Hey everyone hope you're having an amazing day. It's mark, wiens, i'm in los angeles and la, is home to one of the biggest populations of persians outside of iran. Today, we're going to go on an iranian food tour of l.a. Now this is what you call a kebab grill.

It's like the size of a bus, we're gon na eat at this legendary sandwich shop. We're gon na eat kebabs, we're gon na eat, some of the amazing persian stews. I'm gon na meet up with a couple of food friends who are gon na show me around it's gon na be a fantastic day, and i'm gon na share all of the food with you coming up right now in this video again la is, i believe i Was reading there's somewhere around 700 000 persians living in the greater la area and there's different areas from irvine to glendale, to where we're starting this food tour, which is, i believe, we're in westwood. This area is known as terrangelis.

It's like a little mini tehran right within la i'm gon na meet up with some friends, and we are gon na go to our first place for this amazing legendary, persian sandwich, nia, yeah yeah and sarah. We are originally from iran. We've been here for a while. I've been here for like about five years.

Oh it's been like five years now: okay, yeah! I live i've been here for 17 years and are you from tehran? What time are you from i'm actually from north of iran? Oh okay, yeah! Oh, i know like you went to guilin yeah so like it's like really close to that area, i loved that area. Did you like the fruit yeah? It was like very sour. All of the pomegranate was what like yeah it impressed me. It was like a new cuisine that i've never tried before it was so good and then, where are you from i'm from tehran you're from tehran? Yeah? Okay! I know you were there.

Yes, i loved it too. Where are we going? First? This place is called atari atari sandwich shops. They have amazing food, amazing, sandwiches, okay, awesome, kebabs, everything all right, you ready ready, let's go yeah, atari sandwich, stop and there's a few places within it, but this is actually the persian square which is the beginning of the persian business community in los angeles. Beginning 1974..

That's mixed brain and toms and that's the best it's called tongue and brain would be great yeah all right. Let's do it the aroma's all ready they have all the stews prepared at the front, ready for the day. Uh they're skewering some of the kebabs we're about to order and see as they prepare our dishes. Oh, these are the tongues.

We're gon na have a real mixture of food. Here they offer a little bit of everything i mean, especially about the stews and that big pot of uh porridge is called ash, an herbal amazing porridge and then now they're they're, uh, they're grilling up some kebabs and then we're also to get a few sandwiches they're. Also very known for their sandwiches here and some very special sandwiches. Okay, i think sandwiches are ready.

Kabobs are ready. The lamb head is dished out it's time to go, eat man, that's so much food. It looks so good. It's a traditional way of eating kuvita with bread and bananas wrapped in a blanket.

Thank you so much. You soak it like in the water like in the sauce here like an entire tongue, let's put it on the plate here. Okay, put it on right! Next to the bread, the tongue, and then we have like brain as well: um, there's tongue, there's brain just the whole time. Oh it's so juicy and the brain chunks and the brain goes on with the tongue.

There's a brain yeah. This is what i always do. All right and then the torsi, difficult vegetable, oh yeah, okay, that's how i eat it. Okay and then you make it like a little sandwich.

Torsion tickle vegetable pickled vegetables in here it's gon na - be some lemonade, all that squeeze of lemon. Thank you and then the difference in the water. I lost my brain okay, oh it's chilling, it's so creamy and tasty. I love that and contrasted with that pickle.

You need that, like i said i know for the richness, should we mix it a little bit sure yeah, okay, get that mint going get those fried onions in there. You can see that green color that green color from the you want to make sure you get like the fried onion as well, because that one is just like it makes it perfect. Okay, i already ate i was excited, but so many different recipes. Oh yeah, a lot like a general yes term right because, like in iran, yeah exactly okay and like in iran, you have like different um, like varieties based on different states.

So it's not like just this one, because that's a very regional exactly exactly - and this is something that they're very well known for here at atari - is this sandwich, which includes fried lamb, brains plus lamb tongue, all wrapped up into one sandwich that looks incredible: cheers cheers! Oh yeah, oh it's incredible! It's so good! It's really good the tongue and the brains just melt in your mouth and then you've got the acidity of the pickle in there oh yeah. It makes it perfect and then the fried brains in there just kind of act like they're so tender. It's almost like a sauce. It's like a meat sauce for the for the sandwich, all wrapped up in that crusty bread and then you wan na um, have like some tomato as well.

