Maykadeh Review

We had a fun time at Maykadeh, more from the stories that our host, who I'll call O, told that placed the food in context than from the food itself. The meal, which mostly consisted of grilled meats and things to eat with pita bread, had nicely coherent themes throughout. That is, the combination of the tales about the food and its consistency made one realize how this was one distinctive cuisine.

All of our starters centered around our table's stack of tasty warm pita bread. We were all a fan of the bread.

A plate of basil, white onion, and feta came with the pita. We made simple sandwiches with these ingredients but were disappointed the plate didn't have everything that's traditional at Persian places (e.g., mint, tarragon). The feta was terrific and so disappeared very quickly. The onion was nice and neat -- so sweet it could be eaten straight. Honestly, I could've simply kept eating these pita sandwiches; I felt the other items we ordered to have with the pita bread didn't improve on this.

We ordered "torshee," a finely diced mixture of pickled vegetables. It had a strong vinegar base some people appreciated. (i.e., it wasn't afraid to be what it wanted to be.) We spooned it onto pita.

We also had "kashke bademjan," a pureed eggplant dish. We also ate this on pita and it was reasonably tasty, with a nice twist that made it more than simply pureed eggplant. We couldn't figure out what gave it the twist.

Lamb tongue was our final appetizer. The meat was very tender, much like a well cooked biscuit, and didn't have any of the unusual flavor one might expect from tongue if indeed it was tongue. The sauce was creamy, much like an Indian curry. It really showed the influence on Persian food from the east.

As for entrees, "tah dig ta-chin" was our only non-meat dish. It's the famous Persian rice, nicely crispy and with a slightly fried flavor. Fairly good. The topping of greens like spinach greatly reminded me of Indian saag, another eastern influence.

We ordered three types of meat for our entrees, all of which arrived on one impressive platter with the restaurant's name on it.

One skewer we tried was ground beef, "chelo-kebab koobideh." Amazingly soft meat, though without much flavor on its own. We liked this the best of our meat skewers. O tells us a secret: kiwis are often used as a tenderizer.

"Barg," skewered slices of filet mignon, was another type of meat we tried. I enjoyed this as well: the meat was nicely spiced and had a tad of salt to liven it up. Others, however, complained about the dish, one saying it slightly dry (and some pieces were, I agreed), and another saying it was too buttery.

Chicken thighs, "joojeh kebab," was the third item on the platter and certainly the least good. They were dry and too charred around the edges.

With the platter, we received a container of sumac, a spice that enlivened the red meat dishes, and slices of lemon, a squeeze of which helped the chicken. The former demonstrated to me the influence on Persian food from the west, as I always thought of sumac as an African spice. Also on the platter were grilled whole tomatoes, grilled only so some of the skin was blackened but the insides were still soft and liquidy.

According to O's mom, this restaurant serves the best kebabs she'd had since leaving Iran. O admits this platter of kebabs wasn't quite up to the restaurant's usual standards.

With the entrees came saffron topped rice. As O tells us, cooking saffron destroys it; the rice is made by taking saffroned hot water, heated until quite concentrated, then pouring it over the rice.

We tried two desserts. First, we had to try the Persian ice cream, a very creamy, rosewater ice cream with tiny pistachio chunks. We also had pallodeh, a mixture of cold, thin noodles and crushed ice, all with syrup poured on top. We were a bit too generous when pouring the syrup. We also disliked the ice, as it was too cold and dense. In the end, our conclusion was the same as the with the Persian ice cream: interesting, though we'd probably not order it again.

We also tried "Persian" tea. O explained the tea is usually drunk by holding a hard, slowly dissolving chunk of sugar in one's mouth, and drinking the tea past it. The tea tasted fairly normal to the rest of us, though O claimed it had the subtle flavor that made it Persian.

The decor was nice: semi-open kitchen, numerous pictures from Iran on the wall. Apparently one of O's relatives knows the person that took these photographs.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that North Beach has no parking. The restaurant provides valet for $8.

Finally, your faithful scribe was told to record: "I think your IM problem has been Shanghaied."

The total was $40/person, including taxes, teas, and tip.

Original Announcement

Since it's wet and cold this week, Ojan will lead us this Wednesday to Maykadeh, his favorite Persian place in the city, for hearty and filling food.

http://www.maykadehrestaurant.com/

It's in North Beach.

As always, please tell me if you are coming!

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