Episode 102: Connecting with Culture with Payam Banifaz

Special guest actor/comedian Payam Banifaz joins Beata and Bita on the podcast to talk about Persian food, favorite LA restaurants, and building community within the Iranian-American community. Payam confides he was a picky eater growing up, and shares the dish he dislikes the most!

Find Payam on Instagram at: Payam Banifaz (@pbani) 

Restaurants Referenced:

Sadaf in Encino

Raffi’s in Glendale

All Modern Persian Food podcast episodes can be found at: Episodes

Co-host Beata Nazem Kelley blog: BeatsEats – Persian Girl Desperately Addicted to Food!

Co-host Bita Arabian blog: Oven Hug – Healthy Persian Recipes | Modern Persian Recipes

Subscribe+ to the Modern Persian Food podcast on your favorite podcast player, and tell a friend.

Podcast production by Alvarez Audio

Transcript:

Episode #102: Connecting with Culture with Payam Banifaz
This is Modern Persian Food. A culinary podcast for today’s food enthusiasts. We talk about classic
Persian flavors, modern recipes, and embracing culture and identity through food.
I’m Bita. And I’m also Beata. Welcome to our show.

Hi friends, before we get started, would you mind taking a moment to give us a rating or a review on
the podcast player that you’re listening to us on? It would help us greatly in the big picture and as we
get more and more listeners for the podcast. Thank you so much. And without further ado, here we go.

Hi, everybody. Welcome to Episode #102 of the Modern Persian Food Podcast. I am here with my
co-host, Bita, and we have a special guest here today. Payam Banifaz, he is a hilarious actor and
comedian. You may know him from his hilarious videos on Instagram, which have resonated really
close to home for me, and I’m sure a lot of other Persian-Americans and people who can relate to
having a cross-cultural family. So Payam-Joon, thank you so much for joining us here. today
Thank you for having me. Great to be here. Thank you so much.
Hey, Bita-Joon. How’s it going?
Hi, I’m doing great. I want to know Payam-Joon, are you comfortable with me calling you that?
Sure. Payam-Joon is great, Payam-Joon is good.
For anyone who hasn’t seen the little videos on Instagram, Payam does a great depiction, of, of
Father and son duo and their relationship of living in the US, and it just makes light of some of the
hilarious kind of like stories and elements of really kind of growing up in an immigrant family. You
know, I was born here in the US, my family is Persian. We live in the Bay Area, and some of the stuff
that you talk about, the interaction and the kind of, the expectations sometimes of like the older
generation and how it kind of like morphs into this whole different dynamic, I think that you really
hit the nail on the head with like really capturing that dynamic. Your videos, like if I’m having a bad
day, I’m like, OK, let me go, just go watch some of Payam’s videos just to like kind of get me out of
my mood and like, I’m laughing so hard that I’m pretty much crying. You just capture it so well.
Thank you.
We talk about food a bunch here, obviously, Modern Persian Food. We definitely wanted to learn
the foods that you grew up with, if you cook, and also kind of like the dynamic of growing up in a
Persian household and kind of the hospitality of all of that. And the other thing that our podcast
really does is kind of builds a connection with people and also shows that, you know, this is kind of
like the relationship that we have with our culture. So we thought that you would be a great person
to share that with other people and kind of like bring everyone with us along on this journey as we,

