Pleasingly Persian Pleasingly Persian (May 07, 2004)

Treasure hunt for kabobs, stews pays off at Rose Market

By Mandy Erickson

I have to confess right up front that I never would have gone inside Rose Market on Castro Street, south of El Camino Real, on my own.

The dishes customers leisurely eat on tables outside the market look enticing, and the smoke from the barbecue smells great. But not being familiar with Persian food, I wouldn't have known what to order. More to the point, I wouldn't have known how to order, as a peek inside the market revealed an Iranian grocery store -- no tables, waiters or menus.

After I got over my initial trepidation, I stepped inside. The food-ordering system was indeed difficult to figure out. You order kabobs at one counter, and stews and sandwiches from a different counter. Though you pick up the kabobs from an outside window after your order is called, you wait for the stews and sandwiches at the deli counter. Got that? I'll explain further.

Although you may need a short lesson to successfully order at Rose Market, the kabobs are worth the confusion. They're tender chunks of meat, perfectly seasoned and expertly grilled, served with fresh herbs on lavash, a flat Middle Eastern bread. You roll it all up like a burrito, and if you add the grilled veggies, it makes a complete, delicious meal.

The food from the stews-and-sandwiches counter is another story. The stews, mostly vegetable and meat combinations, simmer away on a steam table and end up soggy and overcooked. The sandwiches, served on lavash with herbs and vegetables, are dull and dry.

As for the ordering system, it works like this: To request kabobs, go to the counter with a sign overhead that reads, "Order here" with an arrow pointing down.

Ask the man behind the counter for a menu, and you'll be handed a laminated sheet listing ground beef and lamb ($1.99), chicken ($3.99), sirloin ($4.99) and lamb chops ($6.99). You can also order grilled vegetables -- tomatoes, peppers, onions ($0.99 each) or a combination ($1.99). If you want rice instead of lavash, ask for your kabobs over rice.

As soon as you place your order, the man behind the counter picks up a phone and broadcasts your meal over the store intercom to the kitchen in back. You can pay at this point, or you can peruse the store, pick out beverages or order from the other counter and then pay for everything at once.

Head outside to the sidewalk and wait under an umbrella at one of the resin tables. When you hear your order over the loudspeaker, walk to the back of the store along the parking lot, where you'll find a window. Hand over the yellow slips the man at the counter gave you, and receive your order.

During my first time to Rose Market, my companion and I each had one of of the kabobs plus two orders of mixed vegetables. It all arrived on a large tray lined with several sheets of lavash and decorated with sprigs of mint, parsley and coriander.

The meat was sprinkled with sumac, a tangy spice made from the dried and ground red berries of the sumac plant (a non-poisonous variation that grows in Iran). The shakers on the tables contain more sumac; sprinkle it over the food with abandon since it's a mild seasoning and a lot goes a short way.

The meats were all superbly grilled, succulent and seasoned with salt, pepper and lemon juice. The lamb chops were especially tender and tasty, just pink inside near the bone.

The vegetables were also well grilled. The tomatoes and peppers were seared without being mushy and the onions roasted just enough to lose the rawness but not their crispness. But be careful if you order the mixed vegetables because they come with jalapenos. Not thinking, I rolled up some chicken with one of the peppers, took a bite and nearly blew out my sinuses.

During a later visit, I tried the food from the other counter. Ignoring the "Order here" sign, I headed for the deli in the corner of the grocery where there are bins of dates and racks of Iranian CDs. At this counter, where you order from a separate menu, you wait for the food, then pay at the kabob counter. Plastic cutlery is on a table next to the deli.

The two sandwiches I tried, olivieh and falafel (each $3.99), were lackluster. The olivieh is a chicken, egg and mayonnaise salad rolled in lavash, along with lettuce, tomatoes, onions and herbs. I could barely taste the salad -- mostly what I got was lavash and lettuce. And though the falafel balls were flavorful, the sandwich was dry.

The stews come by the pound: you choose the size container you want and the server fills it up. The dishes sound intriguing -- beef with mint, parsley and spinach; chicken with ground walnuts in pomegranate juice -- but when I saw the server scrape the bottom of the tray to fill my container with fesenjan ($4.99 a pound), I knew not to expect much. The pomegranate-chicken stew was syrupy and overcooked, with only a few small chunks of chicken. Karafs ($4.99 a pound), a spinach-celery-beef stew, smelled like overcooked greens, and the beef was tough.

The kashk badenjan ($5.99 a pound) was an exception at the steam table. An eggplant, onion and garlic ragout, the dish thrives on slow cooking, as the ingredients are mellowed into a tasty melange of eggplant sweetened with onion.

Rose Market features some unusual Iranian beverages, which you'll find in the refrigerated case on your right as you enter the store. We tried a yogurt soda ($1.29), which is carbonated water with yogurt, dry rather than sweet. I've had the drink fresh, and though it's completely different from typical sugary American drinks, I found it wonderfully refreshing. The canned variety, however, had an unfortunate milk-gone-bad flavor.

The fruit juices ($1.29) were a better choice -- grapefruit was my favorite, as I found it neither too bitter nor too sweet.

Going to the Rose Market for the first time can be a bit intimidating, but the kabobs are worth the adventure. And don't worry if you blow the system -- the food will find you. When I failed to go to the right window on my first visit, the kitchen staff brought my order to my table.

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