Remember the combinations and, if you put would you put basil onto this dude yeah for sure amazing and onion on top in the rice, is saffron and barberries saffron, mostly yeah? Well, then, you put butter in the rice. Let that kind of melt around in their favorite step, yes, butter and rice, butter and rice, especially when it's like really hot right. Now, you do not want to skip out on that tomato juice. The juice is one of the most important things of the tomato strawberry rice.

I love those fries the rice. What's the best part i can eat it like just like this, without anything so many barbers in there to make it nice and hard and they're so fluffy too so fluffy, it's perfect yeah. The rice is great. Okay, i'm moving back into the sandwich or whatever you do, make sure you get the combination of lamb tongue and lamb brains.

All in your sandwich, at once. Four tongues floating around in here oh got a lot of tongues. Oh, it's so juicy that was a delicious way to start this. Iranian food tour in la next up, we're gon na go just across the street to a legendary ice cream shop.

It's called saffron and roast, which is gold in parsley. It's one of the oldest brands of persian ice cream, like we call it bassanisonetti, which is traditional ice cream in iran. So this brand of ice cream was in iran first before coming to tarantulas and okay, so ice cream, but also falludays, is also what you get here right: one scoop of holiday and one scoop of persian ice cream place. Sure thank you.

Lemon juice! That's just pure lemon juice right i want to add some cherries sure this is my favorite part. Oh, the cherry syrup followed on the bottom and then the persian ice cream on top called the combination. Oh yeah, oh cold. It's so aromatic with the rose water and then you've got these little crunch from the frozen noodles that just give it such a nice texture and then it's like kind of like a sorbet at the same time and the persian ice cream is really good too.

The flavor of that saffron and then you've got the crunch of the pistachios in there we're now driving to glendale, which is a suburb of los angeles and we're on our way. To probably what is one of the most famous well-known persian restaurants in all of the united states, welcome to rafi's place we're in downtown glendale. We have a huge outdoor patio area, they have an indoor section. It is always packed we're going.

Gon na have a tour of the kitchen and the meat factory and we're gon na have a feast. It is a massive honor to meet mr rafi. This is rafi, oh man and very nice to meet you and rafi's wife. It's such an honor to meet you and i'm, so i'm so excited to be here every day.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. So we're at raffi's place we're gon na see the the meat factory raffi said. Mr ravi said the meat factory.

Let's go to the meat factory okay. Now this is what you call a kebab grill, it's like the size of a bus man and they are just packed here for lunch. Today i mean, as they always are here at rafi's place. The kebabs are going.

The meat aroma, the koobide, the onions, the peppers, the tomatoes are hissing: okay, okay, okay, oh man, this place is what what a restaurant target the bottom of the the rice we're gon na go upstairs to the prep room man this place, what a system they have Going down where they slice the meat, where they uh skewer, all of the kebabs peppers, mountains of peppers, beautifully cut meats. That's all going to go into the kebabs, which is all going to be cooked downstairs for the restaurant. The kubida station 80 pounds an hour wow. Just like constantly could be there all day long.

The kebab factory is just so clean, so precise, so much meat doing it so well, it's so cool to be able to see this process upstairs uh. The behind the scenes. Look at how rafi's place operates and is run like one piece of meat, so it can just be skewered all flat. Look at that 27 years of practice yeah and you can tell then you're so fast so fast and just yeah.

That's not easy too! It's not like that this is the disneyland of food right here. Okay, oh that was incredible. Yeah almost everyone knows. Would it be a place that a lot of persians come to have celebrations to have a big meal with family special occasions? Ralphie's place is the place yeah lots of space exactly they have a huge outdoor garden section, which is where we're saying hello, and then they also have a big indoor section as well.

Yes, cucumbers kind of persian, traditional salad, raffia salad. So this is like a roasted eggplant fried onions. On top oh man, i love those uh combo-like onions on top okay, i'm gon na try some of raffi's salad. Now you guys want some raffia celery i'll, try and go ahead.

Yeah. We can try first, okay, i'll pass it down. Rafi, salad, there's, cucumbers, olives, onions and tomatoes is the bottom of the rice pan, where it's crispy and it's one of the most prized foods. Yes famous, oh, so that's a tad with gourmet on top okay sure! Oh, so you have to shake it: yes, okay, stew, yeah with pomegranate and walnuts yeah; oh man, okay! Oh thank you.