you know, are living this cross-cultural life and-
Sure

-how it changes and how we’re sharing that with our families and our friends and outside of our
immediate community as well.
Thank you. Well, it’s a pleasure to be here. I’m excited, thank you for having me.
You’re our third comedian.
Ohh nice. Three’s a charm.
Three’s a charm, we’ve had, Mr. Maz Jobrani, we’ve had Stand Up Dan, and now we’re fortunate
enough to have you, yeah.
Both are friends of mine and both are really, really great people.
Great!
I’ll try to somehow fill in their shoes. It’ll be difficult though.
I have a dream to have a mehooni with like all of our great guests because I feel like this is a
community that it’s just like a family. Once we talk on the podcast, I feel like we’re friends.
I feel like when you do a podcast or something, there is like a connection you build just like through
recording. It’s unique. Yeah, definitely.
OK, so tell us so, do you eat a lot of Persian food?
I do eat a lot of Persian food. I don’t cook a lot of Persian food, but I do eat a decent amount like
because I hang with family a good amount, like I see my parents at least once, sometimes even twice
a week. So, like, when I’m with them, I’m always eating Persian food and then I love getting Persian
food take out too.
Well, you’re in the Mecca. You’re close to LA.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, there’s some pretty good Iranian food places in the valley where I’m at, in
Sherman Oaks, I’m in San Fernando Valley. Then there’s multiple good ones throughout the city, so
there’s a decent amount of options in LA. Luckily, cause we have so many Iranians here.
Yes.
Where do you like to get takeout?
Let me see. There’s a place in Encino, close to where I live, called Sadaf. And that’s a place I often get
takeout. It’s really good, but I think that for me, the best Persian food, Iranian food in the entire city
is Raffi’s in Glendale.
That’s on the way down.
If your listeners are familiar with that, if they haven’t been, then they should definitely check out
Raffi’s in Glendale, like I truly think it’s the best in town. The food is incredible.
That’s where we’ll meet then.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, exactly.

It’s a perfect meeting spot.
We’ve talked about doing a little Persian food tour down in LA where there’s so many Persian
options. To just kind of do a little crawl.
You’ve got to visit Raffi’s. There’s just, you have to please. I’m begging you.
Yes, I can’t wait.
So what’s your favorite like, Khoresh or something that Maman-Joon makes?
My favorite Khoresh. Let me see.
Do you like the sours? Do you like the sweets, like the fesenjan, or you like the ghormeh sabzi, the
iconic.
I’m more of a ghormeh sabzi person than fesenjan for sure. I don’t love the sweet. I don’t really love
the way fesenjan looks in general.
Yeah, yeah.
Looks like a sort of like a brown blob.
You have to close your eyes.
Yeah, it’s not bad, doesn’t taste bad at all, it’s just like the sweet is not my deal. It’s not my jam.
Gotcha.
I will also say, and I might get some heat from this, but my mom a lot of times or like family
members in general make ghormeh sabzi with chicken rather than beef.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Our family does that too.
OK. Yeah, just so that like, we don’t eat as much red meat. So I think a lot of the traditionally red
meat dishes, like lubia polo, like it’s always with like red meat, but members of my family make it
with, that with chicken too.
Yeah, I have it with chicken on my recipe site. I make it that way too.
OK, great. OK, so it makes sense.
Yeah, that’s what makes us modern. And you know, like healthy and modern-day, want to cut down
on red meat, more plant based.
Right. And you know, all us Persians have cholesterol problems, so, like, the less red meat, the
better. I like the way it tastes with chicken. I think some people will say like, oh, it’s gotta be with
red meat cause red meat is more flavorful, but like, I like it with chicken.
Yeah. Yeah, as long as you get like the spices right and everything else is there, and then you get
used to it too.
Yeah, I think I got used to it.

And that’s something that we kind of talk about. It’s like, you know, we respect the classic recipes,
but we also kind of like modify it to like fit our lifestyles too. So if it’s going to be like, you know,
with this example is using chicken, but sometimes we just omit meat entirely in a dish, or do like a
plant-based meat, so we cover the gamut of like being your own chef really and just using whatever
ingredients that you really want to. You know, you don’t have to have in this case, you know, the red
meat for lubia polo.
That’s interesting. I never thought of it, I’ve never had Persian food with like nonmeat meat, like
substitute meat.
Ohh yeah, lubia polo is actually a great candidate for that. Like the meat crumble, like the tofu
crumbles and things like that. Put it with, like by the time you add the tomato paste and like all the
seasoning and stuff you really can’t even tell.
That’s a great idea.
Yeah!
You’re going to be hungry, by the way. At the end of this, you’re going to need to run over to Raffi’s I
think.
I’ll be honest, I’m already getting there.
Laughter
I’m wearing my “Make Tahdig Not War” t-shirt.
That’s what started all. Yeah, that’s what it started.
Yeah, and the movement. I don’t know if you follow Parisa Parnian, we’ve also had on the show.
Savage Taste, she goes by.
Savage Taste, Savage Muse. And it’s kind of this movement and yeah, it’s just kind of bringing us
together in this community. But speaking of tahdig, what is your favorite form of tahdig, given that
there is basically many forms: bread, potato, rice.
Good question.
There’s some crazy ones out there.
I think my favorite is a really nice crispy rice tahdig, and then my second favorite is the kind of like,
like the potato tahdig style I love and then, the lavash sort of bread ta-, I mean, they’re all really,
really good in their own ways. It’s hard to compare. I would say, my top favorite would just be, like,
solid crispy, like rice tahdig. But I’ll pretty much eat any damn tahdig you give me. They’re all so
good.
There is no bad tahdig.

