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Locals Welcome Season 1 Episode 8
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00:00A classic ingredient from one of the oldest cuisines in the world.
00:13Wow.
00:16Perfect.
00:18The pomegranate is an ancient symbol of abundance and prosperity.
00:23The jewel on the rich table of Iranian hospitality.
00:27I'm Suresh Das.
00:28I've spent my career writing about the local favourites that make Canada's food scene truly unique.
00:34I believe every bite tells a story.
00:37Now, I want to share those stories with you.
00:45A wonderfully vibrant cuisine.
00:48The most generous people you'll ever meet.
00:50And a devotion to lavish celebrations.
00:53This is Iranian culture to me.
00:58Many families left their country during the 1979 revolution.
01:04Others came here during the war with Iraq and the deepening conflict with the West.
01:08And many settled here in Toronto.
01:11Toronto has one of the largest Iranian populations outside of Iran.
01:15I would say probably second to maybe Los Angeles.
01:19And a good portion set roots here in North York, on Yonge Street.
01:22The epicentre is still at Yonge, just south of Steele.
01:26If you look left and right, you see Farsi everywhere, you see Arabic everywhere.
01:29And colloquially, I mean, I think it's pretty cool that Iranians refer to this part of Toronto as Tehranto.
01:41For Iranians, food is deeply tied to the custom of elaborate hospitality.
01:45The Persian Empire was at the heart of the legendary Silk Road trading routes for spices and countless luxuries.
01:54Hosting guests with the very best not only showed respect, it helped grease the wheels of trade.
01:59I'm meeting a good friend to explore those traditions.
02:06With a meal that goes back thousands of years.
02:10At a restaurant named Bar Asafid, where a feast is created from the humblest parts of an animal.
02:15Hey! How's it going?
02:18I've known Samira Moyadin forever, as an Iranian restaurateur, journalist, and food podcast host.
02:28Are you an eye man? Are you a brain man? Are you a tongue man?
02:32Shall we just do everything?
02:34Last time that we had lunch, you made me eat, like, lamb testicles.
02:38Yes.
02:39So I'm game for whatever you want to do. The full kalapache.
02:42Yeah, let's go for it.
02:46Samira and I have done a lot of adventurous eating together over the years.
02:49But we've never shared this dish, kalapache, which translates to head and hoof.
02:56It uses the off cuts of the lamb to create a meal of broth and meat.
03:02Because prepping and cooking the lamb is so labor intensive, some restaurants will only specialize in kalapache.
03:09In the morning time, we start around 5, 5 o'clock. This person says at least we need 7 to 8 toppers.
03:21Chef Amir Khalawaipour came to Canada 20 years ago, bringing his family secrets for preparing this ancient dish.
03:274,000 years ago, the Persian people eat kalapache.
03:35My father, he was very good chef. And I follow my father's recipe.
03:41Here we go. Brilliant.
03:48Got the lime. That's our broth. This is the lamb broth.
03:53That's their homemade bread. Two types of bread here.
03:56Oh my goodness, okay. That's sangak. Wow. We can fight over that tongue.
04:04I mean, there's this prevailing notion that in certain parts of the world, you have to consume every part of whatever you are eating.
04:13And so kalapache is the idea of like consuming the whole animal.
04:16Absolutely. It really goes back to that not wasting the animal. And it's not a fad for us, right? Head to toe.
04:23This is the meat from the face and the head. Take some of this, put it on your bread.
04:34And then do you dress it afterwards? You can put some pickled stuff on it.
04:38Squeeze a lime. Okay.
04:41Mmm. This is probably my favorite part of the dish.
04:48But this is lamb tongue. Very different from cow tongue, of course.
04:51I mean, it's so soft. You can feel that it's soft. So soft. Yeah.
04:54Really well done.
04:56So that tongue really kind of dissolves in your mouth for me. It's cooked like just perfectly.
05:01So there's one more thing we have to try. The eyeballs.
05:04Here's an eye for you. Thank you.
05:06An eye for an eye.
05:07Like eating properly cooked cod cheeks is what it reminds me of.
05:13Cod cheeks. That's it.
05:15I bet that if you served that to someone and didn't tell them what it is, they'd just be like, this is amazing.
05:19Yes, absolutely.
05:21Making the meal is time consuming. And when made at home, almost always shared with guests.