Okay, this one is with the gourmet and uh. Thank you. Oh wow. It was really good, really good and nutty and rich, and then that texture of the at the bottom like slightly chewy and crispy.

At the same time now, gourmet sabzi is like a an herbal stew, sort of full of herbs. It's got five different kinds of herbs: onion, kidney beans, dried lime, dried lime, yeah, the dried lime. Oh i love it so herbaceous, so so green tasting, which includes the split peas, the tomato stew, they're, all three, so good and all three like completely different flavors i'll. Try some of the yogurt yeah, it's so refreshing, creamy, not too heavy, not too rich, just a sour, slightly um slightly sour slightly salty, but it goes so well.

Yes, this is actually a persian food festival on our table. Oh man, when you come to california, you do not need to go to disneyland. Just come to rafi's place the greatest amusement of culinary display. You could possibly have cherry rice, sour cherry rice.

Polo is rice right, polo means rice, okay, oh so many herbs in here too lima beans, that's all dill in there right. Okay, thank you! The cherry rice, that's beautiful, saffron, topped rice, okay, i'm gon na try the kubere, which is the ground, the ground meat kebab. Oh, you can feel that texture of it how bouncy it is already wow going to try some of the kubernetes with just some of that lima bean rice, oh wow, that's so good! The cookie is so bouncy and juicy. Oh and the onions, you taste, the onions in the cookie yeah, the onions, the onion juice, the flavor of that dill and the rice is amazing.

So there's there's chicken boneless chicken, chicken, breast and then there's also chicken like like wings and the chicken is especially to go with that cherry that cherry rice, oh wow, the tartness of those cherries. Oh i mean it's really good yeah. This is the local touch, the jalapenos california edition. Let's pick up, i'm okay! Thank you, mr robbie wow.

It's so tender so juicy! Oh, it's so tender pure meatiness of it with that smoky char from the grill wow that is pure lamb, just sensational flavor. That should be eaten with the rice too right. Oh thank you. Do you want to try that? Yes, oh thank you.

This one is the filet kebab, i'm just going to break down my tomato on my plate. I'm going to mix it with some of the yogurt. I'm going to try some of the filet filet kebab fillet kebab onion yogurt, i'm gon na move into the jalapeno and that's what i think is such an awesome, um adaptation to where we are oh yeah, so juicy so smoky roasted! Oh yeah, good heat too jalapenos can be sometimes really spicy and sometimes not that spicy. Oh, these ones are good.

These are good, very good. Here we go so this one is eggplant. Also really good. The garlic, the tomatoes in there, oh and then the eggplant kind of holding it together and make sure you chase with mint as well.

I think that's uh, lemon basil, sorry, lemon basil, which just like cleanses the mouth, cleans the palate. Oh yeah, i'm going to try some of the salachirazi add a little bit of sugar, so bouncy and juicy the texture and the onion juice just squeezes out with every bite rose water. Oh rosa, oh thank you! Oh the sticky kind of ice cream. Look at that! It doesn't melt.

Oh it's so fragrant with rose water, that's real persian ice cream! Oh, it's really! Good ice cream final bite! Oh that one burst with honey, sweetness wow that is sweet, but really good. You need to have some tea with that. Oh, it just bursts with rose water, so fragrant wow. This was an incredible meal.

Thank you so much for this amazing food and as we sat there, mr rafi shared with us his story of they came to the united states. They opened rafi's place about 28 years ago, but mr and mrs rafi, they had owned and operated restaurants back home in tehran before coming to the united states and when they came to the united states. Mr rafi did a variety of jobs. He did some plumbing, but eventually they opened a small little restaurant called raffi's place, which started out with four tables and it's grown because of their hospitality because of their friendliness because of their incredibly delicious food it's grown into.

What it is today, raffi's place is one of the great meal experiences of los angeles, a banquet of persian food. We've got one more place to go, it's also in glendale, but a little ways down the road and we're going to try another famous one of the great dishes of iran. Thank you. As you sit down, you can feel the heat of it as they set it down.

