Saratoga News

Dining

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Manouchehr Minooeiz (left) and Shirin Parvizi prepare kebabs at Rose International Market. The market has been offering Persian food on Big Basin Way since 1998.

Try a tantalizing taste of Persia at Rose Market on Big Basin Way

By Suzanne Cristallo

How about kebabs for the holidays? The savory aroma drifting across the sidewalk in the first block of Big Basin Way in Saratoga is enough to give the most traditional of us some pause. A bit of nose-following might lead into Rose International Market, where an array of steaming Persian stews with piles of basmati rice to go with it are displayed in a long steam table. Next to it on a large grill are the kebabs being barbecued to order. This is real food, and it's offered at fast food prices.

"We decided to cook in front of the customers, so they can see," says Javad Mehranfar, owner with his brothers Saeed and Ali of the combined restaurant and market in Saratoga and another in Mountain View. Javad emphasizes that while prices are low, quality is good, "and we take a long time to prepare it."

Indeed, marinating the beef, lamb and chicken for the kebabs is an overnight process. The meats soak in a marinade of house spices, yogurt, lemon juice and olive oil. Chunks of fresh lamb, chicken thighs and breasts, sirloin steak and ground beef, lamb chops and Cornish game hens are grilled on skewers for $1.99 each skewer. "Kebabs are very famous in our country," says Javad, a Persian by birth. "Our food is not very spicy but very delicious." He says numerous stories from a variety of newspapers each have generated a flurry of interest. "Now we have more American customers than Persians."

The stews are another tasty subject. There are khoresd karafs--a mixture of meat, celery mint and spices; ghaimeh--beef with split peas, spices, dried lime and tomato sauce; ghormeh sabzi-- beef, a variety of herbs (especially the hard-to-find fenugreek), parsley, leek, cilantro, red kidney beans and dried lemon, and last but most famous, fesenjon--chicken with walnuts, pomegranate juice and house spices. "Fesenjon has a sweetness to it and lots of juice that can be served over basmati rice," Javad notes. The basmati rice, he adds, is not fattening, because the rice is first boiled until not quite done, then the water is poured out. With the water goes all the starch. The rice is returned to the pot and steamed at a low temperature until done. "This way, it comes out fluffy and each kernel is separate, not stuck together."

Javad admits some Americans may think the green or yellow color of the stews is not appealing at first. "But if they try it, they'll come back for more," he says. "It has a deep taste."

For dessert, there are wonderfully sweet baklava cookies made on the premises and Persian ice cream in saffron and pistachio flavors. Basmati rice may be purchased in the market end of the store along with canned foods, tea and feta cheeses.

Javad, 50, was the first in his family to come to the United States as a student in 1976--three years before the Iranian revolution. He obtained a civil engineering degree from Southern Illinois University, then returned home to use his education to aid the revolution. Subsequently, his brothers returned with him to the U.S. to study. Ali, now 57, became a radiologist and Saeed, 49, an engineer. Saeed's heart, however, was in business. It was he who started in 1989 the market on Castro Street in Mountain View that later evolved in a larger location to the restaurant-market combination. In 1998, the brothers opened the Saratoga Rose International Market and today share the running of both stores. The variety of educational backgrounds they bring to their business runs in the family. Sisters Zary and Fariba are both software engineers, and brother Massoud is a hospital manager. But can they cook? "In our family, cooking has to make sense," Javad says. "If we really think about something, we can make it. We don't need a recipe."

Rose International Market, 1445 Big Basin Way in Saratoga, is open daily from 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Call 408.867.1666.