingly I don't add as much pounds.  Perhaps it's all the walking I do every day.  I won't even mention the food I have in the country ;-)

Now the restaurants, the finer ones, have made it a point to try and make it an event for their patrons.  So some of these "traditional" eateries are very good and fun to attend.  The SPU place was really a unique place with great ambiance.  I would say without hesitation that I have not been to a similar place in terms of being unique and all around pleasant atmosphere here in America and I go out a lot. 

The place doesn't open till 7:30 and people were waiting outside and I thought WTF what is this place that doesn't care about having customers walk away?  Then when we went in I understood they really have something special there.  By 8 - 8:30 the place was almost full and a line was forming and that was midweek.  On weekends the whole Darakeh is gridlock!  All nice places are gridlock on weekends. 

There are some Rachel Rays and Emrils in Iran!  However, they are very polite and pretty much run the same menu!  The shows are boring.  The best shows on TVs are the drama series (cereal) like Mexican soap operas.  You get hooked very quickly.  The most popular one is ghaveye talkh which issues a new VCD/DVD every week.  I think they're up to episode 25 or something by now.  I didn't care for it much but it was very popular.  I liked some other ones like setayesh that deals with Iranian male chauvinism and other no nos that are legal but they advertise otherwise!

Everything is sacred

spew or is it really SPU?

Twice I invited some relatives and friends there for a thank you party. Nice place if you hike the area first and come back and eat at the restaurant. Being next to the river/creek is the big plus. Has a huge fountain with good sound effect and restrooms are also clean (a very rare commodity in Iran)

I saw a stone carving image of a whale at the entrance with the word Spew in Persian as in your photo. Up to now I was thinking they meant is as "whale spew" and puzzled me why would they do that, unless if it was a seafood restaurant. Spew also means  to expel in large quantities, which is  more appetizing than what whale spew means. Anyway a very bad choice of name, stupid, reckless disregard for the ambiance in a country with so many beautiful names. Wrong choice, be it spew or SPU.. :)

If I can respond to Faramarz's question. In my opinion the quality of food is far below what it was before the revoutuion. If you ever ate at Darband Hotel or Nayey in Saad Abaad Ave 40 years ago you would realize the difference. But then again my father used to tell me that the dishes that he ate during Mozafarreddin Shah's rule in Iran, was the last of great food on earth! Perhaps we are all nostalgic.....

Esfand Jaan, in early 1980s

In early 1980s, names of restaurants could not be westernized so I knew some people that would use some names from parts of Iran like Shomal or Kordestan but the names sounded exotic.  Therefore,  IRI could not prevent them since name indeed belonged to somewhere in Iran. The way things are progreseing, speedo is soon coming, all we need is Ali Geda or someone seeing a dream with a name like that and some relation to Imam Zaman.

A Culinary Tour!

Esfand Jaan,

Thanks for writing this blog. I am curious about the culinary scene in Tehran. I looked at the pictures of the finer establishments that you have provided, but nothing really stood out. It looks like the food still is what it was decades ago, but the presentation is much slicker and more professional.

In your experience, did you run into anything new aside from the usual Kabob, Khoresht and a few interesting appetizers, or Aash? Also, in today’s Iran, are there such things as celebrity chefs or people who are experimenting with new food concepts?

One more thing, have the restaurants incorporated some of the Chinese, Japanese or even Vietnamese items into their food and menu?

اسپیو

Anahid jaan yes it's the same restaurant and it's pretty big with lots of tables and "beds" people smoking hokas and all!  You can read their sign on their entrance in Farsi in this photo. You walk under this sign when you enter.

At first I thought they called it Speedo restaurant!  The sign actually reads speedo, doesn't it?  Then when I was writing this blog I found out it is actually SPU!  Don't know what it stands for or why they write it in Farsi like this.  Maybe to just confuse folks and give them a name they can't pronounce!

Everything is sacred

Wow, Esfand jaan, My mom was just in SPU, I think

Wow, I just called my mom this morning. She told me that my uncle had taken some relatives to a restaurant in Evin Darakeh and then she mentioned a name that sounded like SPU. I remember that I was surprised what kind of name that was. I believe this is SPU that you wrote about since according to your link it is in Darekeh square. This is very interesting. Thanks.