They’re very different and they’re different from each other, it’s hard to compare them but-
Yeah.

I love the like, the macaroni style, like like Iranian, like macaroni. And I love that tahdig.

This is like dripping with oil.
Potato with the pasta.
Do you like tachin?
OK, so I like my mom’s tachin. I feel like she makes really good tachin, in general.
Oh yeah.
Tachin is not one of my favorite dishes. It feels just kind of like a, almost like a chicken sponge cake
to me in, in a way.
Yeah, like a casserole.
I call it a chicken and rice casserole.
OK, that’s yeah, that’s a maybe more appetizing way to describe it than I just did, but.
Sponge cake.
I like it, though. I’ll eat it like most Persian food, I’ll eat even the ones I don’t really like.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Because it’s like Iranian food is like, very flavorful, but usually fairly healthy ,or like we have a lot of
healthy options, I feel like tachin is not an unhealthy food. I mean unless you like, you can’t eat
carbs, I guess then then you’re out of luck.
Or eggs, it has a lot of eggs.
Yeah, that’s true.
And the traditional way has a lot of butter, but yeah, it has almost all the food groups. There’s not a
lot of greens happening in there.
Right, that’s true. And then yogurt, right, has yogurt in it.
It has yogurt.
Yeah. Yeah, that’s right.
Tahdig is basically like a fried carb, so, it’s super yummy.
Yeah, so good.
But it’s like, at least it’s lightly fried. It’s not deep fried. Right.
Mhmm.

I would say it’s kind of like almost like-
Burnt.

Sauteed.
Burnt Yeah.

Toasted.
Toasty, yeah.
Toasted, yeah. If someone non-Persian was listening to this stuff like that, doesn’t sound appetizing.
But believe me, folks, it’s appetizing.
Absolutely. The tahdig.
Amazing.
Yeah, it’s the coveted what you’re fighting over. It’s the French fries of Persian food.
Yeah, that’s a good way of putting it.
It’s the bottom of a pot of steamy rice. It has, like the caramelized on the bottom and crunchy, the
crunchy rice part. So it’s super delicious.
It’s limited quantity because it’s just the surface area of the pot.
Right.
Yeah, that’s what also makes it super yummy. And coveted.
Did your family like entertain a lot? Did you guys have, like, a lot of like food going through the
house?
Yeah, yeah I feel like most Iranian families that I’ve known, it’s kind of like that they entertain a lot
or, like, go to a lot of family gatherings. So there’s always a lot of food and then people will make
food and bring to a family gathering. I feel like most family gatherings end up being a mild sort of
like semi potluck type thing.
Uh, huh.
Growing up was very picky. It was just a picky kid with food, so I’ve gotten less picky as I’ve gotten
older, especially with like Iranian food. But when I was a kid, like I didn’t love most Persian food.
Like, I’ll tell you what I didn’t love. And I still don’t like this. Khoresht Karafst.
Ohh yeah.
I really don’t like it. It just feels like a very watered-down dish. I don’t know. Again, I don’t wanna
disrespect because I know people love that dish, but it was just never my favorite, and it still isn’t.
You’re allowed. You’re allowed to have preferences, but I have to say that someday you should try,
there’s one with chicken and artichokes that will potentially change your mind. If you like the sour
of like ghormeh sabzi, you might like the version that I’ve had here in the Bay Area, there’s a caterer
who makes it with chicken and artichokes. And it changed my mind about it. For real.
For real, that’s wild. Artichoke. Yeah, OK. And then does the artichoke replace the celery, or no, it’s
on top of the celery?
Both. It has a little bit of celery, but it, it definitely takes away from what you’re talking about,
because I have stories of, growing up my dad was like a little bit of a healthy food Nazi, and he
required Khoresht Karafst with chicken on the regular rotation, and it was not my favorite. I was

