I walked into "Farm Direct" looking to buy something for dinner and something for breakfast next day. After getting some (boring) Chinese food, I headed over to the Persian food counter. There were waaay too many good-looking dishes at reasonable prices, but what I really wanted was LAMB. Like, I'd been craving lamb for days. I don't understand why Americans don't eat more lamb. It's awesome and can be more sustainably raised than beef.
Anyhow, I barely perused the menu. I'm sort of a Persian food novice (though I've never had Persian food I didn't like) and don't know the real names for things, but I AM in the food biz, so I know good food when I taste/smell it. I immediately ordered the lamb kabob because I thought it would be fast and easy. Sadly, they told me it would take 10-15 minutes for it. In my haste, I got worried because I didn't want to wait that long. The guy working the line said, "I have lamb, I just don't have any kabob ready so I'll have to make it. But I do have lamb shank," and he pointed to a loooovely looking chafer of lamb shank. I freaked out. "Yes, yes," I said, "I'd rather have that anyway!"
Then I asked if I could choose my rice. He said the regular basmati (plain) was a dollar and the others were 3. WHY WOULD I CHOOSE THE PLAIN WHEN THE OTHERS LOOKED SO GOOD? So I asked for the herbed/lima bean rice (baghali polo), which I've had before and adored. Then he asked if I wanted the lamb shank on the rice or beside it. "ON THE RICE," I said. How else would you ever do it? Then you get all the yummy juices to FLAVOR YOUR RICE EVEN MORE. So he did, and I got some veggies with the shank and he poured juices from the pan onto the rice. PERFECT.
I decided to have that for dinner and the boring Chinese for breakfast. NOT A DISAPPOINTMENT. Not only did I get gobs of rice (thanks!), but the lamb shank was so gorgeous and beautifully cooked. Like, fall-off-the-bone-tender-and-lovely. I don't know the name of the lamb shank dish (should have written it down), but WOW, super happy. Full of flavor and just great stuff. Even though it's a large shank, my only criticism is that I just wanted more lamb :-) Next time I'll ask for two shanks. Or all the shanks.
TL;DR: Great food, especially since it's not easy to keep things cooked well in chafing dishes, and great service. Staff really cares about the food and making you happy. Would rather they opened a restaurant, though, so I didn't have to worry about the chafing dishes or fast-food type service. read more