we love food.

and i can't think of any other way to begin this post.

we love food so much, which, i guess, is what brought us together (very unexpectedly) on gumtree.

so, our house consisted of Flo and i, who cook all sort of experimental dishes and give them their names ourselves. (like vegan ginger and salted chocolate banoffi with date caramel and walnut crunch...or thai salad with grounded sesame doesn't actually exist in thailand) coming from thailand, i have not once cooked anything authentic except thai black fragrant rice i brought from home at the beginning of the year. yes, putting rice in the rice cooker and press 'mix rice' has been the most authentic thing i cook here in england, which at least reminds me of my mum's food, or the food that i would have back in my country.

and then there is Noosh, my half iranian-half swiss housemate whose cupboards are filled with dried herbs from her mum (like 5 big tubs of herbs and dried vegetables), plus her spices like saffron and cinnamon (which smells ways more intense than what you can get in english supermarkets) she doesn't seem to be in the kitchen as often as flo and i, but when she does cook a meal in there, the whole kitchen smells like another country. her food looks very different and traditional to me, with all the herbs she uses and their farsi names that always make me curious what they actually are.

finally, after 4 months, it's time to try some delicious persian food. it's hard to believe we've waited this long for it to happen.

but at least it did, and it was amazing.

for my first ever persian meal, noosh cooked us some herbed rice with spiced potato and onion patties. the potato patties was made mainly of two grated potatoes, grated onions, two eggs and spices like turmeric, pepper and cinnamon. they looked similar to swiss rösti. i thought it was kookoo sibzamini but maybe not after all, because she didn't boiled the potatoes first.




having rice as the staple grain in my culture, the way she cooked rice here was different. using basmati rice and parboiled it first, she then drained the excess water, mixed in herbs (which we found out later was a mixture of dill and something else, but mainly dill) and salt. the rise was put back into the same pan with added oil, she closed the lid and kept it cooked on low heat until the bottom was a bit burnt and crispy.


and what seemed like forever later, our sunday persian lunch was ready! it was served with yogurt mixed with dried mint leaves, chopped tomatoes and a sprinkle of salt if desired. the rice was light, soft and aromatic. the spiced potato patties were slightly sweet from the onion and minty yogurt plus chopped tomatoes were refreshing. i loved them all together, especially the fragrant rice i couldn't get enough of. i am glad to know that it was dill and will definitely put that on my shopping list.