05:25This is a very difficult dish to make for it to be good. And whenever it was made at home, it was like a big deal. Like we are doing this and like 20, 30 people are coming over.
05:38It's like a celebratory thing.
05:39Oh, huge. Yeah. But it's not something you cook for like a family of four.
05:44Right, right.
05:46Generally, you would have a little bit of garlic. I brought you some garlic.
05:50You brought your own garlic.
05:51So this garlic, I like to call black gold.
05:56Pickled condiments are a key part of Calapacha, especially garlic, brined in vinegar and kept for many years.
06:03This was made by my grandmother before she passed.
06:08This one is 12 or 13 years old. Now this is just in a little bit of salt.
06:13It is black.
06:14And vinegar. Just smell that.
06:17Whoa. You're getting a lot of herbal notes, but also medicinal notes as well.
06:20Yeah.
06:21Taste this and it's almost like fruit.
06:23Like fruit, man.
06:24It's just unbelievable.
06:31That reminds me of pomegranate molasses.
06:34Yes, exactly.
06:38Most of my Iranian Persian friends, they always talk about the idea of like,
06:42they've left a place that they made me didn't want to leave and they can't go back.
06:47So how important is it in your culture and within your family to be able to preserve the cuisine and culture?
06:54Sometimes food is the only connection you have to the homeland, right?
06:58So you try and preserve those things, recipes or stuff like that.
07:02I mean, right now this is all I have, you know, my grandmother, other than like photos or whatever.
07:08So I do hoard it in that way.
07:10You know, I really, every time I eat it, I think of her.
07:14Well, I just got a taste of that history.
07:15Thank you for sharing that.
07:16When you pass Fitch on Yonge Street, the world changes from a culinary and language standpoint.
07:31I remember when I was in my 20s coming here and being introduced to the idea of Toronto.
07:38It's this condensed neighborhood that is filled with Iranian businesses.
07:44And it all kind of really started with two supermarkets.
07:47We're going to go to one of them, my favorite place, Korak.
07:52Korak is one of the foundations of the Toronto community.
07:55Expanding from a tiny convenience store in 1989 to a one-stop mega shop of Iranian delights.
08:01Looks pretty amazing for Nourouz right now.
08:07Beautiful store.
08:08I'm joined by Barbo Tsuti, a chef who's sharing his expertise in the diverse flavors that are key to his culture's hospitality.
08:19With Iranian cuisine, we use a limited amount of spices, but we use a lot of different plays on sweet and sour to flavor our food.
08:28Korak's aisles are packed with ingredients that are hard to find at other stores.
08:35This is a very important ingredient to Iranian cooking.
08:38So it's dried limes that are dried in the sun.
08:40A lot of the stews that we eat are based off of this flavor profile.
08:44Yeah, because you reconstitute them in stews.
08:46Exactly.
08:47So here we have cash.
08:48It's a fermented whey.
08:50These are the kind of ingredients that give our cuisine distinction and that are just really the flavor profiles of our cuisines.
08:57But I think the crown jewel of Korak is its bakery.
09:05In Iranian culture, sharing bread is an important act of hospitality that goes back centuries.
09:12Sangak is an unleavened flatbread that was originally baked on small stones over an open fire.
09:18At Korak, to mimic that ancient technique, dough was flattened on a paddle, tossed onto a special design bed of hot stones, then baked until soft and chewy inside and crispy out.
09:32What do you think, grab a couple of loaves?
09:33Please.
09:34Oh, don't roll it.
09:35Oh, you can't roll it.
09:36Why?
09:37You got to leave it whole.
09:38Because you want to keep the integrity of the bread.
09:39Slide it in.
09:40Oh, nice.
09:41And generally just for transportation purposes, you would do one fold.
09:42A trip to grab some traditional dips and spreads from the hot counter and the rest of our lunch is complete.
09:49All right.
09:50All right.
09:51There we go.
09:52This is a nice spread.
09:53Iranian food is all about laying out a variety of dishes, even if the occasion is casual.
09:58I'll have the bread.
09:59I'll put a little piece of this, a little piece of that and make a little bite, a perfect bite.
10:21And every bite is different.
10:22It's all about the spread.
10:23Yeah, it's all about the spread.
10:24There's the stew of dried lime and fava beans.
10:27lime and fava beans, dips of yogurt with cucumber and beets, and the
10:32luxuriant blend of fermented whey, eggplant and walnuts that is kashqa
10:36baramjan. The kashqa baramjan is always like favorite.
