Parsian International Market & Grill

[Update - Closed as of 2011]

We went here earlier today (I'm actually posting this more than 1 week later, so it's kind of wierd writing it like it just happened!) - one of my students recommended this place to me. She is of Iranian descent (born and raised here though) and says her parents go to this place to buy their ingredients for their food. She also gave me a take out menu and the items looked pretty good so we decided to check this placed out. Parsian Market and Grill is located on Convoy, If you are heading North on Convoy, it's past Ostrow, with a 7-11 on the opposite corner. If you hit Convoy Plaza strip mall (where Phuong Trang is), you've gone too far. As you can see by the shape of the restaurant, this place used to be a McDonald's. The "ordering" area is the same as it in in McD's, but there's a small row of fresh fruits and vegetables as well. In the corner (not pictured) near the bathrooms, they sell fresh bread (lahvosh and some other types). There's refrigerated sections for drinks and other perishable items.

We ordered our food and sat in the back where there are about 4-5 4-top tables. There is also an outside patio with covered tables (as seen in the first photo). Back here, on the end caps are stuff for tea. They take tea seriously here. They sold tea sets, tea biscuits, all kinds of boxed and loose leaf teas, etc.

Another shot from the back. You can see the tea pots there. They also sold rice cookers!

There were rows of Middle Eastern Products. "Sadaf" was one of the main brands. Here you can see Sadaf brand mint and quince/lemon syrup. I ended up buying some Sadaf seasoning mix for beef kabobs and chicken tandoori. Turns out I could have bought that at North Park Produce closer to home, but I didn't know at the time.

They sold all kinds of basmati rice. I never knew there was brown basmati rice. I bought a small 2 lb bag of white basmati rice ($4.99 - I'm not sure if that's a good deal or not). I may just try the brown variety next time I come back and I definitely plan to...

The dried fruit section. Man, they love sour cherry stuff here. This package though, were dried barberries, which is an ingredient I've seen in the rice they serve at Bandar.

So, our food finally comes after we're done browsing through the aisles. Not sure how long it took, but it was pretty quick. I ordered the Beef Kabob plate - yeah, I know, "safe", but I wanted to try it since I really liked what I had at Sadaf a few weeks ago. This was $7.99, about the same price as Sadaf's, but you don't have the downtown vibe to it. Here, it's two juicy and seasoned beef kabobs served with a char-broiled tomato, on top of a huuuuge bed of basmati rice. There was a bit of saffron tinted yellow basmati rice on top - very pretty. There was also a wrapped pat of butter on top of the rice and a big sheet of lahvosh. I'm kind of anal and I didn't like the butter on top of the hot rice because it was already melted by the time I unwrapped it. But who cares, it's going to melt anyways on the rice or the lahvosh, depending on how you eat it. Man, this was a lot of food! I only ate 1 kabob and barely made a dent in the rice. We took my leftovers home for TC to enjoy later.

My entree came with a small side of salad - Persian cucumbers, chopped tomatoes and iceberg lettuce in some sort of dressing. I normally don't eat salad with dressing, but I tried and liked this. I just tried to scrape off some of the dressing or ate the pieces that weren't as drenched.

Bert ordered the Chicken Kabob wrap ($4.99). It was seasoned chicken wrapped in lahvosh with tomato, onion, lettuce and pickles. Since he ate most of it and didn't throw up, I'm assuming that he liked and enjoyed his wrap. It was a sizable portion too.Here's a few of the items I bought at Parsian Market - The seasoning packets I mentioned earlier and some tea biscuits. Actually, I bought the biscuits because they said "Salamat" on it ("Salamat" means "Thank You" in Tagalog), but Salamat turned out to be a brand name. I think that word has an Arabic origin but I'm too lazy to look it up right now. The biscuits will be for Bert's coffee.

Here's a wanna-be Nutella, called Armella. It was $2.99, which is cheaper than Nutella. I compared the two later at home. It tastes pretty close to Nutella, but Nutella is a tiny bit more chocolatier (is that even a word?). But hey, this will taste good with those Salamat cookies.

I also bought some Chick Pea Flour since it was one of the ingredients for a recipe I saw on the back of the Tandooring Chicken seasoning packet. There wasn't a smaller package, but I bought it anyways because I just may use this to make fritters.

Their menu:

Oh yeah, beef!

Another look at their offerings:

We ended up going back here again, one week later (10/10). That time, I ordered the Beef Kabob wrap and Bert got the Beef Kabob plate. Next time we go (and we WILL), I want to try one of their stews because it has walnuts and pomegranates in it. I also tried to make basmati rice. I actually used my rice cooker. After washing the rice twice, I steeped some saffron threads in hot water and poured (the right amount) into the rice cooker. My rice came out quite fragrant and yellow! Good for a first try!

So, if you're ever in the Convoy area, check out this place. The people who work there are very nice. No one bothers you when you're eating. It's very mom and pop. There's a lot of cool ingredients and products to look at and/or purchase if you choose to do so.