A gold star if you actually read all of this

Mom and I decided to try Persian food this weekend and opted for Chelokababi on Wolfe Road after hours of research on Yelp, a consequence of being constantly distracted by Guitar Hero II. Fine, I guess the second part of that really only applies to me. Since my will is weak and my claw-like hand only acknowledges color-coded directions. My favorite song to play is “Jessica!”

OKAY anyway…

(Sorry for the bad photo quality, though the pictures have all been photoshopped to oblivion. It was very dim and I felt very obnoxious taking pictures with the blinding flash on at full blast.)



Chelokababi (no idea how to pronounce this) has a very aesthetically appealing décor complete with soothing fountain and idyllic art pieces. As you can see, the two-people alcove they seated us was very pretty. And I think my mom is trying to tell me something important. Probably something along the lines of, “Stop slouching. It makes you look fatter and also like an old man.”



Heehee! The pita bread came quickly and my heart sang. However, the pita was just kind of blah, which I guess is not really a problem since it wasn’t diseased or plague-ridden. But still sort of unexcitingly room temperature-d.



Next we got the Middle Eastern Platter which included:
- Hummus (beige section at top of plate): not too watery, which was good.
- Tomato salad (left): normal
- Kashko Bademjan (bottom): eggplants, garlic, yogurt, and spices; my faaaavorite part of the platter and so great. Of course mom had to immediately declare that she could have made it herself.
- Falafel (ball above and to the left of eggplant): soft and moist on the inside, unlike the hardened balls of dry fakery from Pita Pit
- Olovieh (large mound above falafel): potatoes and chicken; good and kinds me of potato salad.

Then on to entrees:



Kabab Koobideh (marinated ground beef, barbecued). This was really packed with flavor but not in an overpowering way. Perfect for someone like me who relishes savory food but not the feeling of heaviness associated with their consumption.



Joojeh Kabab (chicken with saffron). Still good but lighter than the Koobideh. A side note: the restaurant has amazing basmati rice, probably because it’s topped with saffron and butter (as you can see). Soooo goooooodddd.



For dessert, we decided on Makhloot, a combo with:
- Bastani (rose water flavored Persian ice cream topped with pistachios): creamy and normal.
- Faloodeh Shirazi (an ice dessert with tiny noodles, rose water, syrup, and lemon juice): oh man, this was PURE GOLD. I almost ate the entire thing. It was so good for some strange reason because it sounded pretty suspicious. It had a Slurpee-Snow Cone hybrid consistency and tasted like roses. Yeah I know … suspect. But it worked. Even the noodles worked. Even the sweet-sour mix worked.

All in all, a success.