here during all the hard stuff that happened in Iran, the war and the revolutionm, I was here trying
to be fitting in with my friends so.
Right, right.
I was like, just please give me some spaghetti and hamburgers and hot dogs. Not that celery thing,
but then when I came to California and the food Mecca and tried this artichoke Karafst it, it just
blew my mind. It was actually really delicious. You might like it.
That’s right. Then I, I gotta try it in that way. I’ve never even thought of it with, like artichoke. Like
we, we don’t really have a lot of dishes with like artichokes in it, right?
Right, yeah.
We don’t really have dishes with, like, artichokes. We don’t have dishes with like avocados, we don’t
like- Those are just like things we don’t really eat much in our culture or like, I don’t even know do
they have avocados in Iran? I wonder, I don’t know if this is an ignorant question. I’m, I’m sure like

people can get them, but-
Yeah, you could get them from like the little, like fruit markets and stuff like that.

Interesting, OK.
I think the thing is is though it’s expensive and then you know as you know like avocados have like
a short shelf life like once they’re ripe then like that’s it.
Very short.
So I think that it may be harder to get a perfect avocado, but you can definitely get avocado.
OK.
And I don’t know if artichokes are necessarily native to like Iran or not, but there is another
vegetable called Kangar, which I think is from the artichoke family, and that’s kind of hard to come
by in Iran, but they do have a Khoresh-e Kangar, which is super delicious, and it has like a red sauce
to it. It has like a tomato based sauce to it. But the thing about Khoresht Karafst, I feel like it’s very
polarizing. People either love or like Khoresht Karafst or they like, hate it. And I think that it has to
do with ghormeh sabzi. I think maybe some people are comparing Khoresht Karafst to ghormeh
sabzi or they’re just so passionate about ghormeh sabzi that like anything that’s similar to. But I like
both. I want to live in a world that we can have both Khoresht Karafst and Khoresth ghormeh sabzi,
so hopefully you can, you can come around.
It’s those little things, simple things, Karafst and ghormeh sabzi live peacefully together.
I have a dream.
I know, right?
Beats-Joon, you have a picky eater too.
Yeah, I do. I have two kids. My younger kid is super picky. Like, he only wants to eat like 5 different
things.
Yeah, your son, you said willll, like pick the green beans out of lubia polo.

Yeah.
Yeah. And so then what’s left? It’s just polo.
I know exactly. It’s just rice. And then that’ll be like, does he wanna even eat that or not so.
I mean, I don’t blame him. That’s kind of like how it was when I was a kid. I was like, this is the least
fun part of this dish is the lubia. Like I just didn’t love vegetables in that way. And we have so many
vegetables in our dishes, like saying, you know, even ghormeh sabzi? I was like, why is there so
many? Why is there just this, like, mountain of green stuff in this dish?
Yeah, that’s it. All the herbs.
Herbalicious. Just herbs.
Now I love it.
Yeah, it’s so good. But yeah, you’re right. Like so many of the dishes like, eggplant or okra or you
know.
I hate it. Ohh man, I hated both of those.
Really?
Eggplant. Okra.
But those are texturally different too.
Sure, texture. I love eggplant now, although there’s this weird thing where it makes the top of my,
the roof my mouth itchy.
Oh, you might have a little sensitivity to it.
You might be allergic or something.
Could be. Yeah, that’s the only allergic reaction I get from it, luckily. But okra I still don’t love, like
bamieh, khoresht bamieh, like inside is so slimy.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Like inside is so slimy. It’s like I have these little seeds.
It’s like gelatinous, yeah.
Yes, yes. So I don’t love, at least I don’t love okra in that like khoresht way like I’ve had okra in

different ways, like in non-Persian food that I like but-
Yeah, like fried?

