Blog

Chef groupie

Hi.  My name is Shabnam Ghayour and I’m a “Food-a-holic”. Therapy-Style confessions aside, yes, I am indeed Shabnam or ‘Sabrina’ as my clients know me. 

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Grandma’s garden

Riding up Sumach, one of the smaller streets in Toronto, all of a sudden, I felt transported in time and space. Back to my childhood

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The trickster hero

Excerpt from introduction to Rostam: Tales of Love & War from Persia's Book of Kings, translated by Dick Davis (Mage Publishers, 2007). “Rostam is Iran’s

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Chelo-kabab culture

Recently, I've come across several articles and photo essays about the various events surrounding Norooz and Sizdah Bedar. I've also received emails from patriotic Iranians

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MOSSADEGH

Mossadegh is the true story of the coup orchestrated by the C.I.A. in 1953 that installed the Shah of Iran. Driven by an infectious power-pop

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A letter to the war kids

Your lukewarm tears are mine, And my butterfly laughter is yours, From the land of flowers and dreams, I like to send chocolates and fairytales

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Dick Davis

Seven thousand years of wine

Wine is seen as the natural partner of many great cuisines, but few people associate it with Persian food, one of the world's most sophisticated

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Dick Davis

Democracy without bombs

Imagine one morning waking up to the news that 100’s of targets in Iran are being bombed by US Air Force, some using nuclear bombs.

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Dark (70 percent cocoa)

oh no corazon that room again lights are on angels are flying but it's dark (70 percent cocoa) and they cant see where they're going black

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Dick Davis

Birth of fire

“Jashne sadeh bar shomaa khojasteh baad…” This is how we were greeted by a nice lady, wearing a traditional Persian dress and sprinkling Golab on

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Fresh baked Rose of Mohammad

A rant based on this page on Wikipedia about politically-motivated euphemism: WWI: Sauerkrat and Hamburgers renamed to “Liberty Cabbage” and “Liberty Burgers” to rally anti-German

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Ahmadinejadization

New York City — By pushing the doctrine of democratization of the Middle East, it seems, US and Great Britain, have embarked on an international

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Why I moved back

A friend of mine who moved back to Iran sent me the following as his response to the question “why did you moved back?” —

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Dick Davis

Hole in the ice

I am looking out of the window. The sun is shining very brightly, snow has covered everything and the scenery is absolutely beautiful. You feel

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