This is beans and eggplant homemade. Thank you. This is the crust. These two goes with the disney crystal there's: the dc yummy chickpeas bacon is a garbanzo beans, white peas, potato tomato and a little bit of the spices.

Basically, and that's it, you know, wow, look at those bubbles cheers. I just brought two so yeah, you don't have a room for other stuff. That's perfect! That's the soup! So i do it like this. It's easy yeah! Thank you very much.

Okay, yeah pair that up tear it up into the small pieces and then it's one of the world's great soups right in there even in there, and it's sort of absorbs yeah, it absorbs everything. This is why i love these so much it's such a cool process. You can see how the the soup has just completely absorbed the bread has absorbed. The soup has completely absorbed into the bread, all the lamb flour on the we immediately taste the flavor of lamb.

But again, like you said, you have to know how to cook the lamb. Exactly if you don't know how to cook the lamb, it will be too strong or too gamey or two. They wouldn't taste good at the end. So but this one it tastes amazing.

It is so good, that's, but this is literally liquefied lamb and chickpeas, just mashed up and then get some horsey. Oh, yes, i'll, add some of the soup to mine, rethink pretty much everything you don't want to miss out on. I the know again the shreds of lamb. It's really good creamy starchy, that's amazing! It's amazing! It is yeah: okay, okay, yeah yeah and with uh you can see so much mint floating on top cheers.

This is really good. It's so refreshing that savory mintiness yeah onion dip. Oh, it's eggplant, right, smokey, party, cool, refreshing and starchy yeah, oh wow, oh wow! This is spectacular all just strands of eggplant. Oh it's hot! Oh it's so rich! Oh man, that's flavorful! The eggplant is creamy yeah, with the mint oil with the fried challenge, lamb, shank and rice, and we get along well because they're, just i think, they're just as excited as i am.

Every time a new dish arrives, you guys are more excited now. Yes, a little bit of rice goes down. You can tell it's just gon na fall off the bone. Look at how oh look tender! That is look at the insides of that you can tell how pink and oh it's just fall apart tender, and this would be more of like a tomato based sauce um, yes, tomato, i think, fried onion tomato just tears, apart with a fork with a spoon.

Oh wow, you don't even need to chew it. It melts you could be toothless and still eat this lampshade like wherever that's the perfect sauce, that's just a little bit tomatoey, but not overpowering, and then with the flavor of that herbal dill rice. We have final. Actually, this is going to be the final dish that we eat today, one more kebab platter with kubiday, oh man, this could be looks good, also really nice and plump, and you can just see that if you were to squeeze it, the juices would come out of It, oh that's, really good yeah! That was very good.

That's like so juicy and like fatty down it sort and bounces it kind of springs back at you with juice with meat juice. Oh the saffron! You immediately put your saffron on that chicken. It's so juicy! You take a bite and you have a puddle of chicken juice in your mouth. Yes, i'm at that stage where i need to loosen the belt i'll have a final final bite, guys that is the taste of iran right there.

It is look, definitely yeah. That is the taste just gushes with the honey sweetness and that wraps up an incredible day today, hanging out with you guys, thank you for taking me around here. It was a pleasure, yeah, so much fun to eat with you guys and i'm glad you guys are just as excited about eating, as i am always and has forever also impressed at the quality of iranian food in l.a, the authenticity of it, and i'm not surprised At all about the hospitality, though, because persians and iranians are some of the most hospitable, people in the world, i think and it's no different when you come to l.a. So thank you guys so much for showing us around.

Oh, and you guys are you guys are what are your plans with you guys are going to do more food blogging and yeah. Of course, yeah. The ghost ghost started lovers, gushed lovers: they have an instagram called lovers, which means means meat, meat lovers and yeah. So you guys can go check them out, go check out their their instagram and other content and yeah.

Thank you again for showing me around. Thank you that was such a good day. I'm just gon na tell you that i tried to pay at every single restaurant. We went to and they would not, they refused to take my money, and i mean it was like this throughout our trip to iran as good as the food is it's the hospitality that shines even more and that's without a doubt even the case, in los angeles And i want to say a big thank you to you for watching this video.

Please remember to give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it, leave a comment below i'd love to hear from you and also remember, to subscribe for lots more food and travel videos. Thanks again for watching goodbye from la, and i will well glendale to be specific, and i will see you on the next video.