So a French fri?
Yes, fried like sauted, or like in some type of like casserole that’s been in the oven or something, but
like a Khoresht okra, yeah, I don’t love it.
So when did you go through the transformation? For me, it happened actually when I went away to
college and I was like, you know, dorm food and it just appreciated and missed and then, when I

would come home and smell it and then, I actually was like, oh, this is really damn good food, when
I was older.
Definitely when I was older too I think for me, maybe in college. And it’s funny how your taste just
naturally evolves as you get older. So I think that’s kind of just how it happened. My taste just
became more mature.
Sophisticated.
Yeah, my palette became more sophisticated, although my palette still isn’t that sophisticated, to be
honest.
That’s fine.
Yeah, but by the end of college, I was eating things that like in high school, I wouldn’t want to eat.
Mhm.
And then that’s I guess that’s the part of growing up.
It’s all history from there.
Yeah, there’s all that history from. There, yeah.
Do you know about the Ask the Beats segment of our show by any chance?
Ask the Beats?
We have listeners submit questions to us. A lot of times our food related. A lot of times it’s just like
about us or, you know, recipes or like, you know what our thoughts are on certain things. So yeah,
so since we have you live on the show, if you’d like to ask us a question.
OK, I’ll ask. How do you all come about like doing the podcast? What I love about it is like there are
a lot of food podcasts and there’s a lot of podcasts about culture. And then I know I’ve noticed more
and more, there’s Iranian folks that have podcasts, but I haven’t seen a podcast that’s about,
specifically about Iranian cuisine and how that like, lays into the culture. So, I’m curious to like,
what inspired you to be like ok, we’re going to do this podcast about Persian food. That’s what I
love about it. So specific of all the food podcasts out.
We niched it down. We niched it and niched it.
Y’all really niched it.
Go for it Beata-Joon. How did we do it?
Yeah, sure. Well, we, you know, we were both really passionate about food and specifically about
Persian food and kind of sharing that with other people, sharing the food, sharing the recipes and
really just making Persian food accessible to people and aware of it. So you love it, you eat it, and
you can make it. If you can’t make it, then you can, like, seek out maybe a Persian restaurant and
support the Persian community that way too. You know, we both were putting out content related
to Persian food and then you know, it was at the beginning of the pandemic pretty much that Bita
actually approached me with the idea of starting a podcast together. And it was just such a good

idea that, like, you know, I couldn’t say no. So we set out and we started the podcast, and we just
aired our 100th episode.
Oh I love it. Congratulations.
Yeah, thank you. So that was a big milestone for us. And we just really want to just share about
Persian food! You know, so our episodes kind of range. So we have episodes that are like recipe
specific sometimes and we have episodes that are just like ingredient specific. So like, you know,

like we’ll have, like, a whole episode on like Persian cucumber or-
The greatest cucumber!

Yes, exactly! Or like yogurt or eggs, you know? And we’ll like, build out like an episode on it. Like the
role that that food kind of plays in Persian culture. And then some of our other episodes, we bring in
special guests. We have had, like we said, some of the comedians that we had on the show, we have,
like The Caspian Chef, we had Naz Deravian, who wrote a cookbook, another cookbook author
slated to, that we have an interview with him coming up soon.
Love it.
So also we talked about kind of like specific things. So one guest we had, Nilou from Nilou
Weddings, we talked about the food out of Persian wedding. And she officiates weddings and is a
wedding planner. So we like kind of deep dove into weddings, and what role does food have? Like
what are the things on the sofreh aghd.
Gotcha.
And then the other set of episodes that we have, we call them cultural spotlights, and what that is,

so we like deep dive. So that was like the Persian wedding one, one bout Nowruz-
Love it.