10:41I love it. But for Iranians, rice dishes are the pinnacle of any
10:46meal. There's so many varieties of rices from different regions. It has
10:54to be the most important thing at the table. And Shirin Pola, a dish that can
10:59be traced to opulent royal feasts, is a standout. So this has orange marmalade,
11:03carrots, pistachios, sometimes almonds, saffron. So just playing into that sweet
11:10and sour. The saffron lingers over and over. It's delicious. No matter how much
11:17formal training I've had in the kitchen, it took me a long time to be able to
11:21cook rice as close to my mom as possible. I mean, moms and grandmas don't always
11:25measure things, too. No, never. And they're cooking by feeling. It's almost like when
11:29you ask how much water do you put in with your rice, and they go like this, right?
11:32This is the measurement. This is the measuring cup right here. My mom is like
11:36this. She'll point her finger down. Before you knew you wanted to be a chef, growing up, where
11:48did you draw inspiration from? Part of the inspiration was really in my mom, Seema. Every
11:54night for dinner, coming home, there would be the smell of rice on the stove. Her providing
12:00those memories and those experiences at the dining table, through her cooking, that has come almost
12:07full circle to me. It sounds like tradition is like such an important thing for you. You can
12:12never take nostalgia off your back. No. Wow. Yeah. It's who you are. It's who you are. It's who you are.
12:18While Korok is the iconic one-stop shop for Iranian food in Tehranto, there are smaller specialty
12:35purveyors that offer wonderful windows into the tradition of lavish Iranian hospitality.
12:40It's good to see you, man. You as well. And my old friend Samar Bar, who immigrated from Iran in his
12:49late teens, has a unique way to explore them. This is what you're known for, right? You run, basically,
12:56cycling tours with food as a key component of it, which is amazing. My two loves, two passions. Yeah. Food
13:03and cycling and just building community. Yeah. Today, we're in the northern reaches of Tehranto in Richmond
13:09Hill. Iran's proximity to India and the sugar trade help foster a love for sweets and tea. So Sam wants
13:17me to experience the traditional tea service and luxurious pastries that are our specialty at BB Cafe.
13:22Hi. Hi, Parisa. Hi, Parisa. Hey, Suresh. Hey, Sam. How are you doing? All right. So, Parisa,
13:36definitely some Zulbia. Your special type. Yes. The black sesame. Yeah. My dad created that recipe,
13:42so it's a must-have here. Amazing. Yeah. Amazing. And some tea? Yeah. Oh, fantastic. Yeah.
13:46We start with the Zulbia, crispy spirals of deep-fried dough bathed in rosewater and cardamom syrup.
13:54We get Ona, Parisa, Najad to add some house-made cookies.
14:01So, I'm going to start you guys off with some shawappasi tea. We'll get that lit.
14:07This is definitely a traditional way to serve the tea. Good. Thank you. Enjoy. Thank you so much.
14:16Don't mind. Oh, yeah. Look at that. Nice, rich color. Whoa. Yeah.
14:20Ah, you can already smell it. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Right? Yeah.
14:24A lot of sweets that we saw in the display downstairs earlier, it's a lot of the stuff that the grandmas
14:30would make. And most of the time, it comes with tea. So, you're having tea at breakfast,
14:37tea after lunch, tea in the afternoon, tea after dinner.
14:41And if there are guests there, then, you know, there is a couple of more rounds of it, too.
14:49So, by the end of the day, it could be like six, seven cups of tea in. Wow.
14:53And if there's a party, there's a lot of sweets going around. I love it. Enjoy.
14:59Oh, that's lovely. I got to dive in straight for the Zulbia because I've been missing it.
15:02Absolutely. I haven't had it in some time. So, you want to just crack a piece of it? Let's do it.
15:07Oh, yeah. Perfect. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, man. It's just so good.
15:15Super crispy, but not too crispy. Super crispy. Doesn't flick off.
15:18The right texture. The black sesame seeds really add a nice little pop to it.
15:22Uh, you can tell it's not as sweet as your typical Zulbiaz. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
15:28So, this is very special. There's such a sense of, like, I don't know, like,
15:32opulence when it comes to Iranian food and culture in general.
15:35We care about the aesthetics. It's not just the taste, but it has to look good.
15:40To be a great host, you want to impress. Right.
