by Richard Foss
I used to attend meetings at UCLA, after which the participants went out for dinner. There were two favorites: yakitori at a famed Brentwood spot, or Persian somewhere in the district of Westwood called Tehrangeles. All but the most modest Persian places were decorated with understated elegance, and were patronized by Farsi speakers who dressed much more stylishly than the college students who flocked to surrounding eateries.
I enjoyed the kebabs, mild but savory stews over rice, and freshly made breads, and found places closer to my home that made them in more casual surroundings.
Most Persian restaurants in the South Bay are modest cafes that advertise themselves as “Mediterranean,” even though Persia hasn’t had a toehold on that ocean since the year 530 A.D. It was therefore an event when a proudly Persian restaurant called Toranj opened in a space by the corner of Manhattan Beach Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway.
When I visited the first time, it was like the places I remembered from Tehrangeles – a sleek, modern space where men sported tailored suits and women wore long dresses, some with beautiful embroidery. Interspersed with these members of the Persian community were locals who looked somewhat underdressed by comparison. Fortunately, the welcome by the staff was just as warm no matter what you were wearing.
The pillars of Persian cuisine are kebabs grilled over open flame, rice dishes with various meats, herbs, and vegetables mixed in, and stews served over either fluffy rice or a crisped rice called tahdig. Portions of all of these are generally huge, but you should try some of the starters to pass the time while your meal is being prepared. The creamy hummus is smoother and softer than most Arabic versions, with a slight citrusy flavor. I prefer the Lebanese version, but at one visit someone at our table swore that it was the best she had ever had. The sauteed eggplant had a slight similarity to baba ghanoush, but while the Arabic dish includes sesame-based tahini, this has a brighter flavor of yoghurt and mint.
If you happen to be at Toranj on the weekend, you should try the tahchin, a rice flour cake layered with yoghurt and barberries, which have some of the tartness of cranberries with a little citric flavor. The rice is bound together with egg and perfumed with saffron, and while it is often stuffed with meat, the version here is vegetarian. This is an item I had never tried before, one apparently not often seen in restaurants because it is a lot of work to make.
One item that I don’t recommend as an appetizer is the tahdig with three stews – but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t order it. This is on the appetizer menu, but is large enough that when a friend and I went for lunch, we split one order and had leftovers. Tahdig is rice that is crisped on the bottom of a pot, and when it is made correctly it is just a little chewy and a perfect base for stew. It is often made wrong and is either gummy or like eating wood chips, but they nailed it here. The three stews are ghormeh sabzi, an intensely herbal bean stew with veal and dried limes, split pea and tomato-veal gheymeh, or the chicken, pomegranate and walnut based fesenjoon. Fesenjoon differs widely from restaurant to restaurant, and at some places the pomegranate sweetness overpowers everything. Here it had well-balanced sweet and tart flavors with a slight nuttiness. The ghormeh sabzi has simple flavors of herbs and spinach with floral overtones of fenugreek, but I found the gheymeh to be bland by comparison to both of the others. That’s saying something when we’re talking about Persian cooking, because the cuisine has no peppery dishes and little use of ginger or other bold seasonings.
That’s a virtue when it comes to the lentil and potato soup, which was pure comfort food. It happened to arrive at the table last among the starters, and by that time we realized how much we had over-ordered. After sampling a few bites, we had it packed to go.
The kebabs that are the centerpiece of most Persian dishes are flame-broiled so there is a slight tasty char on the meat, which is served next to a small mountain of rice next to a broiled tomato. We tried the lamb chops, barramundi fish, beef, and two variants on chicken – the chicken thigh and “juicy chicken.” The juicy chicken has a marinade whose secrets they will not divulge, and if they had told me what it was, I would be trying to copy it. It was some combination of saffron, citrus, and garlic and was superb. It’s slightly more expensive than the other chicken items, but well worth it. The beef and lamb were both very good, but I was unimpressed with the fish. It was decent grilled fish, but with no distinctive flavor.
The kebabs can be served with plain saffron rice or with mixed rice dishes, and we tried two of these. The fruitiness of the sour cherry rice is a nice contrast to the flavor of grilled beef or lamb. The rice includes braised chicken, which we found slightly dry – a rare misstep by the kitchen. The dill and fava bean rice with chicken was more to my taste, simple flavors well combined.
Toranj has a full bar with some unusual cocktails, and an attractive non-alcoholic option in sekanjebin, a mix of honey, vinegar, and mint with cucumber. The complex sweet and sour flavor is very refreshing, and will be great on hot days. They also have a decent wine list, though prices are on the high side.
There are also desserts, though we over-ordered every time on main courses and never tried them. Toranj has special occasion style and modest prices, with rice entrees starting at $20, kebabs at $24, a good price for a lot of good food, and you don’t need to go to Westwood to enjoy it.
Toranj is at 1019 Manhattan Beach Boulevard, MB. Open daily 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. Street parking or small lot. Full bar, some vegan items. (310) 856-9645. ToranRestaurant.com. ER