We have things on Yaldā, and Mehregan, and so, you know, certain things we didn’t know. Like, I
didn’t really know about Mehregan or Tirgān before. And so we researched it and then shared it
with everyone and we’re always looking for like a reason to celebrate.
Yeah, that’s true.
So we’re going to celebrate Yaldā or whatever the case may be, and just share that with our
listeners.
It’s funny, in Persian weddings I notice that like they never serve entrees for the meals, like it’s
always just like a buffet type thing.
A lot. Yeah, a lot of time it is.
I actually love that.
You don’t like to sit down, and here’s your one plate?
I mean it’s fine, but I I love just like the big ***, like Buffet where you just keep going back.
I miss Persian weddings. Man, I need to go to some Persian weddings. I love everything about them.
Like you get to dance before you eat. It’s just like a huge party.

Yeah
So we actually met through Instagram. So we’re recipe people. So there’s kind of two parts to our
podcast. It’s the food and sharing how to make something, and then there’s the cultural piece. So
like for myself personally, I don’t really speak the language. My family immigrated here over 50
years ago, so I, it’s like I’m the immigrant story of like I don’t fully fit in with Iranian’s since I don’t
really speak the language ,and I’m not sometimes American enough because I’m super brown or
whatever, and so I connect through food, like I know Persian food and that is how I connect with my
culture and I love that but. Yeah, I was just joking with Beata-Joon, let’s have a party. Let’s all marry
each other and just have a freaking big like Persian wedding party and we’ll do it like in Orange
County, I don’t care where we do it, we can do it at a hotel or like, let’s go to one of your shows. Let’s
just do it. Let’s have a big party.
Let’s all get married.
Let’s all get married together.
This is about all this love.
Absolutely.
But yeah, like it’s the opportunity for people to really showcase Persian food and also the variety of
the different foods. And also it’s like, wow, the whole entertaining and hospitality element of
Persian culture is like why there’s so much food at a Persian wedding. You know, you have to have
so much and be so abundant. It’s good for the guests, definitely.
I feel like the giving aspect of our culture and like sort of just being great hosts is such a cool part of
our culture. I’m sure you all have seen like there’s a lot of like vloggers on YouTube that just sort of
go around the world and, like, eat different foods. And like I notice now a bunch of them that some
of the ones that I follow that I’m interested in like all have, in the last couple of years been to Iran
and done like multiple videos about Iran and like they all love the food and they all just talk about,
it’s like, it’s crazy how welcoming people are.
Yeah, yeah.
Which is really cool, which I’m glad that other people get to see that aspect of our culture.
Absolutely, I mean, they’ll like invite complete strangers into their home and be like, come eat our
food. Let me give you the best piece of tahdig and let me like ,you know, really welcome you into
our home.
Yeah, yeah.
So I think that’s something that’s, you know, a lot of times that people who don’t know Persian
culture are completely unaware of that.
Yeah, and they’ll be like shocked at how much ,to the extent that I feel like Iranians are going to be
great hosts and like gracious hosts. So it’s also cool cause a lot of these different like programs I’ve
seen on YouTube, I see food that like I think it’s like very regional that so not all Iranians eat it, but
specific groups and regions eat it. And that’s really interesting too, like we have so much cuisine
that I have never even let alone heard of let, let alone like eaten before.