15:42Right. So, it has to be the best quality, and it's how people talk about you.
15:47So, you want to make sure it's not just the taste, but it's also optics. Right.
15:52But, at the end of the day, hospitality and food is who we are.
15:55So, we always want to share the best with you. That's how we show love.
15:58Right. Okay, okay, okay.
16:00And what better way to share the best with your guests than a celebration?
16:11Passers-by might be startled to see flames on the street,
16:14but these fires signal the most significant of Iranian holidays.
16:19Persian New Year, which begins with the spring equinox.
16:23These flames symbolize rebirth into spring's new life.
16:36It's the celebration of Noruz.
16:41Meaning, new day.
16:41And this ritual of jumping over fire marks its official beginning.
16:48Samira, her sister Salome, and her brother Amir have convinced me to leap along with them.
16:56Right into the festivities.
17:01Oh, wow!
17:03This is going to be epic.
17:17A fizzy pomegranate drink.
17:21The perfect way to begin this Noruz feast.
17:25Oh, wow!
17:26Salamachi!
17:28Salamachi!
17:29My dear friend Samira Moyadeen has invited me to share in the most extravagant of Iranian celebrations.
17:38With a seat at our family's table for Iranian New Year.
17:42And we're at a particularly well-named restaurant.
17:47What is a typical Noruz at home for you guys?
17:50Our Noruz time always changes.
17:53With the vernal equinox, right?
17:55So, in our house, we always make sure that we get up, no matter what time that vernal equinox happens.
18:01And then, if it's like four in the morning, we kiss each other, we say Happy New Year, we go back to bed.
18:06That's amazing.
18:06Thank you, Pariba.
18:08Thank you, Pariba.
18:10Ah Shrestha.
18:13A traditional Noruz soup of noodles and beans and greens in a rich broth.
18:21Garnish with mint, fried onions and kashk, or fermented whey.
18:25It's delicious.
18:33What is the significance, Amir, of the soup?
18:35The herbs are for spring, they're vivifying the season, and then like the noodles represent prosperity.
18:44And you never break the noodles. You not break the noodles, because that is not good for the New Year.
18:49You mean when you're eating it or when you're preparing it?
18:51When you're preparing it.
18:55This is my jam.
19:03Between courses, there's traditional dancing with some elaborate light effects.
19:10While classic Noruz dishes come together in the kitchen.
19:13Torsh. Meat kebabs marinated in pomegranate molasses and walnuts.
19:22Kubideh. Ground lamb shaped around skewers,
19:25then grilled over an open fire.
19:31And tadig.
19:33Rice infused with saffron.
19:40Oh, look.
19:42Look at that. My goodness.
19:46A touch of sumac is typically added to bring vibrancy to the dish.
19:50You can put it on your rice, and it hits that sour note.
19:53Yeah, it adds a little sourness, which again, I'm a sour head, so I like love that little accent.
19:57Yeah.
19:59There seems to be like just a celebration of opulence, richness, vibrancy, color.
20:04Things like look like they have life in them and hope and happiness.
20:10Spring.
20:11Spring.
20:11All in them is spring.
20:12Spring. Everything's coming to life.
20:13Yeah.
20:13At the heart of it, it's really a celebration of nature.
20:18It's not really tied to a religion.
20:20That's why it's a national celebration. It's celebrated by all the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia.
20:27It goes back like 4,000 or 5,000 years.
20:30What does it mean for the people of Iran that left Iran, whether they wanted to or not?
20:35How do you celebrate that?
20:36I think just something simple as the smell of your food, you see your own people around.
20:43I think that in itself brings us together.
20:46You try to hold on to these sort of markers of identity that you, you know, grab wherever you can.
20:53All of those things made us feel like we're still at home.
21:02That desire to share and savor the richness of their culture
21:05is at the heart of Iranian cuisine.
21:11The age-old tradition of elaborate and generous hospitality
21:15is one to celebrate not just once a year, but every day.
21:21Keeping this rich culture burning bright in Tehran.
21:35You're $1000 and you are notатаated in Tehran.
21:40You're PJ, sir, we would Nikon,
21:46mean how are you hurting your friends.
21:48If you didn't put youậy, take it away when you places weg,
21:49I don't know the truth.
21:57Put your wife on earth, Mati, what?
21:58Then the life moving on is, I got you.
21:59You still need you.
21:59I don't think câmysショ激
22:01You
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