Yeah, right.
By the way, speaking of regions, we might be like cousins, so we can’t get married. I’m so sorry
because I’m also from Tabriz.
Oh, you are.
I listened to your interview, one of your interviews with Leila, learning Farsi.
OK, cool.
So, like, Tabriz is supposed to have, like, really good chef people. Yeah, and delicious food.
And they have very specific stuff too, like in the North, they eat specific foods.
Right.
A lot of herbs, a lot of vegetarian dishes.
Fish and your favorite herbs, yep.
There was a lot of fish and the south is kind of like that too. Like they eat a lot of seafood, a lot of
smoked flavors. It’s just crazy how there’s just so much different food there and from so many
different regions of Iran, people don’t realize how big Iran is and how diverse the culture in Iran
itself is.
Right, yeah, the culture and also like the terrain even and like the weather, it’s like, it’s a big
country.
Yes, yes..
Do you have a favorite treat candy, dessert, Persian cookie or like ice cream sensation?
I love bamieh and zulbia. I think those are just such great desserts. So simple yet delicious. I love it
with tea. Let me see, what else? I like personal ice cream, but I can’t eat too much of it. I feel like
more than like 3-4 spoonfuls of it, I’m just like alright, this is very heavy. It’s like the only ice cream
that also has just chunks of cream in it.
Mhm.
Is it the rose water that you don’t like, maybe?
I don’t know. I think it’s the mixture of maybe the, because the rose water thing after a while is a
little overwhelming, and again, like just the fact that there’s, like literally chunks of frozen cream in
it.
Yeah.
It just gets really rich for me.
Do you like the Faloodeh with the maghlooge?
Faloodeh I don’t love because of the texture wise. Like when you’re eating it and you go through the
ice part of it and it gets to the actual like, zereshk, the noodle part. It kind of feels a little, I don’t love
the texture when it gets down to that.

Payam-Joon. Where can our listeners find you and is there anything else you want to tell us about?
You know what listeners don’t be like me. Learn how to cook Persian food early in your life or you’ll
become an adult like me and you’ll really struggle with some of the basic aspects of cooking
khoresht and stuff at home. I need help, folks. I need help.

Just grill some onions. That’s my advice. Grill some onions and-
And that’s it!

And just go from there. Once you grill the onions, it’s just going to come to you, it’s just like all your
ancestral cooking energy is going to come to you. Try it.
I’m ready. Grilling the onions.
And if it doesn’t, we have a lot of podcast episodes that you could listen to that we walk you through
the recipes.
OK, great. I’m gonna have to go through a lot of your episodes and see what I can learn, and
hopefully when I’m grilling those onions, I’ll hear the voice of, like, my great grandfather saying now
add the zasabrichk.
Like ratatouille!
Yeah, or maybe your dad will be like, that’s too much saffron, or whatever.
My dad doesn’t really cook much either so like he would probably be like, I don’t know how much
saffron it needs.
Pereba adistity.
Pereba, yeah yea. Well, I could say the same thing to him. I’m like, you’ve been around with this food
much longer than I have. You have less excuse of not knowing how to do it, but some stuff he’s
really good at. So I feel like all Persian dads of course, are excellent with the kabob, they know
exactly how to cook that kabob, whether it’s the koobideh or the bag with the chicken, so he’s, he’s
good with that stuff.
Where can our listeners find you? If they don’t know who you are.
I’m on Instagram @pbani, follow me there. I’m also on TikTok. If you’re a fan of films and want to
see great film, I was just in a wonderful film called Everything Everywhere All At Once. That’s
streaming, it’s a great film, you should all watch it. Not because of me, but just because it’s an
incredible film and you can watch it, I believe streaming in a bunch of different places right now and
yeah, that’s it. I’m excited to have been, got a chance to talk to you ladies. Yeah.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today and really like, thank you so much for
like the videos that you put out and it’s just like this happiness that that brings me, or if I’m having a
bad day or whatever, I just need to watch a few of those videos to really, like lift my spirits.
Thank you for the support.

I feel so connected to those videos to you and the videos because I just, like, can see it. Like it’s just
such a part of like Persian culture. Like the way that the different generations interact with each
other, it’s just truly special. So we just wanted to have you on the show, pick your brain about food
but also share with our listeners who maybe are looking to find a connection like that, to lead them
to you too, so they can take a look ,too.
Thank you so much.
Yeah, definitely watch some of Payam-Joon’s videos. They’re hilarious. You’re super talented.
Thank you. I really appreciate you ladies. Thank you for having me. Thank you for the support. It
means a lot. Thank you.
Absolutely. Khodahafez!
Khodahafez. Thank you! Have a great day.
Absolutely. Thank you. Have a great one. Bye bye.
Till next time!

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